Guten Tag! My name is Lydia Nightingale. I am a Theatre Arts major at SUNY New Paltz, with minors in Creative Writing and History. I mostly write short fiction and drama, and have begun to dabble in screenwriting. I enjoy exploring areas of my personality in my writing that I cannot always express in my day-to-day life. I am currently very interested in Germany, World War II, and the fantastic Austrian-German actor Christoph Waltz.

All three of these interests show in my main project right now: "A Lot to Be Desired", a dark 1940s romance play based on the life of my biological German grandmother.

The main character is a vulnerable but tenacious young German nurse named Adele, who is captured by the Russians at the end of World War II. In the prison camp, she is singled out by an intelligent, cruel and lonely officer named Nikolai (whose character is largely inspired by the person and performances of Christoph Waltz) to become his mistress by force. Other characters are also present either in Adele's reality or in her dreams, such as her cousin Olga, her fellow nurse Marlene, Nikolai's comrade Yuri, and her first love, Hans.

Trapped in an abusive and degrading relationship with a man who sees her as nothing more than a trophy of war, Adele must struggle to maintain her identity and her sanity. Her memories of the playful and loving Hans twist and fade, while her sexual and emotional attachment to the older and experienced Nikolai becomes stronger. When Adele becomes pregnant with his child, Nikolai begins to see her more as a human being and less as an object, although it is a long process. As conditions in the camp worsen, Olga desperately tries to become pregnant herself as a survival tactic (pregnant women received slightly better treatment in camps), and Yuri begins to target both her and Marlene as sexual objects. Adele must ultimately decide where her loyalties lie as her relationships with her fellow nurses and Nikolai complicate over time.

"A Lot to Be Desired: Such Dreams" is a continuing series of dramatic narrative monologues written separately from the actual play. They will be posted one by one as I write them in no particular order, and feature most of the main characters and their interactions with each other. They contain mature sexual content and violence, and delve into the darker, unseen events of the play that I do not plan to portray onstage in production. I would love reviews. Thank you!