The Beverly Hills Hotel Peace Talks

By Gregg Ostrin

The Beverly Hills Hotel Peace Talks was first brought to CVRep as part of our ORIGINS program during the 2024 season. It had a staged reading on March 5, 2024 directed by Randy Brenner. It was then selected to be fully produced by CVRep for a May 22, 2025 World Premiere.

Taking place over a weekend in a suite in the Beverly Hills Hotel in 1968, three months after the Six Day War, the play is based on a real-life incident. When it was announced that American Jewish actor Barbra Streisand would be starring in the film of Funny Girl opposite Egyptian actor Omar Sharif, both Israel and Egypt threatened to boycott the film. In a fictionalized event based on the situation, a movie executive and a publicity executive host an impromptu peace talk with an Israeli and Egyptian diplomat. As they debate the movie, the issue of the Middle East comes front and center. When the two diplomats find themselves falling for one another, they mirror both the relationship between both the stars and the characters in the film and bring up the still very relevant question; can these countries ever find peace?

World Premiere May 22, 2025
Performances May 21 – June 1, 2025

The World Premiere of The Beverly Hills Hotel Peace Talks is made possible with the generous support of Premiere Producers Erica Hiller Carpenter and Doug Moreland with additional support from Production Sponsors Richard Cain and Steven Brown, Hugh Glenn, Fritz Hoelscher, Barbara Monachino with Joanne Wellner, Barbara Rogers with Lori Bagdasarian, Katy and Bruce Titcomb.

MEET THE PLAYWRIGHT

GREGG OSTRIN

A native of Los Angeles, Gregg spent the first 30 years of his life as an actor. In 1990, as a founding member of L.A.’s Scrap Theater he began writing plays. His play RANK AND FILE was one of the first produced at The Hudson Theater. He has since had three plays produced professionally, KOWALSKI at the Two Roads Theater, TRUFFLES at the Secret Place Theater in New York City and most recently, THE SOUL OF MOTOWN at Stage West in Calgary, Canada. He has also sold numerous screenplays and TV pilots. His play THE SPY WHO WENT INTO REHAB, a comedy about toxic masculinity, will be premiering in March 2024 at the Pacific Resident Theater, in Venice California. Gregg is thrilled to have THE BEVERLY HILLS PEACE TALKS receive its premiere reading at the Coachella Valley Repertory.

MEET THE WORLD PREMIERE CAST

**Josh Breslow* – Shelly Ross**

New York Theater: Unhealthy (HERE), Squiggy and the Goldfish, Trees Like Nails, An Air Balloon Across Antarctica (Cherry Lane Theater).LA theater: Les Liaisons Dangereuses (The Antaeus Company), Flowers for Algernon, Oliver! (Deaf West), and Theater District (Black Dahlia Theatre), has received LA Ticketholder Award: Best Supporting Actor and two Garland Award nominations.

Film: Jack Reacher 2: Never Go Back, Trial By Fire, Love and Other Drugs, Houdini

TV: Including Dwight In Shining Armor (five seasons). Nashville, New Girl, Late Night With Conan O’Brien, Once & Again, General Hospital, The Brothers Garcia

Webseries: Dating Avi, Naked Funeral, Reliance, Wing Women, Bloodlight @thejoshbreslow (IG)

Olivia Zane Coen – Dalia

CVRep: Debut

Theatre: American Idiot Ensemble Berklee MTC The Balcony (Chantal, Boston Conservatory Chapel Hill, NC), Sweeney Todd (Johanna, Playmakers Rep.), Working (Dolores, CFS), Baby With The Bathwater (Helen, CFS), You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown (Sally, Raleigh Little Theater), Jingle Bell Jukebox (Raleigh Little Theater

Training: Boston Conservatory at Berklee Musical Theater. Class of 2021 University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA) Drama Summer Intensive

**Geri-Nikole Love* – Freddie**

CVRep: Debut

New York: Carlisle: a different Three Sisters (La Mama), Black Boy & the War (Harlem School of the Arts)

