Tony Awards Close-Up: Peace, Politics & Passion- J.T. Rogers and Bartlett Sher Explain the Power of OSLO

J.T. Rogers and Bartlett Sher are two of seven Tony nominees for Lincoln Center Theatre's poignant new play- Oslo. Below, the playwright and director open up about the process and how the technical aspects of this project have been the most complex that they've worked on yet!

Rogers' LCT credits include: Blood and Gifts (commissioned by LCT/also National Theatre, London; La Jolla Playhouse; TimeLine Theatre, Chicago). Plays include The Overwhelming (National Theatre, U.K. tour with Out of Joint, Roundabout Theatre), Madagascar (Theatre503, London; Melbourne Theatre Company) and White People (Off-Broadway; Starry Night Productions). Olivier nomination as one of the playwrights for the Tricycle Theatre of London's The Great Game: Afghanistan. His plays have been seen across the U.S., and in Canada, Germany and Israel.

Sher's LCT credits include: The King and I, Golden Boy, Joe Turner's Come and Gone, Awake and Sing!, The Light in the Piazza (Tony nominations); South Pacific (Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle awards; also London, Australia); Blood and Gifts; Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (also London). Broadway: Fiddler on the Roof (Broadway Theatre), The Bridges of Madison County (Schoenfeld). Off-Broadway: Prayer for My Enemy (Playwrights Horizons), Waste (Best Play Obie Award), Cymbeline (Callaway Award, also Royal Shakespeare Company), Don Juan, Pericles (TFANA, BAM). Artistic director of Seattle's Intiman Theatre (2000-2009).

A darkly comic epic, Oslo tells the true but until now untold story of how one young couple, Norwegian diplomat Mona Juul (Jennifer Ehle) and her husband social scientist Terje Rød-Larsen (Jefferson Mays), planned and orchestrated top-secret, high-level meetings between the State of Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization, which culminated in the signing of the historic 1993 Oslo Accords. Featuring dozens of characters and set in locations across the globe, Oslo is both a political thriller and the personal story of a small band of women and men struggling together-and fighting each other-as they seek to change the world.

The American Theatre Wing's 71st Annual Tony Awards will air live from Radio City Music Hall on the CBS Television Network on Sunday, June 11, 2017 (8:00-11:00 PM, ET/delayed PT), hosted by Tony winner Kevin Spacey.