The Discussion

Reporters confer at the Washington Post

Scene 14: After a judge declares that the Pentagon Papers may be published, their lawyer, Brian Kelly, offers a toast — and a note of caution.

SULLIVAN: The Post has a great future ahead of it. The Pentagon Papers victory made it a world class competitor, just as Ben hoped. And the courts have said: “Well, except in certain cases, we ain’t going to be the gatekeepers.” So, the courts aren’t allowed to do it, and the government can’t be trusted to do it. That leaves you guys. Can you be the gate-keepers? We know you have the guts to say yes. Have you got the guts to say no? At what point do you draw the line on stolen documents? Do you sanction stealing? How far will you go with anonymous sources? To what ends do you go to feed the tape worm? Do you ask? Do you want to know?

Top Secret As Dialogue

Top Secret generates a host of questions about press freedoms, government documents, and national security. The above are posed to reporters, but courts, government officials and the American people must find answers of their own.  Accordingly, performances of Top Secret are often accompanied by panel discussions and other events to spark dialogue on these enduring questions.

Spring 2010: TOP SECRET TALKS

In February and March 2010, with the nation involved in two wars and facing continuing threats of terrorism, USC Annenberg’s Center on Communication Leadership & Policy presented TOP SECRET TALKS, a month-long series of conversations with leading journalists, scholars and policymakers who considered the modern lessons of the Pentagon Papers story in conjunction with the off-Broadway premiere of Top Secret at New York Theatre Workshop.

As issues of government classification—and declassification—continue to confront current Presidential administrations and the Internet opens new frontiers for the disclosure of confidential information, TOP SECRET TALKS presented a timely examination of the tension between the government’s need for secrecy and the public’s right to know. Individual TOP SECRET TALKSprograms were presented by organizations such as the Columbia Journalism Review, Human Rights Watch, NYU’s Wagner School of Public Service, the Asia Society, and the Center for Public Integrity.  Speakers included Daniel Ellsberg, the former Defense and State Department official who gave the Pentagon Papers to the Washington Post; legendary Washington Post investigative reporter Carl Bernstein; Leslie Gelb, who led the Department of Defense project that produced the Pentagon Papers; New York Times managing editor Jill Abramson; Washington Post editor Marcus Brauchli; and playwright Geoffrey Cowan; among others.

All TOP SECRET TALKS took place at New York Theatre Workshop, 79 E. 4th Street, NY, NY, following performances of Top Secret.  See below for a complete listing and audio from each of the TOP SECRET TALKS discussions.

TOP SECRET TALKS: Spring 2010 Listing and Audio

The NYU Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service presentsA Conversation with Geoffrey Cowan and Robert Shrum Geoffrey Cowan, Playwright, Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers; Director, Center on Communication Leadership & Policy Robert Shrum, Senior Fellow, NYU Wagner; Political Consultant;

Author, No Excuses: Concessions of a Serial Campaigner

New York Theatre Workshop | 79 East 4th St. NY, NY 10003
February 25, 2010

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The Asia Society presents
The Learned and Unlearned Lessons of the
Vietnam War and the Nixon Administration

Jonathan Schell, Author and Journalist
Orville Schell, Arthur Ross Director, Asia Society’s Center on U.S.-China Relations
Top of ForBottom of FormNew York Theatre Workshop | 79 East 4th St. NY, NY 10003
February 28, 2010
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USC Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership & Policy presents
Afterwords with Jack Doulin and the Cast
Please join the cast of Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers as they discuss the process of creating the play.
Panel moderated by Jack Doulin, Casting Director, New York Theatre WorkshopNew York Theatre Workshop | 79 East 4th St. NY, NY 10003
March 2, 2010
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The New York Institute for the Humanities at NYU presents The Language of Torturers: The Pentagon Papers, Then and Now David Rudenstine, Author, The Day the Presses Stopped: A History of the Pentagon Papers Case; Former Dean, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law Todd Gitlin, Author, The Sixties: Years of Hope, Days of Rage; Professor of Journalism and Sociology, Columbia UniversityPanel moderated by Steve Wasserman, Acting Director, New York Institute for the Humanities

New York Theatre Workshop | 79 East 4th St. NY, NY 10003

March 3, 2010

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Human Rights Watch presentsAn Evening with Human Rights Watch Marcus Brauchli, Executive Editor, The Washington Post Brian Ross, Chief Investigative Correspondent, ABC News
Tim Weiner, Pulitzer prize-winning Journalist and

Author, Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA and

Panel moderated by Carroll Bogert, Associate Director, Human Rights Watch

New York Theatre Workshop | 79 East 4th St. NY, NY 10003
March 4, 2010

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USC Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership & Policy presentsUSC Annenberg Benefit Jill Abramson, Managing Editor, New York Times
Carl Bernstein, Legendary Investigative Reporter
Norm Pearlstine, Chief Content Officer, Bloomberg L.P. Panel moderated by Geoffrey Cowan, Playwright, Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers; Director, Center on Communication Leadership & Policy
Welcoming remarks by Stephen Graham, Founding Trustee of New York Theatre Workshop and son of Katharine Graham

