Voices Festival Productions (VFP) Artistic Producing Partners Ari Roth and A. Lorraine Robinson announce programming for this year’s acclaimed “Voices From a Changing Middle East Festival” with the American Premiere of November 4, a musical play about an assassination that changed the course of history. A work revealing the polarized heart of a country that once stood on the brink of a momentous peace treaty, this intimately staged musical commemorates the 30th anniversary of the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin at the hands of radical right-wing Jewish law student Yigal Amir. The play will run November 12 – December 7, 2025 as the anchor production of this year’s three-play “Voices From a Changing Middle East Festival” under the umbrella theme “How We Got Here | Where We Go Next.” All festival events take place at the Universalist National Memorial Church (UNMC), 1810 16th Street NW, Washington, DC (where Spooky Action Theatre also performs).
An assiduously researched musical drama told with an up-to-the-minute, post-October 7th frame of reference, November 4 explores the personal and political landscape of 1995 for both Rabin and his assassin, in 19 stylistically ambitious songs. The musical collision-course between the 73-year-old Nobel Peace Prize–winning Prime Minister and the 25-year-old Orthodox Yemenite takes us to the final month of Rabin’s life, ping-ponging between his office and family, and the world of Amir, as a cast of five portray a variety of figures, including Rabin’s wife Leah, granddaughter Noa, and Chief of Staff, alongside the brother, mother, love interest, and classmates of the charismatic, Talmud-quoting Amir. Tensions build to the rousing peace rally in Kings of Israel Square, Tel Aviv, on November 4, 1995, when a crowd of over 100,000 sang “Shir L’Shalom” (Song of Peace) together with the often gruff war-hero-turned-peace-making prime minister, only moments before he was gunned down upon leaving the stage.
That murder changed the course of history and derailed the Oslo peace process, as an emboldened right wing was moved by incitement to stop ratification of the accords in its tracks.
Notes Voices From a Changing Middle East Festival and VFP founder Ari Roth: “Our acclaimed musical co-creators Danny Paller (Jerusalem-based composer of The Geography of Night and Eli the Fanatic) and Myra Noveck (25-year veteran of the New York Times Jerusalem bureau and prolific screenwriter) are keen to have their work performed in the U.S., as they reflect on the play’s message during these dark times:
“Israel must reclaim its identity not just as a nation of military resilience, but as a people capable of moral imagination and political courage. We need to bring statesmanship back. The play November 4 reminds us of this imperative; how this can — and must — be done.”
Full casting will be announced next month for this production directed by Alexandra Aron (Founding Artistic Director of Remote Theatre Project), who returns to DC after staging Grey Rock at The Kennedy Center and Imagining Madoff at Theater J. Aron’s creative team will include multiple Helen Hayes Award–winning/-nominated artists, along with set designer Lauren Helprin (who recently collaborated with Aron on their OBIE Award–winning King of the Jews at HERE). Alberto Segarra designs lights, Justin Schmitz, sound, with musical direction by Paige Austin Rammelkamp.
Following November 4, the festival continues, as it so often has, bringing complementing perspectives to broaden the inquiry of the festival’s theme, pairing Palestinian actress/author Najla Said (daughter of Edward Said) and Jewish-American performance artist Judith Sloan in Imperfect Allies: Children Of Opposite Sides, running December 11-14, 2025, and directed by Suzanne Agins. A work about friends processing the current war in Gaza with candor, deep listening, and personal revelation, the interactive piece finds poignant parallels with those who have experienced their own changing relationships in light of the outbreak of the October 7 War.
“Theatre is a place for needed examination to happen,” reflects VFP Artistic Producing Partner A. Lorraine Robinson. “We’re in a time of chaos and confusion, and the context of history is one of the most important markers to understand how we’ve traveled, ascertain where we actually are, and to verify our intended direction.”
