THE IMPERIAL HOUSE

Honors Dramaturgy Thesis

Adapted from interviews at the Imperial House apartment building, in Pittsburgh, PA.

Throughout the spring of 2014, Nathan Siegel ’15 conducted interviews with residents of the Imperial House–an apartment building largely, but not entirely, populated by senior citizens, many of them Jewish. The most compelling pieces of these interviews have been adapted, added to, and mixed together to create several characters: sisters, brothers, friends, husbands, wives, rivals, and neighbors. The Imperial House tells their collective and individual stories. What does it mean to grow old in a community like this? What will happen if someone tries to put flowers in the lobby? If a new resident runs for the board? If someone slices the challah instead of ripping it? The Imperial House seeks to create a hilarious and poignant portrait of what it means to live, and grow old, in a communal space.

Dramaturgical adaptation by Nathan Siegel
Advising and direction by Rebecca Wright