"NOVEMBER 4"

a new musical about an assassination that changed the course of history

Concept and story: Danny Paller and Myra Noveck

Music and lyrics: Danny Paller • Dialogue: Myra Noveck

Directed by Kathryn Chase Bryer

Workshop Concert Reading Presented at the Arts Club of Washington 

February 25, 2025 at 7:00 pm

Part of VFP's "Voices From a Changing Middle East" series

$10 ACW member • $15 for non-members

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SYNOPSIS | CREATIVE TEAM | DRAMATURGY


SYNOPSIS

A musical collision course between the 73 year old Israeli Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin, and a 25-year-old law student, Yigal Amir, who would become Rabin's assassin on that fateful night of November 4, 1995. Told with an up-to-the-minute frame of reference, an intimate cast of five portray a variety of figures in the lives of Rabin and Amir, including the wife, granddaughter, and Chief of Staff of the Prime Minister, counterposed with the family and love interest of his assassin, revealing striking reverberations within a deeply divided society.

“These days, most people view the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as tragic, deadly, and intractable” share the Israeli co-creators. “It wasn’t always that way.  In 1993, Israel and the Palestinian Authority signed a peace agreement, and as the second phase of that agreement was being implemented, a 25-year-old law student, sabotaged it all, in one of the most successful assassinations in modern history, altering the course of history in radical fashion.  This musical explores both the political dynamics of that time and the personalities and family lives of its two protagonists – Rabin and his assassin. It raises bottom-line questions for an American audience: What happens when civil discourse breaks down and polarized groups live in their own bubbles? What difference can leaders make?  When and how can hope overcome fear?

The drama, moving back and forth from past to present and conveyed in a range of musical styles and emotions, captures the many voices and viewpoints of this turbulent historical moment, and runs 85 minutes.

MEET THE CREATIVE TEAM: COMPOSER/LIBRETTO


MEET THE CREATIVE TEAM - CAST

DANNY PALLER (music and lyrics) has written some combination of music, lyrics, and book for a variety of musical theater works, including: THE GEOGRAPHY OF NIGHT, a story of contemporary New York polyamory with music by Bach and Beethoven; ELI THE FANATIC, an adaptation of a Philip Roth short story; DANGER, a musical based on the true story of two 18th century women pirates; TABLE FOR TWO, a musical revue; AH, JERUSALEM, a comedy-fantasy co-authored with Broadway writer/producer Bernie Kukoff; THE DYBBUK, incidental music for a Yale University production; and a number of children’s musicals. He has also composed choral and instrumental works, including “Bestiaire” (poems of Apollinaire), “I Made My Song a Coat” (poems of Yeats), Preludes for Cello, a piano sonata, and others. He holds degrees in political philosophy from Harvard and Yale and studied music composition and ethnomusicology at Bar Ilan University and Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

MYRA NOVECK (book)  For more than two decades Myra has worked in journalism as a senior researcher in Israel for top U.S. newspapers, currently The New York Times. She is a screenwriter specializing in historical dramas and murder mysteries. Her screenplay SHOOTING STAR was a finalist in the ISA’s Emerging Screenwriters Screenplay Competition 2012 and a finalist in the Bruce Geller Screenwriting Contest in 2010. Her dark comic screenplay I’M ON DEADLINE was a finalist in Emerging Screenwriters in 2013 and a semifinalist in the StoryPros International Screenwriting Contest in 2013.  Her murder mystery screenplay THE DEPTHS was a finalist in the StoryPros International Screenplay Contest, December 2014. She holds a B.A. in history from Brandeis University and studied in the UCLA professional program in screenwriting.

