Based on actual accounts of surviving prisoners, The Diary of Anya Drozdova is an unflinching depiction of the lives of women in the Soviet gulag at the height of Stalin’s Terror – when many Soviet citizens were mercilessly convicted of supposed crimes against the state. Coerced into false or flimsy confessions of anti-Soviet activity by the NKVD, Anya and her mates live out the harsh terms of their sentences in a remote labor camp – far from the comfort of the lives they once knew.

Despite the severity of their existence (near-starvation rations, back-breaking labor, and the constant threat of summary execution), a bond grows between the women as they struggle to survive and retain a sliver of hope - while trying to reconcile the injustice of their situation. And though the introspective Anya’s penchant for writing is denied any tangible outlet (since writing is forbidden in the camp), her carefully crafted language thrives in the poems and the passages that she endlessly composes in her head.

Historical Drama - full-length

The Diary of Anya Drozdova was a semi-finalist for the O’Neill Playwrights Conference (2023), a finalist for the Playwrights First competition (2023), and a finalist for the Judith Royer Excellence in Playwriting Award (2022).

Cast of Characters: (5 F, 4 M)

Running time: about 110 minutes

Setting:
A Soviet gulag camp, east of the Ural Mountains (“somewhere west of Tomsk”).

Time:
September 1940 to June 1941.

The Diary of Anya Drozdova - incidental music:

• Act II - Opening Piece