NOVEMBER 4
a new musical play 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 Alexandra Aron
Featuring Mitch Greenberg, Nicole Halmos
Chris Daileader, Noah Mutterperl, & Emma Wallach
Part of this year’s
part of
Voices From a Changing Middle East Festival:
How We Got Here | Where We Go Next
JUMP to:
SYNOPSIS | CAST | CREATIVE TEAM | DRAMATURGY
SYNOPSIS
A heart-rending opus by acclaimed Jerusalem-based composer Danny Paller and NYTimes Jerusalem bureau staffer/researcher Myra Noveck, NOVEMBER 4 marks the 30th anniversary of an assassination that radically altered the course of history. A timely, tense, musical collision-course between the 73 year old Prime Minister of Israel, Yitzhak Rabin, and his 25-year-old assassin, law student, Yigal Amir, this finely melodic forensic drama, directed by Alexandra Aron, is told with an up-to-the-minute frame of reference, as a cast of five portray a variety of figures in the lives of Rabin and Amir, including the wife, granddaughter, and trusted advisor to the Prime Minister, alongside family members, the love interest, and fellow law students of the assassin, with painful present-day reflecting from two women who were close at hand when the hopes of Oslo fell apart.
As the anchor production in the latest installment of VFP’S long-running Voice From A Changing Middle East Festival – presented this year under the banner, “How We Got Here | Where We Go Next” – NOVEMBER 4 will bring communities to commemorate and discuss Rabin’s legacy, from conflicted warrior to fearless peace builder, felled by incitement.
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“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 85-90 minutes.
MEET THE cast
MITCH GREENBERG (Yitzhak Rabin) has been acting professionally for half a century and thinks he’s finally got it right. NOVEMBER 4 marks his return to D.C. after a 20-year absence; he previously appeared in The Cocoanuts at Arena Stage and at Theater J (under Ari Roth) for the world premiere of Robert Brustein’s Spring Forward/Fall Back. Mitch has performed in a dozen Broadway shows (including Bart Sher’s production of Fiddler on the Roof, Jerry Zaks’ production of Laughter on the 23rd floor, and David Hyde Pierce’s production of It Shoulda Been You), as many again Off-Broadway, and in numerous regional theaters and tours around the country. He’s also been seen in sitcoms, dramas, feature films, shorts and commercials. His voice may be heard in many films, TV shows and documentaries, as well as in the dozens of audiobooks he’s narrated. Mitch’s career began at The Neighborhood Playhouse, studying with Sanford Meisner and William Esper, followed by a year with Uta Hagen. Audiences first saw him in Two for the Seesaw; his Broadway debut was as Groucho in the Tommy Tune production of A Day in Hollywood / A Night in the Ukraine. Pray for Ukraine!
NICOLE HALMOS (Leah & Others) is a Helen Hayes recipient for her portrayal of Della in The Cake. DMV credits include Virginia in Native Gardens at NextStop, Hanukkah Past at Round House Theatre’s A Hanukkah Carol or Gelt Trip! The Musical, The Squirrels at MET, The Alchemist at STC, Sweeney Todd at Baltimore Center Stage and A Christmas Carol at Ford’s Theatre. As a member of Obie Award winning Target Margin Theatre Co., Nicole appeared Off-Broadway in Hamlet, Mother Courage and Her Children, Dido and Aeneus, The Seagull, and Faust. Regional credits include Galileo at Yale Repertory, Wit at Dallas Theatre Center, Our Town at Triad Stage, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolfe and Cabaret at The Embassy and Carrie, Assassins, The Prom and August, Osage County at The Cumberland Theatre. You can also see her in the award-winning short film Invasion ’53. Nicole is grateful to be a part of this company of dedicated and talented artists who believe theatre has the power to change and to heal the world.
CHRIS DAILEADER (Higai & Others) is a DC-based actor, writer, and media & events producer who is excited to make his Voices Festival debut in November 4. Selected DC stage credits include: Synetic Theater: Treasure Island, Mosaic Theater Company: Paper Dolls, Monumental Theatre: Bonnie and Clyde: The Musical, Imagination Stage: Beauty and the Beast, Convergence Theater: Witch, Capital Fringe: Salvation Road, Silver Spring Stage: The Pillowman (WATCH Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor). Film credits include Haze and Lost Holiday.
