The Secret Comes Out
Battle for Pentagon Papers Recalled in 'Radio' Play
Last updated Thursday, November 1, 2007 5:43 PM CDT in Entertainment
By Sara Sullivan
THE MORNING NEWS
In 1966, Robert McNamara, United States secretary of defense, commissioned a study on the history of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. Three years later, the completed study -- which came to be known as the Pentagon Papers -- contained over 2 million words about administration efforts to manipulate military information and the media. Only 15 copies of the document were circulated. In 1971, one was leaked.
"Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers" is an inside look at The Washington Post's decision to publish the top-secret study and the inevitable tension between the needs of national security and the rights of the American press.
L.A. Theatre Works brings the touring docudrama, starring John Heard as Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee, to the Walton Arts Center for one show only at 7 p.m. Thursday.
Geoffrey Cowan, a journalist and First Amendment specialist, and Leroy Aarons, a former bureau chief for the Washington Post, co-authored the docudrama and are "uniquely qualified to write this story," says Susan Loewenberg, producing director of L.A. Theatre Works.
The play, which utilizes material obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, details the whirlwind that occurred when The Post got a copy of the Pentagon Papers after another paper, The New York Times, had been restrained by the government from printing anything. Washington Post reporters and lawyers gathered at the home of the paper's editor, Ben Bradlee, to review the documents and debate whether publishing them would violate national security. The Post staff had one day to decide.
"It plays like a thriller, but it's what really happened," says Loewenberg of the play. "It's real -- it's real life."
The second act portrays the trial that followed and led up to the historic Supreme Court decision that reaffirmed the First Amendment and the freedom of the press.
L.A. Theatre Works is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to use innovative technologies to produce and preserve significant works of dramatic literature on audio and "to assure the widest public access to these great works," according to the Web site latw.org.
The organization records its works before live audiences, then makes them available in physical or electronic form. "We really do make the most of technology," says Loewenberg.
"It's done like an old-fashioned radio drama," says Loewenberg of the performance. It's semi-staged around microphones with minimal setting and only a very vague suggestion of period costuming, she says. "But the experience is that of watching a very exciting play," she says.
L.A. Theatre Works started in 1974 as a prison outreach program and evolved into a regular theater company, Loewenberg says. In 1985, the group fell into radio theater and took on an 18-month project to record Sinclair Lewis' "Babbitt," which ended up being over 14 hours in length. The cast of 90 characters was filled by the organization's 34 members, including Ed Asner, Richard Dreyfuss and Helen Hunt. That production "put us on the map," says Loewenberg.
In 20 years, L.A. Theatre Works has recorded about 400 plays, she says. Each play is recorded five times in front of separate live audiences, then edited to obtain the best performance. In 2005, the troupe started touring and has played over 120 cities since.
"We're the only company in the country that does this," Loewenberg says.
The organization has a program called Alive & Aloud that provides a selection of audio plays, study guides and resource material to public schools and libraries, and it hosts a weekly radio program called "The Play's the Thing," a live in-performance radio theater series.
"The idea is to embrace new technologies to really allow people the widest access to theater," says Loewenberg. "And to utilize theater as a way of sparking conversation."
On Stage
'Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers'
Starring John Heard
Date and Showtime: 7 p.m. Thursday
Venue: Walton Arts Center, corner of West and Dickson streets in Fayetteville
Admission: $30-$45
For reservations, call 443-5600.
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