OSLO: THE ART OF DIPLOMACY

Presented by:

Off Square Theatre Company presents

OSLO by J.T. Rogers + The Art of Diplomacy Panel Discussion

April 13, 2019
The Center Theater at the Center for the Arts

Tickets – $25 adults / $15 student

General admission.

Presented in partnership with InterConnections21 and ThinkWY
Oslo, by J.T. Rogers, “is a play about possibility: the possibility that enemies, if brought together and enabled to see each other as human beings, can become, if not friends, then at least incapable of shooting each other when they return home.”

1pm – Staged Reading of OSLO by JT Rogers (with intermission)

4pm – Break with hosted reception in lobby

4:30pm – Panel: The Art of Diplomacy / Including Q&A

Featuring Ambassador Gary A. Grappo

Followed by dessert reception in the lobby.

OSLO, by J.T. Rogers

Winner of the 2017 Tony Award for Best Play. Everyone remembers the stunning and iconic moment in 1993 when Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat shook hands on the South Lawn of the White House. But among the many questions that laced the hope of the moment was that of Norway’s role. How did such high-profile negotiations come to be held secretly in a castle in the middle of a forest outside Oslo? A darkly funny and sweeping play, OSLO tells the surprising true story of the back-channel talks, unlikely friendships, and quiet heroics that led to the Oslo Peace Accords between the Israelis and Palestinians. J.T. Rogers presents a deeply personal story set against a complex historical canvas: a story about the individuals behind world history and their all too human ambitions.

Ambassador Gary A. Grappo

Gary Grappo is a former U.S. ambassador and currently a Distinguished Fellow at the Center for Middle East Studies at the Korbel School for International Studies, University of Denver. Previously, he was Visiting Senior Scholar at the University of Wyoming. He possesses nearly 45 years of diplomatic and public policy experience in a variety of public, private and nonprofit endeavors. As a career member of the Senior Foreign Service of the U.S. Department of State, he served as Envoy and Head of Mission of the Office of the Quartet Representative, the Honorable Mr. Tony Blair, in Jerusalem. Ambassador Grappo held a number of senior positions in the State Department, including Minister Counselor for Political Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad; U.S. Ambassador to the Sultanate of Oman; and Charge d’Affaires and Deputy Chief of Mission of the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. During his Foreign Service career, he served at posts in Nicaragua, Portugal, Jordan, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Jerusalem as well as several assignments at the Department of State in Washington. He is CEO of Equilibrium International Consulting, providing analysis and policy guidance on foreign affairs to businesses, institutions and the media. Mr. Grappo holds a BS degree in mathematics from the U.S. Air Force Academy, MS in geodetic science & survey engineering from Purdue University, and an MBA from the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University.