NOAH MUTTERPERL (Yigal Amir) National Tours: Tina – The Tina Turner Musical, Look Both Ways! Regional: Arena Stage: Age of Innocence; Toby’s Dinner Theatre: Saturday Night Fever 2026; Keegan: The Woman In Black (Kipps, Helen Hayes nomination); Monumental: American Psycho (Paul, Helen Hayes nomination); Workhouse: The Drowsy Chaperone, (Robert) Hunchback of Notre Dame (Phoebus), Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors (Dracula). Love to Alyssa! www.nmutterperl.com
EMMA WALLACH (Noa & Others) (she/her) is making her Voices Festival Productions debut. Recent credits include This Play Isn’t About Brian in the Local Theatre Festival at The Kennedy Center, Tiny Lights and The Chameleon at Theater J, The Tempest at Round House Theatre, and Built For This in the Vanguard Arts Fund workshop at Olney Theatre Center. Education: American University, B.A. Musical Theatre; British American Drama Academy. Many thanks to my friends and family, especially my mom! www.emmawallach.com
DINO VERGURA (Swing) is excited to make his VFP debut in November 4! He recently appeared as Don in Kinky Boots at the Little Theatre of Alexandria, where past credits include Miss Trunchbull in Matilda and Bisset in Jekyll & Hyde. Other favorite roles include John Jasper in The Mystery of Edwin Drood and originating a role in the world premiere of Storming Heaven: The Musical. Dino is thrilled to be part of this new production and share the stage with such a talented team.
BECCA BLACKSTEN (Swing) is a DC local who graduated from Ithaca College in 2024 with her BFA in Acting. Her recent credits include Miss Scarlet in Clue (The Appalachian Center for the Arts), Elizabeth Bennet in Kate Hamill’s Pride and Prejudice, Corie Bratter in Barefoot in the Park, and Maid Marian in Ken Ludwig’s Sherwood (Weathervane Playhouse). She is grateful for the support she receives from her parents, friends, family, and darling chiweenie Scout!
MEET THE CREATIVE TEAM
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, including 25 years with the Jerusalem bureau of 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. Her murder mystery screenplay The Depths was a finalist in the StoryPros International Screenplay Contest in 2014. She holds a B.A. in history from Brandeis University and studied in the UCLA professional program in screenwriting.
ALEXANDRA ARON (Director) is the founder and Producing Artistic Director of the Remote Theater Project bringing theater artists from different cultural backgrounds into dialogue to create new work. (remotetheaterproject.com). Working internationally and in the US, Alex has directed and produced dozens of world premieres. Most recently, she directed The Mulberry Tree by Hanna Eady and Ed Mast at La MaMa Theatre, King of the Jews by Leslie Epstein starring Richard Topol at HERE Arts (NYC) and Thank You for Listening by Carmen Rivera (RTP). Other directing highlights include: A Night in the Old Marketplace, music by Frank London, lyrics by Glen Berger, (São Paulo, Copenhagen, Warsaw, Toronto, Milan, New York City, MASS MoCA, and Bard Summerscape) Naked Old Man by Murray Schisgal starring David Margulies (Ensemble Studio Theatre, NYC); Imagining Madoff by Deb Margolin (Theater J, DC); Eloise and Ray by Stephanie Fleishmann, Three Seconds in the Key by Deb Margolin (New Georges, NYC); It Can Happen Here by Judith Sloane (Jamaica PAC, NYC) and Salomé: Woman of Valor, by Adeena Karasick/ music by Frank London (Vancouver, Toronto, ART’s Oberon Theater).
PAIGE RAMMELKAMP (Music Director) is a proud graduate of American University, with a dual degree in Musical Theatre and Vocal Performance. Notable projects include: The Comedy of Errors (Shakespeare Theatre Co.), Little Women (Shenandoah Summer Music Theatre), Evil Dead, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Urinetown (Helen Hayes nominee - Best Music Direction), The Mystery of Edwin Drood (Workhouse Arts Center), Reefer Madness (NextStop Theatre Co.), Turn of the Screw, Working, Ichabod: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (Creative Cauldron), The Bridges of Madison County (Red Branch Theatre Co.), Bonnie & Clyde (Monumental Theatre Co.), Squeakers & Mr. Gumdrop, The Adventures Of Mr. Bear (Arts on the Horizon), and FINN (Workshop - Kennedy Center TYA).
LAUREN HELPERN (Scenic Designer) DC: Fences (Ford’s Theatre), Curve of Departure (Studio Theatre), Imagining Madoff (Theater J). Select NYC: 4000 Miles (Lincoln Center - Lortel Award), Bad Jews (Roundabout), Skintight (Roundabout and Geffen Playhouse - Robby Award nomination), Bug (Obie Award), and, recently, Truman vs Israel and Mrs. Stern Wanders the Prussian State Library. Select regional: La Jolla Playhouse, South Coast Rep, Hartford Stage, National Tour of American Girl Live!, and several productions of Blue Man Group. Production designer for Ari Shaffir - Jew (YouTube - 7.8 million views) and Jordan Jensen: Take Me With You. Partner in Butter Designs.
