L.A. Theatre Works' Production of Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers will be appearing in cities across the country. Links to the Box Offices are below:

2007 Tour

October 17-18	Hampton, Va.	The American Theatre
October 19-21	Collegeville, Minn.	St. John's University
October 23-24	Oxford, Ohio	Miami University
October 26-28	Palo Alto, Calif.	Stanford University
The October 28 engagement will feature a post-performance panel led by former White House Communications Chief and current Stanford University Vice-President David Demarest including New York Times reporter, former deputy editorial page editor, and former Washington Bureau Chief Philip Taubman, and Montgomery Professor of Public Law Pamela Karlan, Associate Dean for Research and Academics at Stanford Law School.
October 29-30	Davis, Calif.	University of California, Davis
The Oct. 29 performance will be preceded by a panel discussion "The Pentagon Papers: Their Place in Politics and Law," featuring UC Davis faculty members and led by Jeffrey Callison, host of Insight on KXJZ. The Oct. 30 performance will feature feature a post-performance question and answer session with the actors led by Peter Lichtenfels, chair of the UC Davis Department of Theater and Dance.
October 31-Nov. 2	Lincoln, Neb.	University of Nebraska
The Nov. 2 engagement will feature both pre- and post-production discussions hosted by playwright Geoffrey Cowan. It is presented as a part of the 'Echoes of Project X' Symposium, which will feature three events: an Oct. 30 panel discussion with former New York Times columnist Anthony Lewis, Thomas Jefferson Center director Robert O'Neil, UNL Journalism professor John Bender and UNL law professor Eric Berger at 7:30 p.m.; an Oct. 31 public lecture by Washington Post reporter Walter Pincus at 7:30 p.m.; and a Nov. 1 public address by Daniel Ellsberg at 7:30 p.m.
November 3-5	Scottsdale, Ariz.	Scottsdale Center for the Arts
This engagement will feature a pre-performance master class taught by members of the Top Secret cast to junior college level acting students.
November 6	Tucson, Ariz.	University of Arizona
This engagement will feature a noon Conversation with State Bar of Arizona President Daniel McAuliffe, who will discuss what life was like as a young Justice Department lawyer preparing the Pentagon Papers case. This event is sponsored jointly by UA Presents and the UA James E. Rogers College of Law and will be held in Law Main Room 140 . A post-performance question and answer session with the acting cast will also be held in Fox Theatre. Additionally, on the eve of the performance, Nov. 5 at 7pm, there will be a panel discussion "The Press and Government Secrecy" moderated by Kevin R. Kemper, Assistant Professor of Journalism, featuring Professor of Law Emeritus Charles E. Ares, Assistant Professor of Journalism David Cullier, and "The Truth" Tuscon radio host Jon Justice.
November 7-8	Fayetteville, Ark.	Walton Arts Center
This engagement will feature a post-production panel discussion with Hoyt Purvis, chair of the University of Arkansas Journalism Graduate Committee and former staffer to Senator J. William Fulbright.
November 9-12	Omaha, Neb.	Holland Center

 

2008 Tour

 

