Carl Bernstein, Jessica Blank, Daniel Ellsberg, Erik Jensen, et al. Set for Top Secret Panels at NYTW

New York Theatre Workshop has announced a series of panel discussions to be held in conjunctions with its production of Geoffrey Cowan’s Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers, running February 24 – March 28.

The piece is based on interviews and documents acquired through the Freedom of Information Act, and is an inside look at The Washington Post‘s decision to publish the classified study documenting U.S. involvement in Vietnam.

Daniel Ellsberg, the former Defense and State Department official who gave the Pentagon Papers to the Post, will participate in the panel to be offered on March 16. He will be joined by Leslie Gelb, James Goodale, and Nicholas Lemann. Victor Navasky will moderate.

Additional panels include A Conversation with Geoffrey Cowan and Robert Shrum (February 25), which will feature the playwright and political consultant Shrum, in a conversation moderated by journalism professor Mitchell Stephens; Afterwards with the Cast (March 2), in which the company will discuss the creation of the play; and Truth and Fiction in the Docudrama (March 12), which will feature Cowan along with Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen in a conversation moderated by Gregg Pierotti.

Other participants in the panels to be held in conjunction with Top Secret include Jill Abramson, Carl Bernstein, Norm Pearlstine, and Brian Ross.

Directed by John Rubinstein, the production features Diane Adair (Meg Greenfield), Larry Bryggman (John Mitchell/Chal Roberts/Lamont Vanderhall), John Getz (Ben Bagdikian/Robert Mardian), Jack Gilpin (Brian Kelly), James Gleason (Murry Marder/Judge Martin Peel), Roberta Maxwell (Katharine Graham), Matt McGrath (George Wilson/Eugene Patterson), Larry Pine (Richard Nixon/Dennis Doolin), Russell Soder (Soldier/Darryl Cox/Clerk & Bailiff/Ron Ziegler), Peter Strauss (Ben Bradlee), and Peter Van Norden (Fritz Beebe/Henry Kissinger).

For further information, visit: www.nytw.org.