J-Powers’ The Pentagon Papers

The World Premiere of J-Powers’s Pentagon Papers in the 40th anniversary year of the Watergate break-in. For the first time on stage, the hidden history of the Vietnam War that destroyed more than one president is dramatized. President Richard Nixon referred to the Watergate break-in which eventually lead to his resignation as ‘silly’ and ‘incredible’ in grand jury transcripts made public in November 2011. Powers’s new play Pentagon Papers presents key passages from the recently declassified Pentagon Papers revealing the shocking secrets that led him to create a team of Watergate burglars and eventually to the self-destruction of his presidency.

Unlike previous works on the subject that explore the courtroom effort regarding the right to publish, Pentagon Papers dramatizes the actual secret history of America's involvement in Vietnam. Performed by a cast of young actors, the production aims to inspire a new generation of Americans to demand honesty and transparency from leaders.  “The truth will set you free,” said Daniel Ellsberg, who risked everything, including his freedom, to expose this classified information.

Pentagon Papers is presented in association with Vietnam Veterans of America.

This production is supported in part by a CCI ARC grant.

written and directed by: J-Powers (a.k.a. John Powers). Writer-director J-Powers (a.k.a. John Powers) continues to adapt and dramatize significant historical events including The 9/11 Commission Report and other unique events in history. These include The Examination of Mrs. Anne Hutchinson at the Court at Newton, The Army-McCarthy Hearings, The Watergate Tapes, The Anita Hill-Clarence Thomas Hearings, Trial of Lenny Bruce, Court-Martial of William Calley, McMartin Preschool Trial, and Trial of O.J. Simpson.  He wrote and directed the series 1968 in which he dramatized four significant events from that year in the works entitled Memphis, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Mexico City.  He also wrote the critics’ choice production of @Heart directed by Paul Linke.

produced by: Santa Monica Playhouse and PowerPlayz Productions

Santa Monica Playhouse, Artistic Directors Evelyn Rudie and Chris DeCarlo, is no stranger to anti-war themed plays having been the home to productions of Garcia Lorca’s Yerma, Diane Samuel’s Kindertransport, West of Broadway’s production of Judgment at Nuremberg,  the original Rudie-DeCarlo Can’teen: Letters to the Front an exploration of war and other unnatural disasters, John DiFusco’s Tracers, and the powerfully dramatic answers to unmailed letters, a collaborative theatre odyssey by Peter Manning Robinson, Bill Gough, Stephen Rothman, Rudie, and DeCarlo based on his personal experiences in Vietnam.

PowerPlayz is an entertainment entity that creates and produces original and adapted works for stage and screen.

featuring (in alphabetical order):

Jeison Azali (Caution to the Wind; Fire Line; Rogue Hunters)

Caroline Do (The Groundlings; The Beverly Hills Playhouse)

Serena Dolinsky (Love in Bloom; Audition: The Musical; Ionesco’s The Bald Soprano)

Mark Jacobson (Gentlemanly - The Improv Space; The Anchor; Flat!)

Stephen Juhl (Angels in America; Lost in Yonkers; Not Your Mama’s Broadway)

Dave Kirkpatrick (The Eccentricities of a Nightingale; All My Sons; Counter Man)

Amanda Martindale (Red Gold; Investigative Discovery Channel’s Hostage: Do or Die; NBC’s Nashville Star)

Brian Sounalath (The Young and the Restless; Werner Herzog’s My Son My Son, What Have Ye Done)

stage manager: Robert Adams

costumes designed by: Diana Mann

$19.50

$17 (students, teachers, seniors, members of the military)

$15 (groups of 8 or more)