Wednesday, April 29, 2015
8:00pm (Reception 6:30-7:30pm)

Eric Bogosian
in conversation with Alex Dinelaris

discussing 
Operation Nemesis: The Assassination Plot
That Avenged the Armenian Genocide

The Alex Theatre
216 North Brand Boulevard
Glendale, CA 91203

*This is event is made possible thanks to the generous support of The City of Glendale, Armenian Genocide Centennial Committee, Abril Books, Glendale Arts and Asbarez.

PURCHASE TICKETS
$23 General Admission
$33 Priority Seating Section
$46 Includes Bogosian’s book + Priority Seating Section
$95 Includes pre-event reception + Bogosian’s book + Premium Seating 
*tickets include $2.50 Alex Theatre facility fee

Eric Bogosian is an actor, playwright, and novelist of Armenian descent. He was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for his play Talk Radio, and is the recipient of the Berlin Film Festival’s Silver Bear Award, as well as three Obie Awards and the Drama Desk. In addition to his celebrated work in the theater and onscreen, he has authored three novels.

Few people talk about the Armenian Genocide, one of the 20th century’s greatest atrocities and one that to this day is not acknowledged as such by several national governments. Fewer still talk about—or even know of—the calculated revenge plot enacted in secret against the responsible officials. 2015 marks the 100 years since the Armenian Genocide.

In Operation Nemesis: The Assassination Plot That Avenged the Armenian Genocide, Eric Bogosian crafts a masterful account of the conspiracy of assassins that hunted down and killed the perpetrators of the massacre. 

In 1921 in the middle of a crowded Berlin street, Turkish national Talat Pasha was shot dead by an Armenian student Soghomon Tehlirian. The shooter was swiftly arrested and his case went to trial. Despite his obvious guilt, the student was acquitted—his impassioned defense claimed he was overwhelmed with rage at the sight of the man who had participated in the murder of his family. But as Bogosian details in the book, Tehlirian was not just in the right place at the right time. He didn’t witness the deaths of his family. And he wasn’t even a student. He played the first part in a meticulously plot, orchestrated by a small group of self-appointed patriots to avenge the nearly one million victims of the Armenian Genocide. Over the next several years, the vigilante group tracked down and assassinated at least ten more former Turkish leaders.

Actor, novelist, and playwright Eric Bogosian uses his considerable storytelling gifts to create a narrative of Operation Nemesis, set against an illuminating history of Ottoman and Armenian conflict, as well as a chilling examination of the genocide itself. Bogosian was brought up on the importance of his Armenian heritage. Every Armenian he knew had lost family in the massacre and his grandfather told him from the tender age of four, “If you ever meet a Turk, kill him.” When he later began investigating his heritage in earnest, Bogosian found scattered accounts of a cadre of assassins and a covert plan named for the Greek goddess of retribution. 

Bogosian casts fresh light on one of the greatest crimes of the twentieth century and one of history’s most remarkable acts of retribution. 

Writer and director Alexander Dinelaris is an Academy Award and Golden Globe winner for the screenplay of Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance).  He is the co-creator and executive producer of the upcoming series The One Percent for the Starz network, which will star Ed Helms, Hilary Swank and Ed Harris. His film The Year of the Monarchs is currently in development with Mike Tollin and Mandalay entertainment and he is co-writing an upcoming untitled feature film with director Guillermo Del Toro. Alexander is also the book writer of Gloria and Emilio Estefan’s upcoming Broadway musical On Your Feet! Other recent work includes his plays Red Dog Howls (New York Theater Workshop), Still Life (Manhattan Class Company), The Chaos Theories (Shotgun Theater) and In This, Our Time (59e59). Mr. Dinelaris is a proud member of the Writer’s Guild and the Dramatists Guild.

 

 

 

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