FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE PRESS CONTACTS: Anna Mills Russell, 240.644.1386 [email protected] Sarah Pressler Randall, 240.644.1387 [email protected] ROUND HOUSE THEATRE PRESENTS WASHINGTON, DC-AREA PREMIERE OF 2017 THEATRE AWARD SEASON JUGGERNAUT OSLO APRIL 24 - MAY 19 AT THE LANSBURGH THEATRE Silver Spring, Md. (March 20, 2019) – Round House Theatre continues its 2018-2019 Season in the District of Columbia with the regional premiere of J.T. Rogers’ Oslo, directed by Round House Theatre Artistic Director Ryan Rilette. Oslo runs from April 24 – May 19, 2019 at the Lansburgh Theatre while renovations continue at the company’s Bethesda, MD theatre. Press night is April 29, 2019. Please see below for complete program details and ticket information. A sweeping political thriller, Oslo is a dramatized, and oftentimes humorous, accounting of the tense backchannel negotiations—sponsored and led in secret by a team of Norwegians— between Israelis and Palestinians that resulted in the historic 1993 Oslo Peace Accords. The play swept the 2016-2017 awards season, laying claim to the Lucille Lortel Award for Best Play, the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Broadway Play, the Drama League Award for Outstanding Production of a Play, the Obie Award for Best New American Play, the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play, and the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Play, before securing the award for Best Play at the 71st Tony Awards. Artistic Director Ryan Rilette helms the powerhouse play—his eighth at Round House—and acknowledges that “this remarkable ensemble piece still manages to be a thrilling nail-biter, despite the fact that we know the outcome—both the immediate result at the time, as well as the sad fact that tensions remain unresolved to this day.” 1 Rilette adds: “At the heart of this play—and the Oslo Peace Accord negotiations—is the idea that peace can only come when we see each other as people, when we learn to empathize with each other, and compromise based on compassion, understanding, and common- ground. I chose this play because it’s a phenomenal ensemble piece, which is what we do best; because it’s a political thriller, which DC audiences love; and because it’s a Tony winner, which solidifies its cachet. But ultimately I chose it because I believe strongly that theatre is about building empathy, and this play shows better than any I’ve ever seen that empathy can truly change the world.” As the husband-and-wife team of Norwegian bureaucrats who brokered the deal, the Round House production features Erin Weaver (winner of last year’s Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Play for her role in Or,) as Mona Juul, an official in the Norwegian Foreign Ministry, alongside Cody Nickell (Born Yesterday at Ford’s Theatre), who is taking over the role (from the previously announced Gregory Linington) of her husband Terje Rød-Larsen, the Director of the Fafo Institute for Applied Social Sciences. Kimberly Gilbert and Todd Scofield (both last seen at Round House in The Book of Will) portray another husband-and-wife duo with political ties: Johan Jørgen Holst, the Norwegian Foreign Minister, who is married to one of Terje’s think-tank staff, Marianne Heiberg. Gregory Wooddell (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof) plays Jan Egeland, the Norwegian Deputy Foreign Minister, with Michael Sweeney Hammond (Julius Caesar at Shakespeare Theatre) and John Austin (Kleptocracy at Arena Stage) rounding out the Norwegian contingent as members of the Police Intelligence Service. Round House Theatre Resident Artist Maboud Ebrahimzadeh (Small Mouth Sounds) and Ahmad Kamal (Richard III at Shakespeare Theatre Company) take the stage as the sole members of the Palestinian cohort—Ahmed Qurie, the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Finance Minister, and Hassan Asfour, an Official PLO liaison. Alexander Strain (Glengarry Glen Ross) portrays Yossi Beilin, the Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister who is first approached with the idea by Juul and Rød-Larsen; with Gregory Wooddell also playing Ron Pundak, alongside Sasha Olinick (Amadeus) as Yair Hirschfield— two professors of economics at the University of Haifa who made up the original Israeli negotiating team. The two are later joined by Juri Henley-Cohn (fresh off a supporting role in 2019 Sundance Film Festival-favorite, Brittany Runs a Marathon) and John Taylor Phillips (Talley’s Folly at Theater J) as two Foreign Ministry diplomats brought in to “seal the deal.” 2 Conrad Feininger (Nixon’s Nixon) completes the delegation as Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres. Former Round House Theatre Artistic Apprentice Susannah Morgan Eig making her onstage debut with the company filling out multiple supporting roles. The creative team includes Scenic Designer Misha Kachman (The Legend of Georgia McBride), Costume Designer and Round House Theatre Resident Artist Ivania Stack (How I Learned to Drive), Lighting Designer Jesse Belsky (Handbagged), Sound Designer Matthew M. Nielson (The Legend of Georgia McBride), and Projection