Tony Award Winner John Rubinstein Stars as President Eisenhower in a Riveting Off-Broadway Play: 'Eisenhower: This Piece of Ground

Written by Long Island | 04. August 2023

Tony Award winner John Rubinstein (Pippin, Children of a Lesser God) returns to the New York stage starring as President Dwight D. Eisenhower in Eisenhower: This Piece of Ground, a new American play by Richard Hellesen and directed by Peter Ellenstein. Following acclaimed Los Angeles engagements, The New Los Angeles Repertory Company (Peter Ellenstein, Producing Artistic Director) presents the Off-Broadway engagement, now playing at Theatre at St. Clements (423 W. 46th Street, NYC), and extended by popular demand through August 20. The current performance schedule, through Aug. 6: Monday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 7PM, with matinees Saturday at 2PM and Sunday at 3:30PM. The new performance schedule, starting Aug. 7: Monday, Thursday and Friday at 7PM, with matinees Wednesday at 3PM, Saturday at 2PM and Sunday at 3:30PM

Following the Monday, August 7 performance, Rubinstein will invite audience members to remain in their seats for a special talkback event featuring playwright Richard Hellesen with Stephen Hauge, President of The Eisenhower Foundation and Ann Brownell Sloane, former President of The Eisenhower Foundation. (Hauge’s father, Dr. Gabriel S. Hauge, served as Special Assistant for Economic Affairs during the Eisenhower Administration. Sloane is the daughter of President Eisenhower's Attorney General, Herbert Brownell Jr.)

Adapted from a vast array of General Eisenhower's memoirs, speeches, and letters, Eisenhower: This Piece of Ground is a candid and fascinating fictional eavesdropping on President Dwight D. Eisenhower at his Gettysburg, Pennsylvania farm. It is 1962 and The New York Times Magazine has published its first list ranking the American Presidents in order of greatness. Pondering his placement on the list, Eisenhower looks back on his life - his Kansas upbringing, his decorated Army career, his victories in World War II, and his two terms as President – contemplating the qualities and adversities that make an American President great.

“I could not be more excited about the way New York audiences have responded to Ike,” says John Rubinstein. “I had never before done a one-person play. I had often thought that I would like to it, but never found the person to portray or the piece to interpret -- until Peter Ellenstein sent me this inspiring play by Richard Hellesen. I think that people need to hear these profound, personal, and uplifting words from an actual U.S. President during these very trying times. I was so gratified by the overwhelming enthusiasm we were shown when we premiered in L.A. last fall, and now we are all extremely proud and happy to extend our Off-Broadway engagement through summer.”

“With such division in the country today, I wanted to go back in our history and look at an individual who led with faith and optimism during a very crucial time, says playwright Richard Hellesen. “Despite the Cold War, McCarthyism and the start of the Civil Rights movement, Eisenhower believed in Democracy. On our stage, Eisenhower says ‘some days it feels like democracy is going to have a hell of a time persevering. But this piece of ground, that we all share...if we're going to leave our young people something better, then we just can't be complacent. …We have to keep choosing the harder right instead of the easier wrong. Never be content with half-truth when the whole truth can be ours.’”

“I knew almost nothing about Eisenhower except that he was in charge of World War II and was President during the ‘Leave it to Beaver’ years,” says director Peter Ellenstein. “My image of Ike was a somewhat kindly, stodgy, conservative figurehead. But after reading some of his speeches, I discovered that he really was one of the most fascinating and important people in American history. His life and career were packed with so many world-altering events. Richard Hellesen, has crawled inside Ike’s skin to fashion this remarkable play that tells Eisenhower’s story and speaks with profound hope to our own times. In John Rubinstein, we are so fortunate to have found an actor who could interpret the complexity of Ike’s intellect, judgement, scope, humor and humanity.”