Journalism and Trauma on Broadway
Covering conflict is a physical, psychological and ethical struggle. So is coming home. Both are at the heart of "Time Stands Still," a new play from Pulitzer Prize-winner Donald Margulies about a photojournalist played by Laura Linney and her reporter partner, confronting a conventional life after being injured in Iraq.
The play is now on Broadway, at the Manhattan Theater Club, through March 14 — a production the New York Times calls "flawless." It's been praised for the nuanced performances of its all-star cast, and also for its "trenchant debates about the moral ambiguities of journalists’ role in covering atrocities."
To get at those moral ambiguities and psychological realities, the production has enlisted Bruce Shapiro, executive director of the Dart Center, as a technical advisor, along with Jack Saul, a psychologist and professor at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. As the Wall Street Journal reported, on a recent day they helped lead actor Brian d'Arcy James with practical questions:
He wanted to know whether a high-ranking editor would call in the middle of the night with news that his character's girlfriend was injured, or whether the call would come from someone lower in the newsroom pecking order. And he wondered exactly how journalists extract themselves from war assignments if they can't take the stress anymore.
This dialogue between the play and the reality of war reporting won't, of course, be held exclusively behind the scenes. In fact, the Dart Center will be bringing together Margulies with award-winning journalists — and married couple — Emma Daly and Santiago Lyon at Columbia University for a free, public forum on the evening of Monday, February 8: "The Secret Life of War Reporters: The real-life dramas behind 'Time Stands Still.'" There, they will discuss how war reporters reckon with news ethics, covering violence and the effect of combat on their domestic lives.
If you're interested in attending the event, remember to RSVP to Kate Black. If you're interested in seeing the play, buy tickets online while they're still available.