CREATIVE TEAM
Fun fact: rehearsals have been largely on Zoom, while our creative team is coming to DC from NY, NJ, MD, and VA!
Jake Lipman* (Martha Mitchell, Playwright, Director, Producer)
Olivia M. Ragan (Assistant Director and Stage Manager)
Camille Kashaka (Lighting Design)
Loralee Tyson* (Various, including Jill Wine-Volner, Pat Nixon, and Carl Bernstein)
Jaya Tripathi (Helen Thomas)
Santa Claire* (understudy Helen and various female roles and the voice of the operator)
Matt Gibson* (Various, including James McCord, Richard Nixon, and Bob Woodward)
William Douglas Turner (John Mitchell)
Peter Kendall (understudy for all male roles and the voice of G. Gordon Liddy)
*Appears courtesy of Actors Equity Association
WHO WAS MARTHA MITCHELL?
Shut Up Martha is about a real person, Martha Mitchell, who was married to John Mitchell, attorney general under President Richard M. Nixon.
When the Mitchells came to Washington, DC in 1969, Martha was seen as a great spokesperson for the Republican party -- funny, friendly, and readily willing to engage with journalists and politicians alike, sharing her honest take on the world.
She was also known for fixing herself a cocktail, listening in on her husband's phone calls, and then phoning her journalist friends to dish on what she'd gleaned.
All of these factors came to a head when Martha was campaigning for Nixon's re-election campaign in June 1972 -- news broke that 5 men burgled the Democrat's offices inside the Watergate complex. Martha saw the news and called journalist Helen Thomas, revealing that she was being held against her will in a hotel room in California and that she and her husband knew one of the burglars, James McCord.
This phone call set off a series of events that would change how Americans viewed their government and the people entrusted to run it. It also had dire consequences for the people involved in the Watergate scandal -- including Nixon resigning from office in disgrace and many, including John Mitchell, went to prison for their actions.
There's lots of great reporting, news footage, books, podcasts, TV and movies about Watergate in the zeitgeist, yet Martha Mitchell's involvement is not well-known today. I first learned about Martha from the podcast "Slow Burn" in 2017, and in the summer of 2022 when Netflix premiered a new documentary called "The Martha Mitchell Effect."
I hope seeing Shut Up Martha will excite people to learn more about Martha Mitchell and how she changed American politics. There's a lot to be learned from Martha -- being curious about the world around us, holding people accountable, and speaking out. I hope you will come see our show in DC and let me know what you think!
When the Mitchells came to Washington, DC in 1969, Martha was seen as a great spokesperson for the Republican party -- funny, friendly, and readily willing to engage with journalists and politicians alike, sharing her honest take on the world.
She was also known for fixing herself a cocktail, listening in on her husband's phone calls, and then phoning her journalist friends to dish on what she'd gleaned.
All of these factors came to a head when Martha was campaigning for Nixon's re-election campaign in June 1972 -- news broke that 5 men burgled the Democrat's offices inside the Watergate complex. Martha saw the news and called journalist Helen Thomas, revealing that she was being held against her will in a hotel room in California and that she and her husband knew one of the burglars, James McCord.
This phone call set off a series of events that would change how Americans viewed their government and the people entrusted to run it. It also had dire consequences for the people involved in the Watergate scandal -- including Nixon resigning from office in disgrace and many, including John Mitchell, went to prison for their actions.
There's lots of great reporting, news footage, books, podcasts, TV and movies about Watergate in the zeitgeist, yet Martha Mitchell's involvement is not well-known today. I first learned about Martha from the podcast "Slow Burn" in 2017, and in the summer of 2022 when Netflix premiered a new documentary called "The Martha Mitchell Effect."
I hope seeing Shut Up Martha will excite people to learn more about Martha Mitchell and how she changed American politics. There's a lot to be learned from Martha -- being curious about the world around us, holding people accountable, and speaking out. I hope you will come see our show in DC and let me know what you think!
-- Jake Lipman, playwright, director, producer of Shut Up Martha
