I was one of the first political consultants in America to focus on “opposition research” as a specialty and ran one of the first “oppo” firms in the late 1980s and early 1990s. My current firm has a broader focus, serving clients in Washington and California with content and strategic advice. But I’ve often wondered: could my background as a researcher and strategist be leveraged to create stories for the theater?
Fast forward to spring 2015: Sacramento’s B Street Theatre recently staged an invitation-only reading of my play, “CHESSMAN,” before a packed house. The play focuses on the final months in the life of Caryl Chessman, known as the “Red Light Bandit,” who was convicted in 1948 and sentenced to death for abducting two women in Los Angeles and sexually assaulting them.
From cell 2455 on Death Row in San Quentin, California, Chessman launched a 12-year campaign to save his life, a crusade that attracted worldwide attention. He wrote four books behind bars, all of which were best-sellers, and translated into multiple languages. Columbia Pictures turned one of his books into a movie. Ultimately, Chessman and his legal team (paid for by his earnings from these books) were able to stay his execution eight times.
Chessman was without a doubt the most famous Death Row prisoner in the world when his lawyers petitioned Gov. Edmund G. “Pat” Brown for a clemency hearing in October 1959.
The play follows Chessman, Governor Brown and the entire Brown family (Pat’s wife Bernice, daughter Kathleen, and son Jerry – California’s current governor) over the final six months of Chessman’s battle.
I never set out to be a playwright. But three decades of campaign research training made this play possible. It started with the task of assembling the documents.
Chessman’s personal archives were left to his lawyer in 1960, and she eventually turned them over to the California State Library. After more than a decade of work by archivists and librarians, the files were made public within the last two years. I mined these materials last summer and supplemented them with by Brown family oral histories at U.C. Berkeley’s Bancroft Library, news accounts, a key Senate committee hearing transcript, and every book about the episode – including a memoir by Pat Brown himself.
The second task was to give structure to the story.
A campaign researcher must take a pile of material and make sense of it by constructing interesting and credible narratives that are inspired by the source material. That’s how campaign research feeds into candidate speeches, campaign announcements, debates or high-impact commercials.
With respect to the play “CHESSMAN,” the main narrative is clear – the final months of his 12-year fight to avoid the gas chamber – but every character on the stage must be there for a reason, on a journey the audience wants to follow.
Over the years as a campaign researcher, I was called upon to understand a politician at a very deep level. I often prepared the stand-in during debate preparation sessions for my candidates. I even went so far as to be a stand-in, one time acting as then-Sen. Claiborne Pell of Rhode Island, who was then 43 years my senior. This experience helped me bring each of the characters of “CHESSMAN” to life, especially Pat Brown, who held Chessman’s fate in his hands.
The best campaign consultants have a keen sense of drama. A boring race can’t capture voters’ attention. I’m hopeful “CHESSMAN” provides a riveting account of one of the most dramatic events in California history. But the audience, like the voter, has the final word.
Joe Rodota is CEO and founder of the content and strategy firm Forward Observer. For updates about his theatrical work, check www.ChessmanPlay.com.