KATHRYN CHASE BRYER (DIRECTOR) is the Director of Theatre at Imagination Stage.  She is a theatre artist with a background in directing, acting, dramaturgy, teaching, and administration and holds a B.S. from Northwestern University. For Imagination Stage, Kathryn has directed over 50 productions in the last 25 years and has helped to develop and commission over a dozen scripts.  In addition, she has worked at many theatres in the DMV area.   Awards and recognition: 2014 The BFG,  Helen Hayes for Best Scenic Design and Best Production, Theatre for Young Audiences, 2015  Wiley and the Hairy Man,  Best Production, Theatre for Young Audiences,  2018,  Helen Hayes for Best Director of a Musical Wonderland, Alice’s Rock and Roll Adventures and Best Production Theatre for Young Audiences and 2021 Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed the Rock Experience Helen Hayes Best Production for Theatre for Young Audiences, and New Kid, for Imagination Stage Learning thru Theatre project at Planet Word.   In addition to her duties at Imagination Stage, she has directed Scapin (2014) and Peter and the Starcatcher (winner of Helen Hayes 2018 Best Ensemble, Musical)  and The Last Five Years at Constellation Theatre Company,  The Late Wedding (2017) at the Hub Theatre and Fly By Night (2018) at 1st Stage, VA (nominated for 11 Helen Hayes Awards winning 5 including Best Director of a Musical, Hayes),  The Wolves at Next Stop Theatre in Herndon, Va., The Oldest Boy at Spooky Action Theatre, American Spies and other Homegrown Fables at the Hub Theatre, A Doll House, The Late Wedding at UMD and Dracula a Feminist Revenge Tragedy at UMBC,  Urinetown at American University and upcoming Freaky Friday at Catholic University.

SHANNON VIRIDIAN (STAGE MANAGER) is excited to be a part of her first production with VFP. Some of her previous projects include Production Stage Manager for Faithless (Washington Stage Guild), and Assistant Stage Manager for Tender (Transformation Theater). Shannon earned her B.A in Theatre, Film, & Media Studies from St. Mary’s College of Maryland. During undergrad, she was a Stage Manager for She Kills Monsters, Baltimore, and Let Me Down Easy. After undergrad, Shannon completed a Stage Management Fellowship with the Nancy R. and Norton T. Dodge Performing Arts Center. Shannon is a proud member of Actor's Equity Association!

CHRIS BLOCH National tour; “The Buddy Holly Story” Regional theater: Guthrie Theater, Shakespeare Theater, Kennedy Center, ACT (Seattle), Lyric Theater OKC, Indiana Rep, Repertory Theater of St. Louis. Ford’s Theater: Ragtime, 1776, 12 Angry Men, 110 in the Shade, Liberty Smith, Shenandoah, Big River, Christmas Carol. Arena Stage: Damn Yankees, Black No More, Christmas Carol '41 Everyman Theater: M Butterfly, Uncle Vanya, Jaques Brel, ART, God of Carnage, Rabbit Hole. Signature Theater: Titanic, Chess, Les Miserables, Urinetown, Merrily We Roll Along, Assassins Film/TV West Wing, TuRn, Damascus Road, House of Cards, WCBDC! and “Star Wars” audio/ Lucas Productions. Honors 2012 Lunt Fontanne Fellow, Helen Hayes Award.

MICHAEL PERRIE, JR. - is an actor/singer/musician/writer originally from Baltimore MD. As an actor he has been seen on  National Tours; Million Dollar Quartet (2018) and Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story (2016–2018). DMV THEATRE: Petite Rouge (Imagination Stage, Helen Hayes Nominee for Best Lead Actor), Beautiful (Olney), Hester Street (Theater J), Falsettos (RepStage). Regionally he’s been seen all across the country - including shows at Florida Studio Theatre including The Last Match, A Comedy of Tenors, and BUDDY; in Missouri with Maples Rep in The Nerd, Hank Williams: Lost Highway, Buddy, and The Full Monty; and more. His feature film directorial debut THE CONSPIRACISTS will premiere in the festivals circuit this spring! 

Find out more at:  www.michaelperriejr.com 

SASHA OLINICK is excited to work with Voices Festival Productions for the first time. Local Theater Credits include:  American Shakespeare Center,  Arena Stage, ExPats Theatre, Folger Shakespeare Library,  1st Stage, The Hub Theater, Imagination Stage, Theater J, Kennedy Center TYA,  Metrostage, Mosaic Theater, Round House Theatre, Solas Nua, Studio Theatre. Film and Television Credits include: Enemy of The Reich: The Noor Inayat Khan Story, VEEP, Minyan Duty. Sasha holds an MFA in acting from The Trinity Rep Conservatory and teaches acting at Montgomery College, the National Conservatory of Dramatic Art and through the Educational Theatre Company.

