2011 Works in Progress

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Richard Nixon

Nixon and the Pentagon Papers

On June 13, 1971, the day after his daughter’s wedding, President Richard Nixon learned of the New York Times’ publication of the first installment of the Vietnam War study that came to be known as the Pentagon Papers.

 

Nixon’s initial response was to dismiss the massive revelation since it did not focus on his administration.  He was more concerned with encouraging one or more of the three television networks to replay Tricia Nixon’s wedding footage.

 

As the day, and then week, wore on, as revealed in taped telephone conversations with his chief advisors, Nixon became intent on identifying and punishing the persons responsible for the leak of classified documents.

 

Nixon directed White House domestic counselor John Ehrlichman to form and supervise an antileak unit, “the Plumbers.”   These operatives sent a memo to the President’s counselor detailing plans to burglarize the office of Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist in the pursuit of information that would damage the prime leaker’s credibility.  On September 3, 1971, the operatives broke in.

The following year, the Plumbers were arrested in a separate burglary of the Democratic National Committee in the Watergate building.  This action led to Nixon eventually resigning the Presidency on August 8, 1974.  Having become committed to punishing the leaker of the Pentagon Papers, Nixon brought about his own downfall.

 

In WEDDED, selections of Nixon’s taped conversations, from June 13 to June 16, the period in which the President moved from minimizing the Pentagon Papers in the glow of his daughter’s nuptial to waging war against anyone associated with its revelation, will be dramatized.

Adapted from taped phones conversations

Works in Progress is a program of the Cultural Services Division of the Torrance Community Services Department.   This series is presented in association with El Camino College Community Education, Torrance CitiCABLE 3, Torrance Community Television, Torrance Historical Society & Museum, Torrance Public Library,  University Art Gallery CSU Dominguez Hills, Vietnam Veterans of America - Chapter 53

Cast

Ed Baccari  (John Ehrlichman)  Recently played the harrowing role of "Adolf Eichmann" in The Met Theatre's production of Heydrich, Hitler, Holocaust (Flint Esquerra , Dir.)  Nominated for "Best Actor" for his work as "Fred C. Dobbs" in a stage adaptation of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.  This production was directed by Joseph Culliton.  New York credits include John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men; Athol Fugard's Hello and Goodbye; Edward Albee's The Zoo Story.  Also played 11 different characters in the nutty comedy, A Tuna Christmas at the Greenbriar Valley Theatre in West Virginia.  Film credits include, Chicane with the Zanuck Company; Arresting Gena (Good Machine Prods.); Late Watch (Tribeca Film Festival); Island, Alicia (Cannes Film Fesival).  Recently played Vincent Van Gogh on Medium.  

Eric Naroyan (Alexander Haig) was born and raised in Boston, MA and graduated from Northeastern University.  Shortly after graduating college he drove out to California to start a successful career in marketing.  After twenty years of building brands and companies, he left the corporate marketing world to take his creativity in a different direction.  His acting career began with a chance encounter from a friend that said he’d be “perfect” as an executive on a short film he was producing.  Never wanting to do anything less than perfect, Eric immersed himself in the art and technique of film and theater acting.  He is currently working with acting coach Margie Haber in Los Angeles.  His recent credits include work on network daytime drama as well as performing improv on stage at Upright Citizens Brigade.

Joseph Culliton (Richard Nixon) returns to 37^th President having understudied the title role in the New York production of Russell Lee’s two-character play Nixon’s Nixon.  In a theatrical hat-trick, Joseph subsequently switched roles and played “Henry Kissinger” in the same play at Portland Stage Company.  On Broadway, he acted in Gore Vidal’s The Best Man, in South Pacific, and in Broadway, which was directed by the legendary George Abbott.  Off-Broadway, he was in the New York Shakespeare Festival's Julius Caesar starring Al Pacino and Martin Sheen and in King John at the Delacorte Theatre in Central Park.  He’s also played “Abraham Lincoln” in Abe Lincoln in Illinois at Indiana Repertory Theatre, “George Washington” in a Conan O’Brien sketch and “Donald Rumsfeld” in the web series Fun with War Crimes.  He has acted recurrently on General Hospital and All My Children, and will be seen as the “Mayor of San Diego” in the new ABC prime time series Mr. Sunshine.      josephculliton.name

Gregory Zide (Henry Kissinger) is a Midwesterner who grew up in Chicago and Wisconsin and now lives in LA.  He works both in TV production and as an Actor/Improviser/Voice-over Artist.  He trained at Occidental College in LA, The New Actors Workshop in NYC (with George Morrison, Mike Nichols and the late Paul Sills), and more recently with the fine folks at Steppenwolf West.  Currently he is also playing Jack in ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ with the Chrysalis Stage in Whittier.  He is privileged to work on this important and historic project with John and the Torrance Museum & Cultural Center.  For More information: www.gregoryzide.com

Robert Fleet (William Rogers) grew up in Texas, Missouri, and New York.  Graduating from Syracuse University, he has lived, studied, or worked in Poland, Holland, England, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Mexico, and Canada, now residing in Los Angeles.  Robert’s professional career began in New York City with La Mama E.T.C.  An invitation to Poland led to meeting his wife/collaborator Alina Azpak.  Back in New York, he wrote and directed anything he could: plays; musicals; Yiddish theater; original works; and independent cinema.  He relocated to California where he has taught theater, produced and directed in various media, and has acted in selected roles, notably “Ernst” in Cabaret, in Have You Heard at the Theatre of Nations Festival ‘97, and the lead in the recent feature Player.  Robert has written six produced features, two published novels, and was guest artist at CalArts for production of his play Don Juan - A Tragicomedy of Errors.

Cris Capen (John N. Mitchell) is a veteran actor with more than forty years’ experience in film, television, stage, and radio.  The first recipient of the Pendleton Scholarship Award at USC School of Theatre, his numerous credits include Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Edinburgh Fringe Festival), Ah, Wilderness! (Jeannette Cochran Theatre, London), The Diary of Anne Frank (Stop Gap Theatre), Of Mice and Men (John Steinbeck Festival) and Time of the Cuckoo (Ahmanson Theatre).  He has been especially privileged to work with Ray Bradbury in productions of Leviathan ’99 and Something Wicked This Way Comes.  A voiceover artist for the History Channel, IMAX, and Disney/PIXAR programs, Mr. Capen is also a history enthusiast, notably portraying Bill Clinton in the J-Powers production of The 9-11 Commission Report.  He grew up in Daggett and Redlands among a large family of educators, farmers, and artists, including his cousin, the musician Tom Waits. saylahv/criscapen.com for more

 

 

Works in Progress gratefully acknowledges the publication Inside the Pentagon Papers edited by John Prados and Margaret Pratt Porter, 2004 University Press of Kansas.  This work, from which the text of Wedded is drawn, offers collected perspectives from many of the key people involved with the publication of the Pentagon Papers at the time of the 30th anniversary.

Production photos by Andy Sheng