Changes are coming fast and furious to Washington’s Kennedy Center, the most momentous being the staging of an off-Broadway play featuring testimonials of Israeli survivors of the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023, that killed 1,219.
The playwrights of October 7 told Washington Secrets that their interpretation of the horrific event will take place Jan. 28, 2026, in the Terrace Theater, the Kennedy Center’s busiest.
It is being staged by Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney, the conservative journalist couple whose past work included the movie Gosnell: The Trial of America’s Biggest Serial Killer, about Kermit Gosnell, Philadelphia’s notorious abortion doctor.
They began preparing for it on Oct. 8, 2023, when they noticed how some in politics and the media shifted blame for the attack to Israel, and they determined to keep the focus on Hamas and its victims.
Providing a stage for the controversial event is the latest move by Richard Grenell, President Donald Trump’s selection to run the performing arts center, who has taken steps to open the center to more voices while improving the facility.
“The barbarians are truly inside the gates,” McAleer told Secrets. “It’s a shame that the Kennedy Center, which was supposed to be a bipartisan venue, had long been a cold house for conservatives and free thinkers. But we are now living in interesting times. Under the new Trump/Grenell Age of Enlightenment, the truth is being welcomed onto the stages of the Kennedy Center. This is the way it should always have been,” he added.
Just last weekend, Trump hosted the 48th Kennedy Center Honors for several stars selected by the president. He has been invited to attend the showing of October 7.
The play about the Hamas attack will be the second major event to draw attention to the survivors. In October, the Kennedy Center featured three days of remembrance.
Grenell said at the time, “We remember the innocent concert goers who were violently murdered by Hamas. And we remember the families who are still waiting for their loved ones to be returned.”
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Trump and his team have worked out a peace deal between Israel and Hamas that appears to be holding. With news media interest waning, McAleer said that he hopes to use the event to show that America hasn’t forgotten that day.
“We were honored that the survivors of October 7 trusted us with their stories and now we are honored to put those stories on the stage at what is becoming the cultural epicenter of the United States. It’s never been more important that people know the truth about October 7 and Israel. All sides need to hear it. It is so exciting to be putting on the play at the Kennedy Center,” he told us.