Westward bound and packing some history

As I sit in an airport in Ottawa waiting to board a flight to Seattle, inside my bag is arguably one of the most valuable and unique archival items I’ve ever had the good fortune to discover through research – EVER! Indiana Jones himself could swipe the item itself from my bag and yell “It belongs in a museum!” and he wouldn’t be exaggerating.

I’m headed to Seattle to take part in a three-day script workshop of DAISY at ACT Theatre. The workshop will be led by ACT’s artistic-director-in-waiting John Langs (original director of RE:UNION), and it’s the last step before we can confirm that there will be an international co-production of DAISY between ACT Theatre and Horseshoes & Hand Grenades Theatre in Summer 2016.

DAISY is the true story of the creation of the most infamous political television commercial ever produced, the “Daisy Girl” ad. It was the centerpiece of the 1964 U.S. Presidential election. The ad literally changed – some say for the worse – the way that political ads are created and even experienced. The world of political communications was never again the same after the creation of this spot.

DAISY has been the most thoroughly researched projects I’ve ever created. The access I’ve had has been unprecedented. Today, I’m traveling with a reel of tape created by advertising genius Tony Schwartz that is literally labeled “Johnson Bomb Mix – Three Versions”. It’s an original tape containing three separate versions of what is widely known as one of the most famous soundtracks in modern media history.

And I’ve never played it. I’m hoping to do so in Seattle for the first time.

Stay tuned.