January 16-18	Winston-Salem, N.C.	Wake Forest University
This engagement will feature an address by Daniel Ellsberg on Jan 24 at 7pm in Brendle Recital Hall as part of the University's "Voices of Our Times" series.
January 19-20	Asheville, N.C.	Diana Wortham Theatre
This engagement will feature a pre-show discussion sponsored by The Asheville Citizen-Times featuring Asheville media critic Cleve Matthews at 7p.m. on January 19 and at 1p.m. on January 20 at the Forum at Pack Place.
January 22-23	Richmond, Va.	University of Richmond
This performance will feature be subject of a "Modcast", a pod-cast sponsored by The Modlin Center for Performing Arts.
January 25-26	St. Louis, Mo.	Washington University
January 29-30	Iowa City, Iowa	University of Iowa
This engagement will be part of a week of events featuring: the University of Iowa Lecture Committee’s Distinguished Lecture delivered by Daniel Ellsberg on Jan. 28 at 7:30 pm. The play will be previewed by an interview with Law Prof. Randall Bezanson, author of How Free Can the Press Be? on "Know the Score Live,"  KSUI FM 91.7, to be broadcast live from the UI Museum of Art from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 25. There will also be an hour-long discussion and call-in program on statewide Iowa Public Radio featuring Bezanson and Goucher College President Sanford Ungar, author of The Papers & The Papers: An Account of the Legal and Political Battle Over the Pentagon Papers that, on "The Ex-change" at 10 a.m. on Jan. 29 on WSUI AM 910. Additionally, the Law Faculty will stage a re-enactment of an edited version of New York Times vs U.S. performed by UI College of Law Emeritus Dean N. William Hines and retired University General Council Mark Schantz at 4p.m. on Jan. 29 in the Levitt Auditorium of the Law Building followed by a panel discussion with Ellsberg, Ungar, and Law Prof. Prof. Tung Yin and will be moderated by Journalism Prof. Frank Durham. There will be a post-performance discussion with cast following the Jan. 30 production of Top Secret, and the actors will be conducting monologue workshops for students in the Department of Theatre Arts. There will also be a "press's conference" of high school journalists from across the state to dialogue with the cast members about the First Amendment issues raised by the play which will be broadcast on the  Iowa Communications Network at 1 p.m., Jan. 30. The University's Osher Life-Long Learning Institute will also be hosting a pre-show class taught by Prof. Bezanson and Prof. Yin on Jan. 23  from 7 to 8:30 p.m. in Room 2166 of the Medical Education and Research Facility.
Feb. 1	Springfield, Ill.	University of Illinois at Springfield
This performance will be followed by a post-show discussion and will be rebroadcast on WUIS-FM. A presentation associated with this performance will be held on November 7, 2007, and will feature a noon lunch featuring Charles Lewis of the Fund for Independence in Journalism along with veteran Chicago newspaper editor  Bernard M. Judge , columnist and associate editor for the Daily Southtown Phil Kadner, and  Chicago Sun-Times Springfield Bureau Chief Dave McKinney and a 7:30 p.m. panel discussion with former New York Times journalist Judith Miller, Charles Lewis, Phil Kadner, moderated by WUIS-FM General Manager Bill Wheelhouse as part of its "Government Accountability and a Free Press" series.
February 2-3	Columbia, Mo.	University of Columbia, Missouri
This performance will be followed by a post-show question and answer session, and will be rebroadcast on campus radio station KBIA-FM 91.3. University Chancellor Bradley J. Deaton will be holding a "Chancellor's Forum" on the topic on January 30, 2008, from 3:30 to 5p.m., in Ellis Auditorium featuring Assoc. Prof. of Journalism Charles N. Davis, executive director of the National Freedom of Information Coalition along with Crowder Professor of Law Christina Wells , and Professor of Journalism Bill Kovach, Founding Chair and Director of the Committee of Concerned Journalists.
February 4-5	Storrs, Conn.	University of Connecticut
February 6	Concord, N.H.	Capitol Center for the Arts
Prior to this performance, at 6:30 p.m., the Capitol Center and the New Hampshire Humanities Council will present a free panel discussion in the Governor’s Hall on the conflict that often arises between the government and the press on matters of national security. Panelists will include Richard A. Hesse, Emeritus Professor of Law Franklin Pierce Law Center; U.S. District Court Chief Judge Steven McAuliffe, and Concord Monitor Editor Mike Pride.The perfomance will be followed by a question and answer session with the cast members.
February 7-8	College Park, Md.	University of Maryland
This engagement will feature a pre-show discussion with former Washington Post Executive Editor Ben Bradlee and Daniel Ellsberg, moderated by American Journalism Review President Thomas Kunkel.
February 10	Sarasota, Fla.	Van Wezel Performance Hall
This engagement will feature a post-show curtain call.
February 13	York, Pa.	Penn State University   (video)
February 14-17	Philadelphia, Pa.	University of Pennsylvania
March 12-16	Los Angeles, Calif.	Skirball Cultural Center

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ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHTS:

Geoffrey Cowan

Leroy Aarons

GEOFFREY COWAN Geoffrey Cowan is a University Professor and holder of the Annenberg Family Chair in Communication Leadership at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication, where he also directs the Center on Communication Leadership. He served as dean of the USC Annenberg School from 1996 to 2007. He teaches courses and conducts research in media, law and society and public diplomacy. In 2007, he was elected to be the Walter Lippman Fellow of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. Before coming to USC, Cowan served under President Clinton as director of the Voice of America and director of the International Broadcasting Bureau. In other public service roles, Cowan served on the board of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, chaired the Los Angeles commission that drafted the city's ethics and campaign finance law, and chaired the California Bipartisan Commission on Internet Political Practices. He is an award-winning and best selling author whose books include See No Evil: The Backstage Battle Over Sex and Violence on Television and The People v. Clarence Darrow: The Bribery Trial of America's Greatest Lawyer. With Leroy Aarons, he co-wrote Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers, a play about the tension between a free press and government secrecy that will be featured in a national tour during the 2007-08 season. During the 2007-2008 academic year he will be a Fellow at the Joan Shorenstein Center for the Press Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. He won a primetime Emmy in 1992 for his work as an executive producer of the Disney Channel movie Mark Twain & Me. He is a graduate of Harvard College and Yale Law School and is married to Aileen Adams. They have two children, Gabriel and Mandy.

