About the Play:

The Columnist is a full-length drama by David Auburn. Joseph Alsop, a real-life, much-feared, and powerful Washington columnist, becomes embroiled in a highly charged political drama that is also deeply personal. Based on the real-life story of journalist Joe Alsop, The Columnist is a about the press and power, sex and betrayal from the Pulitzer and Tony award-winning author of Proof.

The Columnist is a deft blend of history and storytelling. At the height of the Cold War, newspaper columnists are kings – and Joseph Alsop wears the biggest crown. The veteran journalist thrived in his role as the right-hand man for Washington's political elite, influencing both policy and public opinion with his inflammatory columns. Joe sits at the nexus of Washington life: beloved, feared, and courted in equal measure by the very people whose careers and futures he determines. But as the 1960s dawn and America undergoes dizzying change, the intense political dramas Joe has been throwing his weight around in – supporting the war in Vietnam and Soviet containment, criticizing student activism – began to chip away his authority, both on the page and in his own life. Based on the real-life story of Joe Alsop, whose columns at the time of his 1974 retirement were running three times a week in more than three hundred newspapers, A hilarious, searing portrait of the glorious rewards and devastating losses that accompany ego, ambition, and the pursuit of power, David Auburn pens a vital letter from a radically changing decade to our own turbulent era.

The Columnist premiered in 2012 at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre on Broadway in a production by the Manhattan Theatre Club. The play has been performed in regional, college, and community theatre productions.

Cast: 2 female, 5 male

What people say:

"David Auburn's The Columnist is about how one's false sense of order can be reshaped by the times, how the personal is political, and how both involve smoke and mirrors…A rich experience." — The New Yorker

"Intensely satisfying." — Bloomberg News

"David Auburn brings intelligence and insight to The Columnist." — NY1.com

"Gripping and moving." — Variety

About the Playwright:

David Auburn is an American playwright whose play Proof won the Tony Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and was also adapted into a film. He has received the Helen Merrill Playwriting Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship. His work has been published in Harper's Magazine and The New England Review. He was a member of the Juilliard playwrighting program.