DEBORAH CANEY (Costume Designer) has been designing costumes for over 25 years. Recent productions include the 2025 Scotsman’s Fringe First Award winning play RIFT at the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh, written by Gabriel Jason Dean and directed by Ari Laura Kreith. She also designed costumes for Mrs. Stern Wanders The State Prussian Library by Jenny Lyn Bader, directed by Ari Laura Kreith, produced off broadway at 59E59th and WP Theaters. Other credits include: The operas Ghosts Of Gatsby, The Beautiful Bridegroom and Hansel & Gretel, directed by Karen Driscoll at The Alexander Kasser Theater; Ain’t Misbehavin’ directed by 2019 TONY Award Winner André DeShields at NJPAC and Crossroads Theatre Co. She has been the resident costume designer at Luna Stage Theatre Co. since 2008. Recent Luna Stage productions: Lonely Planet, written by Stephen Dietz, directed by Melissa Firlit, The Case For The Existence Of God, written by Samuel D. Hunter, directed by Ari Laura Kreith, and The Ripple The Wave That Carried Me Home, written by Christina Anderson and directed by Adrienne D. Williams.
JUSTIN SCHMITZ (Sound Designer) Justin has collaborated Off-Broadway with 59E59 Theaters and Round House Theatre, and The Dixon Place Theatre. Regionally- Chautauqua Theatre Company, Cincinnati Playhouse In The Park, The St. Louis Black Rep, The Kennedy Center, Signature Theatre, Olney Theatre Center, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Woolly Mammoth, Studio Theatre, Constellation Theatre, Gala Hispanic Theatre, Imagination Stage, Round House Theatre, Folger Theatre, Prologue Theatre Company, VOCA, amongst many others. Justin is the Eastern Region Trustee for USA829's LUEB. Helen Hayes nominations include 2017 (Constellation Theatre Company THE WILD PARTY) and 2016 (I CALL MY BROTHERS Forum Theatre Company). visit: www.justinschmitztheatre.com
DARYL EISENBERG (Casting Director) (she/her) is Owner of Eisenberg Casting - an Artios-nominated full-service casting office. Eisenberg Casting is a fast-paced, bi-coastal casting office with extensive experience casting for Film, TV, Broadway, Theater, Commercials, Voiceover, and New Media. Daryl has cast stage productions for Broadway, off-Broadway, National Tours, and major regional theater houses. In DC: Folger Shakespeare Theatre, Theater J, The Kennedy Center, Voices Festival Productions. She has covered nearly all the major and minor markets coast-to-coast and her films have played major festivals such as Sundance, Venice, Tribeca, TIFF, SXSW, San Diego, Cleveland, Atlanta, Soho, and have also received distribution theatrically and streaming. Daryl is the chair of the Somerset County Film Commission and is a former Watchung Borough Councilmember. She holds a BFA from Tisch School of The Arts/New York University and Playwrights Horizons Theater School. Member of Casting Society of America. @EBCastingCo. www.ebcastingco.com
MARIA MILLS (Production Stage Manager) is excited to join Voices Festival Productions for this important American premiere. She is blessed to have collaborated with so many creative teams across the northeast, most recently Off-Broadway: MEXODUS (Audible Theater). Regional: The Dragon, Prof. Woland's Black Magic Rock Show (Spooky Action Theater); Bring It On (Young Audiences of America); Finn, The Dragon King’s Daughter (Kennedy Center TYA); The Lehman Trilogy (Shakespeare Theatre Company); Is God Is (Constellation Theatre Company); and Indecent (Chautauqua Theatre Company). Events: Will on the Hill (Shakespeare Theatre Company); Night Before: Mark Twain Award for American Humor, Black Girls Rock! Fest (Kennedy Center). Maria has a BA in political science from American University.
ENRIQUE VARGAS (Assistant Director) is an actor, director, and educator based in Washington DC. Originally from Flint, Michigan, he has had the privilege of working with theatre companies across the country. Acting credits include: The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show (upcoming), Mother Goose, Cinderella: A Salsa Fairytale (Imagination Stage); Christopher Boone in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, Antigone, Pride and Prejudice (The University of Michigan-Flint); The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (Flint Youth Theatre); Elotes y Esquites (Flint Repertory Theatre). Directing credits: Tómas and the Library Lady (Upcoming; Assistant Director), The Volcano of Stolen Moments (Imagination Stage). As a teaching artist, Enrique has worked with the Flint Youth Theatre, Flint Repertory Theatre, Seattle Children’s Theatre, and the Chicago Children’s Theatre. Education: BFA in Performance from The University of Michigan- Flint. Thank you to Ari, Alex, and the entire team at VFP for this opportunity!
MEGAN AMOS (ASM) is excited to be joining VFP this fall on their production of November 4. She has previously worked at many theaters across the DC - Baltimore area such as Theater J, Imagination Stage, Olney Theater, IN Series, and Rep Stage. Most recently she worked on 13 The Musical with Young Artists of America as an Assistant Stage Manager.
Along with being an Assistant Stage Manager, Megan also does carpentry, board op, and video work in the DC - Baltimore area.
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.”
