I Am My Own Wife

I Am My Own Wife
Original Lyceum Theatre window card, 2003
Written by	Doug Wright
Characters	Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, et al.
Date premiered	27 May 2003
Place premiered	Playwrights Horizons New York City, New York
Original language	English
Subject	A biography of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf
Genre	Drama
Setting	Berlin, Germany

I Am My Own Wife is a play by Doug Wright based on his conversations with German Charlotte von Mahlsdorf. The one-man play premiered Off-Broadway in 2003 at Playwrights Horizons. It opened on Broadway later that year. The play was developed with Moisés Kaufman and his Tectonic Theater Project, and Kaufman also acted as director. Jefferson Mays starred in the Broadway and Off-Broadway productions, playing some forty roles. Wright received the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the work.

I Am My Own Wife (or I Am My Own Woman) is also the English title of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf's autobiography, first issued in 1992, translated in 1995.

I Am My Own Wife is an examination of the life of German antiquarian Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, born Lothar Berfelde, who killed her father when she was a young child and survived the Nazi and Communist regimes in East Berlin as a transvestite.

I Am My Own Wife began with Moises Kauffman and Doug Wright at About Face Theatre in Chicago in 2002, and moved to Broadway in 2004 where it won the Tony for best Actor in a Leading Role and Best New Play.

In 2004, the play had its European premiere at , , starring Björn Kjellman. In 2005, it had its American regional premiere at Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati, starring Todd Almond. That production then traveled to Actors Theatre of Louisville and Florida Studio Theatre. In 2006, the play was staged in Hudson, New York at Stageworks/Hudson starring Broadway actor Jeffrey Kuhn, in Toronto, Ontario at CanStage, with Stephen Ouimette in the starring role, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at the Playhouse Theatre with Canadian actor Tom Rooney, at the Saidye Bronfman Centre in Montreal with actor Brett Christopher, in Portland, Oregon at the Gerding Theater starring actor Wade McCollum, in Portland, Maine at the Portland Stage Company starring actor Tom Ford, and in Ann Arbor, Michigan at the Performance Network Theatre starring actor Malcolm Tulip. In January 2007, the San Pedro Playhouse in San Antonio, Texas successfully mounted the play. It was also performed at the George Street Playhouse, New Brunswick, New Jersey from January 16, 2007 to February 11, 2007. It featured Mark Nelson, and was directed by Anders Cato. Vince Gatton performed the role in a production directed by Andrew Volkoff at Barrington Stage Company in 2008. A French translation (Ma femme, c'est moi) was performed in February 2009 at Théâtre du Rideau Vert in Montreal. It also ran at the Signature Theatre in Arlington, Virginia, starring Helen Hayes award winner Andrew Long, and directed by Alan Paul, and at Theater Three in Port Jefferson, New York, featuring Jeffrey Sanzel.