The Berlin Dig opens February 4 at the El Centro

Dieter, a historical novelist in his sixties living in Berlin, is being consoled after his mother's funeral by his friends and contemporaries Peter and Rolf. Peter and Rolf were the children of Nazis. They look up to Dieter, who was the son of anti-Nazi activists....or so he thinks.

Going through his mother's papers, he discovers that he was adopted, and that his true father was a Nazi storm trooper. He learns this shortly before he is to meet Robert, an American cousin, face-to-face for the first time, and Dieter is covered with shame. Can Dieter be honest about his origins?

Also within Dieter's circle is his friend, Ali, a Turkish restaurateur who is in denial concerning Turkish participation in the Armenian Genocide of 1915.

Confronted with the facts of carnage and evil of incomprehensible magnitude, how does Man respond?

Archeology is a metaphor used at various points in the new play "The Berlin Dig," as men, most especially Dieter, are called upon to dig deep within themselves to discover the truths of their histories.

The cast includes (in alphabetical order): Roy Allen, Max Middleton, Irwin Moskowitz, Markus Obermeier and Adam Shahinian.

Playwright John Stuercke directs "The Berlin Dig." Born and raised in a suburb of Chicago, he is a graduate of the University of Colorado and Los Angeles Film School, where he majored in Directing, He has written 19 screenplays, two novels, a musical, and two plays, and has directed two short films.

He states, " 'The Berlin Dig' was written in three weeks as a direct response to the resurrection of Fundamentalism in America."