Armenian Studies Program Brings Eric Bogosian to University of Michigan

ANN ARBOR, MI — The University of Michigan’s Armenian Studies Program is pleased to announce that playwright, novelist, and actor Eric Bogosian will deliver the 2013 Berj H. Haidostian Annual Distinguished Lecture on Wednesday, March 13, 7:00 pm. Bogosian will discuss how his decision to write a screenplay about the 1915 assassination in Berlin of the Ottoman Grand Vazir, Talat Pasha, led him to write a non-fiction history of the Nemesis assassins and their context. He has dedicated the last five years to the study of Armenian and Turkish history, interviewing prominent historians around the world, translating primary texts from Armenian, French, and German, and conducting primary research in the British archives. He will talk about his public experience as a writer, as well as the private and personal self.

Eric Bogosian has most recently starred with Laura Linney on Broadway in Donald Margulies’ Time Stands Still. He wrote and starred in the play Talk Radio (NYSF, 1987; Broadway with Liev Schreiber, 2007), for which he received Pulitzer Prize and Tony award nominations. For his film adaptation of the play, Bogosian received the Berlin Film Festival Silver Bear Award. In addition to Talk Radio, Bogosian has written a number of full-length plays including subUrbia (LCT, Second Stage, adapted to film), Griller (Goodman), Red Angel (Williamstown Theater Festival), Humpty Dumpty (The McCarter), and 1+1 (New York Stage and Film). He is also the author of three novels—Mall, Wasted Beauty, and Perforated Heart—and a novella, Notes from Underground. As an actor, Bogosian has appeared in numerous films and television programs, starring in Robert Altman’s The Caine Mutiny Court Martial, Oliver Stone’s Talk Radio, Under Siege II, Wonderland, and as Captain Danny Ross on Law & Order: Criminal Intent. His six solo Off-Broadway performances between 1980 and 2000—including Drinking in America; Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll; and Wake Up and Smell the Coffee—received three Obie awards. He lives in New York with his wife, director Jo Bonney.

The Haidostian Annual Distinguished lectureship was established by the family of the late Dr. Berj Haidostian, a prominent and devoted physician in Michigan. The Haidostian family has a long and continuing relationship with the University of Michigan and the Armenian Studies Program. Every year, together with the Armenian Studies Program faculty they select a speaker from among internationally recognized experts on Armenia and Armenians. Recent Haidostian Distinguished Lecturers have included the renowned director Atom Egoyan, Dr. Gerard Chaliand of Paris, Dr. Fiona Hill of the Brookings Institution, Mr. Thomas de Waal of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and Dr. Vartan Gregorian of the Carnegie Foundation.

The lecture is open to the public and will be followed by a question and answer period, and will also be video recorded and posted on our website at www.ii.umich.edu/asp.
LOCATION: Helmut Stern Auditorium, University of Michigan Museum of Art, 525 S. State St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109
SPONSORS: Armenian Studies Program, Arts at Michigan, Department of Screen Arts & Cultures, UMS
WEB LINK: www.ii.umich.edu/asp