FEATURE: Geoffrey Cowan's Top Secret success
Tuesday, March 9, 2010 - Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers, the documentary play by Pacific Council Board member Geoffrey Cowan and colleague Leroy Aarons, opened today at the New York Theatre Workshop's Fourth Street Theater after two weeks of sneak preview performances. Theater critics have called the play a highly important rendering of events that continue to resonate today, arguing that nearly 40 years after the events in the play took place, the themes of the play are more relevant than ever. Indeed, Charles Isherwood of the New York Times points out in an article this week that the story told highlights the omnipresent tension between "the desire of government to keep its secrets and the responsibility of the press to monitor it's workings."
Top Secret is an inside look at the Washington Post's decision to publish the top-secret study documenting U.S. involvement in Vietnam. The subsequent trial tested the parameters of the First Amendment, pitting the public's right to know against the government's claim of need for secrecy.
The Associated Press' Peter Santilli comments further on the play HERE.
Charles Isherwood of the New York Times commented on the play HERE.
And David Finkle calls Top Secret a documentary that is "shot through with information the concerned citizen doesn't want to be without" in his Huffington Post piece HERE.
In conjunction with the Spring 2010 performances, USC Annenberg and the New York Theatre Workshop are presenting a series of post-performance discussions with journalists, political leaders, and scholars, including panels hosted by the Columbia Journalism Review, the Asia Society and more. Learn more on the play website, HERE.
(Photo by Joan Marcus)
Geoffrey Cowan
Geoffrey Cowan's strong interest in communications and particularly in public diplomacy has made him an important force over the last 30+ years as a public interest lawyer, academic administrator, best-selling author and award-winning teacher, playwright, television producer and government official.
Geoff is a Professor at the University of Southern California, where he holds the Annenberg Family Chair in Communication Leadership and directs the Annenberg School's Center on Communication Leadership. He has served as dean of the USC Annenberg School (1996-2007), as a Fellow at Harvard's Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, and as Walter Lippman Fellow of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. Before his years at USC, Geoff was director of the Voice of America and of the International Broadcasting Bureau.
Pacific Council connections: Geoff has been a member of the Pacific Council Board since 2008, and a member of the Council since 1997. His wife, Aileen Adams, is Deputy Mayor in the Office of Strategic Partnerships of the City of Los Angeles and an active Pacific Council member. She is the former Secretary of State and Consumer Affairs for the State of California.