ON HOLY GROUND Opens At The Met Theatre

The new show "On Holy Ground" brings the Israeli-Palestine conflict into sharp focus from the wildly different perspectives of three women.

In Act One, Salome Jens portrays Henrietta Szold (1860-1945). Szold, a co-founder of Hadassah, founded the first Jewish hospital in Palestine, then under Turkish rule and later under British Mandate. Szold established social services accessible to both Jews and Arabs and proposed a bi-national (Jewish and Arab) state in Palestine, a dream she did not live to see fulfilled. She helped run Youth Aliyah, an organization that rescued 30,000 Jewish children from certain death at the hands of the Nazis.

In Act Two, Lisa Richards portrays Shula, an Orthodox Jewish woman from the settlement of Efrat who has lost her teenage daughter, slain in a bombing by a Jihadist. Separated by a fence, she meets with Reim, the Palestinian mother of the bomber, portrayed by Abbe' Rowlins.

L. Flint Esquerra, artistic director of the MET Theatre, helms the production. A prolific director, his previous credits include "Amelia Learns to Fly," "Richard and Felix: Twilight in Venice," "Heydrich/Hitler/Holocaust," "Head: The Brain That Wouldn't Die Musical," his own play "Consanguinity," and more.

Playwright Stephanie Liss' previous plays include "Faces of War" and "The Vow." Her many teleplays include "Hidden in Silence" (for which she received the Writers Guild of America Award and the Berlin Film Festival Award), "David" (Emmy ® and WGA Award nominee) and "Second Serve: The Renee Richards Story." Research for her writings has taken her to Somalia, Bosnia, the former Soviet Union, Africa (with the Maasai), and Lebanon, where she spent time with the Israeli Army, PLO, Hamas and Yasser Arafat. She is a graduate of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. Currently playwright-in-residence with the humanitarian aid organization Jewish World Watch, she recently returned from the Congo.

WHAT: "On Holy Ground." World Premiere engagement of a new show.
WHO: Written by Stephanie Liss. Directed by L. Flint Esquerra. Produced by Paul Koslo for the MET Theatre. Starring Salome Jens, Lisa Richards and Abbe' Rowlins.
WHERE: The MET Theatre. Downstairs in the Great Scott Theatre, 1089 N. Oxford Ave., Hollywood, CA 90029. This is one block east of Western Ave. and a few steps south of Santa Monica Blvd. There is parking (fee charged) ½ block east of the venue on Santa Monica blvd. in the Earl Scheib lot.
WHEN: Opens Friday, November 11, 2011 at 8 p.m. Runs through December 18. Fri. & Sat. at 8, Sun. at 3. Dark on November 25.
ADMISSION: $15.
RESERVATIONS; (323) 957-1152.

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