NEWS AND OPINION:
“Verbatim drama” would seem ideal for the nation’s capital, home to political theater and media hysteria. Verbatim drama, however, is formally categorized as documentary theater — actors read from real court testimonies, transcripts and other actual documents, yielding dramatic effects that can trump the work of a playwright. Which brings us to “Ferguson the Play,” a verbatim drama drawn from Grand Jury testimony surrounding the shooting death of Michael Brown. It debuts Wednesday with a public reading in a theater not far from Capitol Hill, and will “show the truth the mainstream media is trying to hide,” according to producer Phelim McAleer, who says he only seeks to counter false narratives about the actual sequence of events. The parts of lawyers will be played by local attorneys.
“It’s important people hear and see the truth and cut through the myths, half truths and lies that have sprung up around Ferguson,” Mr. McAleer tells Inside the Beltway. “When you hear the description of the last minutes of Michael Brown’s life, it is gut wrenching. And when you see that ’hands up don’t shoot’ is a lie, it brings a cascade of emotions.”
Mr. McAleer is a conservative filmmaker and investigative journalist who has produced multiple documentaries, including “Frack Nation,” which counters claims that the drilling process is an environmental harm; and “Not Evil Just Wrong,” a film which challenged the climate alarmism of “An Inconvenient Truth,” produced by Al Gore. “Ferguson, the Play,” meanwhile, will be formally staged in Los Angeles at month’s end; Mr. McAleer has already raised closed to $50,000 to bolster the project. After witnessing casting auditions, he still recalls powerful effect of gifted actors recreated the circumstances — verbatim.
“The play uses only testimony that the Grand Jury heard. It is going to expose the truth, a dramatic experience that will change hearts and minds,” he vows.
The play, incidentally, is at the Atlas Performing Arts Center in Washington, the performance is at 7 p.m.
FOR THE LEXICON
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“Hillvetica”
— A new type font, complete with all 26 alphabet letters, created by Pennsylvania-based graphic designer Rick Wolff based on the red and blue “H” logo used by Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. Yes, the one with the right-pointing arrow that has attracted critics and fans alike.
“Everybody run for president,” tweeted Mr. Wolff in the aftermath. He has since created a fundraising effort through GoFundMe to make the Hillvetica font available to one and all through a free app.
Logomania continues elsewhere. Ad Age conducted a public poll about the Clinton logo to reveal that 32 percent of the respondents dislike it, 31 percent felt they had “just wasted two minutes of my life on this and now I sort of hate the entire electoral process,” 27 percent like the logo, 9 percent say it’s the “worst logo to happen to America ever” and 1 percent proclaimed it the “best campaign logo ever.”
A RUBIO AND LEE SHOWCASE
Sen. Marco Rubio is still tending his lawmaker duties despite his new presidential prowess. With fellow Republican Sen. Mike Lee, he’ll observe the nation’s dreaded tax day at the Heritage Foundation on Wednesday at high noon. The pair recently released their own tax reform plan which would reduce marginal tax rates for businesses, permit full and immediate deduction of capital expenses, eliminate the double taxation of corporate income, make interest neither taxable nor deductible and move to a territorial tax system.
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All that said, analysts suggest Mssrs. Rubio and Lee’s work could be a template for Congress, should it approach business tax reform. The individual side of the plan, incidentally, would repeal most itemized deductions, moderately reduce tax rates for many taxpayers and substantially expand the child tax credit. Jim Demint is moderator; yes, C-SPAN will broadcast the event live at 12 p.m., and it can also be viewed online at Heritage.org.
JUST WONDERING
“What will hurt America more? Good relations with Iraq — or Cuba?” asks talk radio host Michael Savage. Others have thoughts.
“Like December’s announcement of its opening to Cuba, when even the State Department was kept in the dark, the White House is taking another big step closer to the Castro regime without consulting Congress. The State Department’s review process looks rushed,” points out Rep. Ed Royce, chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. “The Committee will be interested to hear from the White House how Cuba’s support for radical groups in the region, safe harbor for American fugitives — including one of the FBI’s ’Most Wanted Terrorists’ — and international weapons trafficking justifies today’s move.”
CHRISTIFIED
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has embarked upon a “Tell It Like It Is” tour of New Hampshire, hosting town hall meetings in a Lions Club in Londonderry and at a pub in Exeter. While Mr. Christie spent five full minutes talking about Social Security to an older female fan on Tuesday, he also got in some serious policy talk before an academic audience, emphasizing entitlement reform. The deficit, he told his audience, “will steal our children’s future and bankrupt our nation. Meanwhile, our leaders in Washington are not telling people the truth.”
“If Gov. Christie is really out of 2016 contention, no one told 3 dozen reporters who mobbed him today in New Hampshire,” tweeted Matt Katz, who covers the Christie trail for public radio in New York and New Jersey.
But alas, the Garden State citizenry is looking askance at their governor. A new Rutgers University poll released Tuesday found that 69 percent say Mr. Christie would not make “a good president” while 58 percent say he doesn’t seem “presidential.” Forty four percent say the his chances or reaching the White House have worsened, 46 percent say they are about the same, but only 6 percent say they have improved.
ONE FOR ABE
“President Abraham Lincoln believed that we are, at heart, one nation and one people. At a time when America was torn apart and our very future was in doubt, he knew our country was more than a collection of States, and that we shared a bond that would not break. One hundred fifty years after President Lincoln’s death, Americans join together across the Union he saved to honor his memory and celebrate the freedom for which he gave his last full measure of devotion.”
“As we reflect on the Great Emancipator, we are reminded that we will be remembered for what we choose to make of the moment we are given. President Lincoln has passed on a tremendous legacy to us, and we too are called to do great things. His example gives us confidence that whatever trials await us, this nation and the freedom we cherish can, and will, prevail.”
— From President Obama’s proclamation recognizing Wednesday as an official day of remembrance for Lincoln; all American flags at government sites will be flown at half staff.
POLL DU JOUR
• 59 percent of Americans say the federal government should not enforce federal marijuana laws in states that allow marijuana use; 54 percent of Republicans, 64 percent of independents and 58 percent of Democrats agree.
• 53 percent overall favor legalizing marijuana; 39 percent of Republicans, 58 percent of independents and 59 percent of Democrats agree.
• 75 percent of liberal Democrats and 32 percent of conservative Republicans also agree.
• 20 percent of Americans felt marijuana should be legal in 1975.
• 49 percent overall have tried marijuana; 45 percent of Republicans, 48 percent of independents and 52 percent of Democrats agree.
• 44 percent overall say marijuana should remain illegal; 59 percent of Republicans, 38 percent of independents and 38 percent of Democrats agree.
Source: A Pew Research Center poll of 1,500 U.S. adults conducted March 25-29 and released Tuesday.
• Cat calls, neighs, nays to jharper@washingtontimes.com.
• Jennifer Harper can be reached at jharper@washingtontimes.com.
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