New York Theatre Workshop | 79 East 4th St. NY, NY 10003
March 6, 2010

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Millie Harmon Meyers & Joshua Boneh present
A Salute to Roy Aarons
A special program celebrating the legacy of Leroy Aarons, acclaimed journalist, author, activist, and co-writer of Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers.
A conversation with those who knew him best including

Monica Alba, Junior Fellow, USC Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership & PolicyCharles Kaiser, Author, Full Court Press; Founder and Former President, Rebecca Miller, Actor, Prayers for Bobby
Panel moderated by Geoffrey Cowan, Playwright, Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers; Director, Center on Communication Leadership & Policy
New York Chapter of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association. New York Theatre Workshop | 79 East 4th St. NY, NY 10003
March 7, 2010

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The Center for Public Integrity presentsInvestigative Journalism, Then and Now William E. Buzenberg, Executive Director, Center for Public Integrity Geoffrey Cowan, Playwright, Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers; Director, Center on Communication Leadership & PolicyBill Kovach, Chairman, Committee of Concerned Journalists

Panel moderated by Sheila Coronel, Director, Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism, Columbia University; Founder, Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism

New York Theatre Workshop | 79 East 4th St. NY, NY 10003
March 11, 2010

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USC Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership & Policy presents
Truth and Fiction in the Docudrama
Geoffrey Cowan, Playwright, Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers;Director, Center on Communication Leadership & Policy Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen, creators of 2002’s acclaimed docu-play The Exonerated and Aftermath, an original piece drawn from interviews with Iraqi civilians, which premiered at NYTW in fall 2009.Greg Pierotti, member, Tectonic Theatre Project; co-creator of The Laramie Project and The Laramie Project: 10 Years Later; and Goldberg Scholar, SUNY Empire State College
New York Theatre Workshop | 79 East 4th St.  NY, NY  10003
March 12, 2010
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Columbia Journalism Review presents
Columbia Journalism Review Benefit Performance
Daniel Ellsberg, Former Defense and State Department official who gave the Pentagon Papers to the Washington Post Leslie Gelb, Journalist; Diplomat; President Emeritus, Council on Foreign Relations James Goodale, Former Vice Chairman and General Counsel, The New York Times Nicholas Lemann, Dean, Columbia Graduate School of Journalism
Panel moderated by Victor Navasky, Chairman, Columbia Journalism Review;
Delacorte Professor of Journalism, Columbia Journalism School
New York Theatre Workshop | 79 East 4th St. NY, NY 10003
March 16, 2010
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USC Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership & Policy presentsWomen and Leadership in the News Industry Karen Rothenberg, Marjorie Cook Professor of Law and former Dean, University of Maryland School of LawInternational Women’s Media Foundation; Scholar-in-Residence, Columbia Law School & Senior
Sabbatical Fellow at its Center for the Study of Law and Culture
New York Theatre Workshop | 79 East 4th St. NY, NY 10003
March 17, 2010

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James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University presentsTop Secret Talks: Professor Robert P. GeorgeDaniel Mark, Student, Princeton University
Shivani Radhakrishnan, Student, Princeton University
Jose Joel Alicea
, Student, Princeton UniversityPanel moderated by Professor Robert P. George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton UniversityNew York Theatre Workshop | 79 East 4th St. NY, NY 10003
March 20, 2010

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USC Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership & Policy presents
Confidential Government Information in the Internet Age: Roles and Responsibilities of Courts, the Executive Branch, and the Media
Chief Judge Mark L. Wolf, United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts Professor Burt Neuborne, Inez Milholland Professor of Civil Liberties,
New York University, and Legal Director, Brennan Center for Justice
Josh Marshall, Founder, Talking Points Memo
New York Theatre Workshop | 79 East 4th St. NY, NY 10003
March 27, 2010
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Other Past Discussions Presented in Conjunction with Top Secret

Past performances of Top Secret have sparked fruitful collaborations with numerous scholars and organizations interested in dialogue on journalist ethics, freedom of the press, and government secrets. Past events included numerous panels, symposia, and other discussions on university campuses across the country, in particular in connection with Top Secret‘s 2007-2008 tour of university campuses.

Past discussants regarding Top Secret have included:

Peter Scheer; David C. KohlerMarc Cooper; Sanford Ungar; Randall Bezanson; Charles LewisDaniel McAuliffe; Geoffrey Cowan; Daniel Ellsberg; Walter Pincus; Eric Berger; John Bender; Robert O’Neil; Anthony Lewis; Peter Lichtenfels; Jeffrey Callison; Pamela Karlan; Philip Taubman; David Demarest; Carolyn Dyer; and Judith Miller.

Click here to watch “The Fine Line: History on the Boards”, a panel discussion held during the University of Nebraska’s “Echoes of Project X” Symposium on the Pentagon Papers.

A number of stories covered the impressive slate of events held as part of the collaboration between Top Secret and Sunshine Week, including a panel replayed in radio form on KPCC-FM in Los Angeles.