Regional: Higgin’s in Harlem (Playhouse on Park), The Inferior Sex (Trinity Rep.), Measure for Measure (New Swan Shakespeare Festival)

Film: Lifetime Movie Network: Desperate Widows, Left for Dead, Wicked Moms Clubs American Solitaire; Downshift, Molly Takes A Trip, Fatale, The Karma Club

Television: Tulsa King (CBS), Fantasy Island IFOX), WestWorld, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, Lethal Weapon (FOX), Star Trek (CBS), NCIS (CBS) , The Young and the Restless CBS), Quantico (ABC) , Black & White (A&E)

Founder: Love Acting Studio (loveactingstudio.com); The Movement Theatre Company

Training: New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.

Note: Geri Nikole-Love performed the role of Freddie during the staged reading of The Beverly Hills Hotel Peace Talks, which led to it being selected from the 2023 Origins: New Works Program and this world premiere.

Ali Zahiri – Rami

CVRep: The Humans

Theatre: The Penis Chronicles

Film: Kombucha Cure, San Andreas Quake (Hulu), Flight WWII (Netflix), What Now, Hope Street

TV: The Flight Attendant (HBO), The Boys (Amazon), Facing Evil (ID Network), Breaking Rad

INTERNET: First, Darde Man, Worn Down, Where am I from?, The Guys Upstairs

Note: Mr. Zahiri performed the role of Rami during the staged reading of The Beverly Hills Hotel Peace Talks, which led to it being selected from the 2023 Origins: New Works Program and this world premiere.

*Appearing through an Agreement between CVRep and Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.

MEET THE DIRECTOR

Randy Brenner
Multi award-winner Randy Brenner has directed more than 50 musicals and plays including White Christmas, You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown (with an all-star Broadway cast), Fiddler…, South Pacific, Nine, Unsinkable Molly Brown, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Pirates of Penzance, Stephen Schwartz’s Snapshots (winner Best Director/created with Stephen Schwartz), Autumn Canticle, Man of La Mancha, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. He also directed a critically acclaimed new version of Stephen Sondheim’s Marry Me A Little, sanctioned by the composer. He also directed the Los Angeles premier of The Fix. Mr. Brenner directed Sally Kirkland in The Powder Room Suite, Bruce Davison in Bashed, and Tony Shalhoub in The Gamester. He also worked with Musical Theatre Guild, directing Kiss of the Spider Woman, I Remember Mama, and Nine. Randy was a founding member, co-producer and director of the critically acclaimed Charity Parody Productions, which raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for various HIV related charities and was hosted by Tom Hanks, Angela Lansbury, and Lily Tomlin. Additionally, he spent time as the director in residence for the Project Angel Food Awards, which honored Elizabeth Taylor, Nathan Lane, Jessica Lange, Whoopie Goldberg, and others. Brenner made his Las Vegas directing debut at Barry Manilow’s Westgate Hotel and worked with Stormy Sacks and Steven Schwartz (Wicked) to co-create a Musical Theatre Workshop as part of the Wallis Annenberg Center’s GROW Program. Recently, Mr. Brenner received awards for directing Mr. Parker and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Gynecologic Oncology Unit at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center of New York City (Dezart Performs). Further, Randy received a New York Outer Critics’ Circle nomination and a rave in the New York Times for his work on the Off-Broadway production of The Only Thing Worse You Could Have Told Me, starring Dan Butler and, later, Greg Louganis. Randy is a proud member of SDC and would like to thank Jonny and Clarence for their endless love and support.

Brenner made his Las Vegas directing debut at Barry Manilow’s Westgate Hotel. He also served as director and dramaturg for the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts’ GROW Program.

He has received awards for directing Dezarts Performs productions of Mr. Parker and A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Gynecologic Oncology Unit At Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Of New York City. He also received wins for his Off-Broadway production of The Only Worse Thing You Could Have Told Me…, starring Dan Butler and, later, Greg Louganis.

March 4, 2024 Staged Reading Cast