 

LEROY AARONS Roy Aarons was an award-winning journalist, editor, author and playwright. Aarons earned a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University and by age 27 was city editor at his first paper, the Journal-Register in New Haven. He reported on some of pivotal moments of the 1960s from the Beatles' arrival in America to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. He covered events of the 1960s and 1970s over 14 years as chief of The Washington Post's New York and West Coast bureaus. In that capacity, he also covered the California-related events in the Pentagon Papers case, including the information about Daniel Ellsberg's time at RAND and how the papers were taken from the RAND headquarters. He served an accuracy consultant for -- and appeared in -- the film All the President's Men. In 1982, he spent a year in Israel, covering among other things the Israel-Lebanon war as a freelancer for Time magazine. In 1983 he joined his former Washington Post colleague Robert Maynard at the Oakland Tribune, and eventually became executive editor and vice-president of the Oakland Tribune and during the 1980s. In 1989, the Tribune won a Pulitzer Prize for photographic coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake. Two years later, Aarons left the Tribune to pursue various writing projects: Prayers for Bobby, a book about the suicide of a young gay man; a libretto for an opera about the affair between Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, and Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers. In addition to his reporting, Aarons was active in journalism education and diversity advocacy. He was co-founder of the Maynard Institute For Journalism Education, a training program for minority journalists, and was leader of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association. Until his death in November 2004, he was a visiting professor of journalism at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School of Communications where he taught courses on gay issues and the media. Aarons was also supervising research on press coverage of gay and lesbian issues within Annenberg's Journalism Department.

 

 

About L.A. Theatre Works Founded in 1974, the mission of L.A. Theatre Works (LATW) is to enrich the cultural life of our national community through the use of innovative technologies to produce and preserve significant works of dramatic literature on audio, and to assure the widest public access to these great works. Launched in 2005, L.A. Theatre Works' National Touring Program has expanded the organization's mission to provide access to significant works of theatre by audiences nationwide by bringing a range of classic and contemporary plays to civic and university performing arts centers across the country.  From originally commissioned docudramas which address topical, burning issues such as The Great Tennessee Monkey Trial and Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers to classic comedies such as Private Lives, L.A. Theatre Works employs a slightly expanded version (which includes costumes and minimal sets) of the same unique live radio theatre style performance presented in its regular ten-play The Play's the Thing live in-performance series at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles. To date, L.A. Theatre Works has delighted and challenged audiences in over 100 small towns and major cities across the nation with theatre that is immediate, spontaneous, and features a first-rate cast, live sound effects, and a connection to the audience rarely felt in a traditional theatrical setting. In addition, L.A. Theatre Works collaborates with our presenting venues and local public radio stations in each community to provide additional outreach and special programming including one-time broadcasts of the performance, panel discussions with the actors, directors, writers and leading subject experts, and performances for local area high school students. LATW currently operates four primary programs; The Play's The Thing, Alive & Aloud, Library Access, and the Arts & Children Project. The Play's The Thing is a live in-performance radio theatre series, in Los Angeles, featuring leading actors in ten state-of-the-art audio productions a year. L.A. Theatre Works, through its weekly broadcasts, make theatre widely and easily accessible to audiences nationwide. These audiences experience radio drama that is contemporary, edgy, and significant through this award-winning, critically-acclaimed radio theatre series, heard weekly on public radio stations throughout the United States as well as on XM Satellite Radio's Sonic Theatre Channel. Additionally, international audiences listen to the series on the BBC and other English Language broadcasters. The Play's The Thing is also accessible for streaming on the Internet at http://www.kpcc.org and http://www.kpfa.org, and is available for digital download at http://www.audible.com and http://www.mediabay.com. All productions become part of LATW's extensive Audio Theatre Collection, which can be purchased in bookstores, through our catalogue and on the internet by individuals, schools, universities, and libraries nationwide. Today, our Audio Theatre Collection includes more than 360 titles-the largest award-winning library of its kind in the world. Alive & Aloud provides a selection of audio plays to more than 2,000 public secondary schools and libraries nationwide. Participating schools receive our plays accompanied by study guides and resource materials for classroom application. The audio plays provide a unique learning tool that allows teachers to incorporate the arts into every classroom subject, from English to History. In 1999, after experiencing much interest in our Audio Theatre Collection from libraries nationwide, Library Access was founded. L.A. Theatre Works has partnered with over 900 public libraries in rural and densely urban communities to provide five titles from our collection at no charge. Along with the audio plays, librarians are provided with posters and press releases to promote the availability of audio theatre in their libraries. Since 1984, L.A. Theatre Works' Arts & Children Project has worked with over 75,000 incarcerated and at-risk students within Los Angeles County Juvenile Court Schools, after-school programs, and public schools. Highly skilled artists provide workshops in the literary, performing and visual arts. The Arts & Children Project unlocks a creative outlet for this disadvantaged population and provides these underserved youth a voice within their community.