A Great Wave II

Poppenhusen Institute, NY, June 7-8, 2025

A commissioned piece to highlight this 19th-century NY institution

A Great Wave II was commissioned by the Poppenhusen Institute in College Point (Queens), NY, to highlight immigration to that neighborhood, and the vital place that the Poppenhusen Institute (founded 1868) played in the quality of life there. This piece, set in October 1893, offered a second act of the play presented last year, as we follow the arrive of Alfred from Germany to join his wife Annalisa (arrived one-year prior), and his struggles to assimilate to this new world. He is shocked and distressed to learn that his wife has joined the suffragette movement, and avers that Hermann has “lost control of the household.” Hermann, stuck between the old world ways and the new America — having arrived six years prior with his wife, Susanna — assures that he isn’t exactly certain how he feels about the new ways, but he doesn’t feel comfortable demanding fealty from his wife or sister. The play erupts in front of Flessel’s saloon, when the ladies enter the establishment through the Men’s Entrance, and Hermann and Alfred end up tussling and falling to the ground. We end in the jail cells in the basement of the Poppenhusen Institute, where Alfred has been remanded after Officer O’Leary saw him almost beat Hermann with a beer bottle. Alfred is going to be deported back to Germany, while his wife, Annalisa, sadly says she cannot join him. She is an American now.

Cast

Jake Laurence (Hermann)

Rachel Halper (Susanna)

Clara Steeves (Annalisa)

Joseph Sanford IV (Alfred)

Directed by Tom Block