Miami Student

Issue date: 10/30/07 Section: Campus

L.A. Theatre Works, sponsored by WMUB, performs Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers Wednesday night at Hall Auditorium.

L.A. Theatre Works, a radio theater company with a live-on-stage radio show, provided a lesson in journalism and performing arts Wednesday night at Hall Auditorium before an audience of Miami University students and community residents, through Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers.

Based on the controversy between The Washington Post and the Nixon administration, the production offered an inside look at the newspaper's decision to publish a top secret study documenting U.S. involvement in Vietnam.

The production documented from beginning to end the battle between the government and The Washington Post to publish what the paper felt was the public's right to know. With more than 7,000 documents in the Pentagon Papers, the editors struggled with the decision of whether or not it was wise to publish information that may be harmful to the country.

"First and foremost, it's a work of art," said David Sheldrick, assistant director of the performing arts series. "This took place in the Vietnam era but it has relevance to today. We are not pushing one agenda or another, we just want to stimulate minds and get people thinking."

The trials surrounding the Pentagon Papers tested the boundaries of the First Amendment, pitting the public's right to know against government's desire for secrecy. According to the production, during the initial case, it became apparent that The Washington Post wasn't going to win the ability to publish the Pentagon Papers on the sole fact that not publishing them was an infringement on the First Amendment.

The case went to the U.S. Supreme Court, and it is considered the most important press freedom case ever heard in the high court. The persistence of The Post proved the point of Gregory Harrison-the actor who played Brian Kelly, The Post's lawyer in the performance-when he said in the production, "Newspapers are like tapeworms. The more you feed them, the hungrier they get."

The final decision made by the Supreme Court allowed both The Washington Post and The New York Times to publish the controversial papers. To recreate the events that took place in the summer of 1971, the L.A Theatre Works set the scene with six single microphones across the stage and a small table with sound effect devices set up in back.

Continued...

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