The Festival concludes with the English language workshop premiere adaptation of Colum McCann’s 2020 National Book Award winning Apeirogon about the inspiring relationship between Rami Elkhanan and Bassam Aramin, who each lost daughters to terror, then remade their lives to be at the center of Arab-Israeli peace building efforts. Running January 8-11, 2026, an Israeli/Palestinian creative team works with American actors on Avner Ben-Amos’ adaptation, which will be directed by Sinai Peter, who will first stage the world premiere at the Jaffa Theatre in Israel this September. Like Imperfect Allies: Children of Opposite Sides, Apeirogon: Rami and Bassam is presented at UNMC, 1810 16th Street, in DC.
As with all VFP productions, curated discussions will follow most performances. A full line-up of discussants and themes will be posted on VFP’s website and social media platforms in the fall.
FESTIVAL FACT SHEET
NOVEMBER 4
Concept and Story: Danny Paller and Myra Noveck
Music and Lyrics: Danny Paller
Book: Myra Noveck
Director: Alexandra Aron
When: November 17 to December 7, 2025
Pay What You Can (PWYC) Previews begin Wednesday, November 12, 2025
Thursdays & Fridays at 7:30 pm
Saturdays at 3:00 pm & 8:00 pm; Sundays at 3:00 pm
Special Thanksgiving week PWYC show: Monday, November 24 at 7:30 pm
Where: Universalist National Memorial Church • 1810 16th Street NW, Washington, DC
Tickets: VoicesFestivalProductions.com ($25–$65 with three PWYC performances)
ADDITIONAL PROGRAMMING
IMPERFECT ALLIES: CHILDREN OF OPPOSITE SIDES
By Najla Said and Judith Sloan
Directed by Suzanne Agins
When: December 11–14, 2025
Thursday & Friday at 7:30 pm
Saturday 8:00 pm & Sunday at 7:00 pm
Where: Universalist National Memorial Church, 1810 16th Street NW, Washington, DC
Tickets: VoicesFestivalProductions.com ($25)
APEIROGON: RAMI AND BASSAM
Adapted by Avner Ben-Amos from the novel Apeirogon by Colum McCann, with Dramaturgy and Direction by Sinai Peter
When: January 8–11, 2026
Thursday & Friday at 7:30 pm
Saturday 8:00 pm & Sunday at 3:00 pm
Where: Universalist National Memorial Church, 1810 16th Street NW, Washington, DC
Tickets: VoicesFestivalProductions.com ($25)
ABOUT VFP AND VOICES FROM A CHANGING MIDDLE EAST FESTIVAL:
Voices Festival Productions (VFP) is an independent theatrical company producing new works for the stage that stimulate debate and discourse, introspection and awareness, informed by revelation of our underlying humanity in all its color and complexity. We produce new plays that find resonance between those living with conflict in the Middle East and closer to home, in our nation’s capital, along the seams of our country and its very real and perceived divides.
One of VFP’s core components is the long-running Voices From a Changing Middle East Festival, which has brought the souls and struggles of people living in and around Israel/Palestine to life for the past 25 years. Created by VFP Founder Ari Roth at Theater J, where he served as artistic director for 18 years, the Middle East Festival grew to become a hub for cultural discourse, offering 20 provocative productions and 39 workshops. As the Festival grew in popularity and acclaim, it also attracted detractors that agitated against the Festival and ultimately triggered the dramatic inception of Mosaic Theater Company in December 2014. The Middle East Festival moved across town where it again thrived, offering 12 productions over 5 seasons. Then came another rupture, which triggered inception of newly-independent Voices Festival Productions.
In 2022, VFP presented four Voices From a Changing Middle East Festival productions under the theme “Losing/Finding Home,” including The Gate by Robbie Gringras, the world premieres of My Calamitous Affair With The Minister Of Culture & Censorship by Ari Roth, and Home? Or a Palestinian Woman’s Pursuit of Life, Liberty & Happiness by Hend Ayoub, which runs this summer at San Francisco Playhouse before moving to 59E59 in NYC this fall. For more information on VFP and its Voices From a Changing Nation series world premieres, including the jointly-authored Who Cares: ♥ The Caregiver Interview Project (by Ari Roth, A. Lorraine Robinson, and Vanessa Gilbert), Letters to Kamala/Dandelion Peace by Rachel Lynett, and Priyanka Shetty’s #Charlottesville, visit voicesfestivalproductions.com..