Peter Henry as Rabbi Wise

at the Fountain Theatre

The Play

Playwright Bernard Weinraub

THE ACCOMPLICES by former New York Times political reporter Bernard Weinraub. Deborah LaVine directs the West Coast premiere of the New York Drama Desk-nominated play that is based on the true story of Jewish activist Hillel Kook aka Peter Bergson.

In 1940, Hillel Kook arrived in the U.S. fresh from the underground resistance in Palestine. Changing his name to Peter Bergson, he sought aid for the rescue of European Jews from the Nazis. Shocked to find himself blocked by both the Roosevelt administration and the Jewish establishment, Bergson spearheaded an extraordinary campaign of public rallies, hard-hitting newspaper advertisements and lobbying in Congress that forced America to confront the Holocaust.

Figuring prominently in the play are such historical figures as FDR; U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Breckinridge Long, who had jurisdiction over immigration and refugee problems during World War II; and American Jewish leader Rabbi Stephen Wise who found himself torn between nationalism and cultural/religious identity.

The result is a blistering account of Bergson’s fight to save millions – and of the conspiracy of silence and inaction that continues to haunt us to this day.

The cast of The Accomplices includes Steven Schub as Peter Bergson; William Dennis Hurley as fellow Zionist Samuel Merlin; James Harper as FDR; Brian Carpenter as Breckinridge Long; Gregory G. Giles as FDR advisor Sam Rosenman; Dennis Gersten as playwright and screenwriter Ben Hecht; and Peter Henry Schroeder as Rabbi Wise. Also in the cast are Cheryl Dooley, Kirsten Kollender, Stephen Marshall and Donne McRae.

Set Design for The Accomplices is by Travis Gale Lewis; Lighting Design is by Ken Booth; Costume Design is by Shon LeBlanc; Sound Design by David B. Marling; Props are by Erin Treanor; Dialect Coach is JB Blanc; Production Stage Manager is Jeremy A. Levin; Simon Levy and Deborah Lawlor produce.

Previews begin July 3 with the official opening on July 12. Performances through July 24 at The Fountain Theatre in Hollywood, CA.

Peter-Henry as Phil Cook

at the Tiffany Theatre

The Play

Playwright Clifford Odets

“Here is real and exciting theatre, alive and healthy and greatly rewarding.” – NY Newsday

“It’s a superb show.” – Variety

“…scenes of electrifying theatricality…” – Cue Magazine

THE STORY: The title character is Georgie Elgin, a faithful, forgiving woman, whose long years of devotion to her actor husband, Frank, have almost obliterated her own personality. The life of an actor’s wife is not as glamorous as many imagine. Some actors make enough money to tide them over between plays, but not Frank, whose long periods of idleness are punctuated by despair, loss of self-esteem and drink. When Frank is offered a really big part by Bernie Dodd, a young director, in an important new Broadway play, Georgie can’t believe her ears. Of course he should take it, but only Georgie knows the struggle it would be to boost Frank’s morale and reassure him at every turn. Georgie performs her ego boosting job on Frank under the tense watchful eyes of the nervous young director, whose reputation depends on this, his first big play. Then on the evening of the Boston opening the strain proves too great. Frank breaks down, and in the dark light of Frank’s relapse, Bernie Dodd sees the country girl for what she is—a magnificent young woman whose self-sacrificing goodness has never been truly appreciated.

Peter-Henry as Senator Tydings and General Swicker

at the Odessey Theatre

Odyssey Theatre’s ‘McCarthy’ Tells Tale of Moral Terror

History of the OTE

The Play

Playwright Jeff Goldsmith

1988 saw the Odyssey production of the world premiere of McCARTHY by Jeff Goldsmith. This explosive original drama from the OTE’s Play Development Program ran for eight months and was then selected as a main-season production by the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre.

Peter-Henry as Zaddock

at 2100 Square Feet

The Play

Easter by Will Scheffer

“EASTER, Will Scheffer’s dark and poignant heartland drama…[is] a surprisingly touching story about emptiness and loss…EASTER shares with the subversive film comedies of Joel and Ethan Coen a twisted take on the loopiness of Middle America.” – NY Times.

“EASTER comes tearing through a landscape of wheat-field mysticism…[it] achieves a paradoxical fusion of the banal, and absurd, and the profound.” – Village Voice.

Peter-Henry as Detective Kelly

at The Complex

The Play

Playwright Thomas Babe

“A very tough piece of goods–dynamite, hard-edged and brilliant.”- New York Post

New York is hell. Daughters are murder. Vietnam was a war that America shouldn’t have started. Today history replays in the Middle East. Same talk, same struggle, and morality’s still the victim.

“Compelling, gritty reality.” – The New York Times

“Dynamite stuff, hard edged, mean and brilliant.” – WABC-TV

Peter Henry as Cardinal Wolsey

at CBS Studio Center

Los Angeles Times | May 23, 1996 | T.H. McCULLOH | SPECIAL TO THE TIMES
Anne Boleyn’s Drama Plays Out Like ’90s News

The Play

Anne of a Thousand Days by Maxwell Anderson

This beautiful presentation of the story of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn is played against the well-known historical background of the court of Henry. A grand drama of love, deceit and murder, ANNE OF THE THOUSAND DAYS brings these most famous of Tudor characters to vivid life. A single setting with lights and a half-dozen articles of furniture are all that the play requires.