Political strategist Joe Rodota is staging a workshop of his new play CHESSMAN at the B Street Theatre. The play came about when B Street Theatre director Buck Busfield and Joe Rodota discussed making a play about California political history. A year later the B Street audience can see actors get the play on its feet and bring life to a fascinating episode of California history. Caryl Chessman was the most famous prisoner in the world, and then Governor Pat Brown had to decide whether or not Chessman’s death penalty would go forward. The play also features a 21-year-old Jerry Brown as a young seminary student. We’ll talk with Joe Rodota about researching and writing the play and Buck Busfield about the challenges of bringing life to a play about our current governor and his father. We’ll also speak with Ethan Rarick, whose biography of Pat Brown served as source material for Joe Rodota’s play.

LINKS:

• Gov. Edmund Pat Brown
• NYTimes: He Was Their Last Resort