Reporters confer at the Washington PostScene 14: After a judge declares that the Pentagon Papers may be published, their lawyer, Brian Kelly, offers a toast — and a note of caution.
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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 |
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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, 2010download audio |
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| USC Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership & Policy presents Afterwords with Jack Doulin and the CastPlease 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, 2010download audio |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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| USC Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership & Policy presents Truth and Fiction in the DocudramaGeoffrey 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, 2010download audio |
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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, 2010download audio |
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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 CultureNew 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 download audio |
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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. Kohler; Marc Cooper; Sanford Ungar; Randall Bezanson; Charles Lewis; Daniel 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.