TOBY BAISBURD (She/Her) OTHER: Signature Theatre: Ragtime; Jerry Herman Ring Theatre: Godspell, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, A New Brain. EDUCATION: University of Miami: BFA Musical Theatre. @tbaisburd

AMIE BERMOWITZ Most recently, Amie was seen in the world premiere of a new play, THE OTHER AMERICAN, at New Jersey Rep. Also at NJRep, MEMOIRS OF A FORGOTTEN MAN, BOOKENDS.

Off-Broadway:  GOLDSTEIN, RUTHLESS! THE MUSICAL, BELLS ARE RINGING.  Amie just moved back to the DMV, where earlier she performed at Arena Stage with the Flying Karamazov Brothers in THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV, at Round House Theatre in TINTYPES, as well several shows with The Washington Jewish Theatre, among others.  She has had the great pleasure of singing at The Kennedy Center and Lincoln Center. Thrilled to be back!


DRAMATURGY

Artistic Statement from THE creators

Danny Paller & Myra Noveck: 

“This musical explores both the political dynamics of that time and the personalities and family lives of its two protagonists – Rabin and his assassin. It raises bottom-line questions for an American audience: What happens when civil discourse breaks down and polarized groups live in their own bubbles? What difference can leaders make? When and how can hope overcome fear?  Most of the drama is conveyed through songs in a range of styles and emotions, capturing the many voices and viewpoints of this turbulent historical moment.”

 

Artistic Statement about the project

from VFP’s Ari Roth: 

“There have been other artistic lamentations on the death of Rabin, presented as documentary film, string concerto with spoken oratorio, or even a commedia dell'arte fever dream. Indeed, the long-running Voices From a Changing Middle East Festival, initially launched in 2000 at Theater J and now living with vigor at VFP, began its first festival with a premiere reading of Motti Lerner’s THE MURDER OF ISAAC in that inaugural year. Danny Paller and Myra Noveck’s NOVEMBER 4 is the most compelling, dynamic, and provocative of all tellings of Rabin’s death that I’ve encountered because of its powerful, realistic focus on the collision between leader and assassin, with full dialectical combat embedded in its piercing lyrics, told in a style and métier that resembles a cross between the political chronology of David Byrne’s HERE LIES LOVE (and its recreation of the Ferdinand Marcos-ordered assassination of rival, Ninoy Aquino), Stephen  Sondheim’s ASSASSINS, with a bit of the balladry of Jonathan Larson’s RENT. In other words, it’s enormously compelling stuff.

 

I traveled to Israel in October of 2023 to work with Danny Paller and Myra Noveck and hear a reading of the musical with English speaking Israeli actors.  We scheduled the reading for October 8. Our reading went ahead, in spite of the atrocities that took place 32 hours earlier. We didn’t know, of course, the full extent of the horror of October 7th.  We skipped the theater hall as a gathering spot and instead sat at a big dining room table situated next to a safe room, in case a missile attack on Jerusalem might result in warnings to shelter-in-place. The creative team’s commitment to seeing a reading through for a dramaturgically-minded American producer’s benefit – and to leave hours of time the next day for follow-up script meetings – speaks to the importance of this project in all our hearts and minds. We know that this material, when artfully presented in text and song, with character stories touching the heart, and a journalist’s scrupulousness adding veracity to the telling, will command attention and soul searching. As I wrote to the creative team just a few days ago upon reading the newest draft:

I think you've done a really strong and efficient job of updating the framing the play and repositioning the thematic focus to drive home points about anti-democratic mob assaults on institutions, the rule of law, and the gunning down of an aged, still-evolving, visionary leader. The play strikes me as more devastating today, particularly because... we're in danger of losing Israel's legitimacy as never before in the camp of world (and younger American) opinion. What is the way forward now? Or to quote the David Essex song, “Rock On,” from the 70s: "Where do we go from here?  Which is the way that's clear?" This play will create the most profound kind of questioning, while providing illumination through the aspirational qualities of musical theater song.”