Designer Jared Mezzocchi (How I Learned to Drive). For full cast and creative team information, including headshots and bios, click here. In addition to the fully-staged production, and its regularly-scheduled pre- and post-show conversations with cast and creative team members, Round House will also present three in- depth panel discussions following Sunday matinee performances further engage audience in the themes found in the play. These events are free and open to the public, with seating preference given to audience members from the matinee. The schedule is as follows: Sunday, May 5, 2019 at 5:30pm – The Oslo Babies An entire segment of young people has grown up entirely in the shadow of the Oslo Accords. They are the post-Oslo generation, and their understanding of the topic has been dominated by the fall-out from the Accords, as the optimism and opportunity of 1993 quickly receded into discord and violence. Round House Theatre assembles a panel of millennials who have dedicated their professional lives to this topic; they will discuss J.T. Rogers’ Oslo, the Oslo Accords themselves, and why they have chosen to engage with one of the most intractable conflicts in the modern world. Sunday, May 12, 2019 at 5:30pm – What’s Next? Led by Joel Rubin, a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, founding Political Director of J Street, and President of Washington Strategy Group, a panel of visionary thinkers will come together to discuss the current American and Israeli political climates on Middle East peacemaking. Topics will include the April Israeli parliamentary elections, the forthcoming peace plan promised by the Trump Administration, and the legacy of the Oslo Accords. In light of J.T. Rogers’ Oslo, these experts will discuss the lessons we can take from this masterful work and how we can use its precepts to move forward. 3 Sunday, May 19, 2019 at 5:30pm – I Was There When… A panel including Middle East policy veteran Ambassador Dennis Ross, former PLO negotiator Ghaith al-Omari, former U.S. peace process team member David Makovsky, all of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, and Oslo Accords architect Joel Singer will lead a retrospective on the time directly before and after the signing of the Oslo Accords. They will provide behind-the-scenes insight into the negotiations, comment on the specific events depicted in the play Oslo, and analyze the mixed legacy of the Accords. For up-to-date information on panelists, program details, and online reservations, those interested can visit RoundHouseTheatre.org/Performances/Oslo. PRODUCTION INFORMATION Oslo By J.T. Rogers Directed by Ryan Rilette CAST LIST: John Austin* as Trond Gundersen / German Husband Maboud Ebrahimzadeh as Ahmed Qurie (also known as “Abu Ala”) Susannah Morgan Eig* as Swedish Hostess / German Wife Conrad Feininger as Shimon Peres Kimberly Gilbert as Marianne Heiberg / Toril Grandal Michael Sweeney Hammond* as Thor Bjornevog / American Diplomat Juri Henley-Cohn* as Uri Savir Ahmad Kamal* as Hassan Asfour Cody Nickell* as Terje Rød-Larsen Sasha Olinick as Yair Hirschfeld Todd Scofield as Johan Jørgen Holst / Finn Grandal Alexander Strain as Yossi Beilin John Philip Taylor* as Joel Singer Erin Weaver as Mona Juul Gregory Wooddell as Jan Egeland / Ron Pundak * - Round House Theatre debut 4 ABOUT THE PLAY: In 1993, unbeknownst to the rest of the world, an audacious husband-and-wife team of Norwegian bureaucrats assembled a motley band of would-be diplomats from the Middle East to attempt the unimaginable: negotiate peace between Israelis and Palestinians. Operating only through backchannels—in secrecy, and without any official bargaining power—the group struggles to find middle ground as political tensions reach a fever pitch. But at the heart of diplomacy lies empathy, and these peacemakers must rely on the strength of the surprising personal bonds they have forged if they want to succeed. Artistic Director Ryan Rilette helms this thrilling nailbiter, based on the true events surrounding the Oslo Peace Accords, that swept the 2016-2017 awards season. WHERE: The Lansburgh Theatre, located at 450 7th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20004. The theatre is located within blocks of both the Archives-Navy Memorial-Penn Quarter (Green and Yellow Lines) and the Gallery Place-Chinatown (Red, Green, and Yellow Lines) stations. For directions, parking, and public transportation info, visit RoundHouseTheatre.org/RHTinDC. DATES AND TIMES: Oslo runs from April 24 to May 19, 2019. Performances are Tuesday through Thursday at 7:30 pm, Friday and Saturdays at 8:00 pm, and Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2:00 pm. TICKETS: Tickets can be purchased by ordering online at RoundHouseTheatre.org, calling 240.644.1100, or visiting the Lansburgh Theatre Box Office in person beginning April 15, 2019. Available ticket discounts include: • Free Play – FREE tickets for all high cchool and college students throughout the DC- Metro area: Round House Theatre’s FREE PLAY initiative ties into our greater strategy to develop theatre audiences of tomorrow by providing rich, meaningful arts experiences today.