Leonard Lopate at Large: John Dear and Jack Cummings III

JACK CUMMINGS III ON THE TRIAL OF THE CATONSVILLE NINE

On this edition of Leonard Lopate at Large , Daniel Berrigan’s editor, close friend and executor John Dear and director Jack Cummings III talk about staging the first New York production of “The Trial of the Catonsville Nine” in more than three decades.

Daniel Berrigan’s play “The Trial of the Catonsville Nine,” based on the court transcripts from the trial of nine Vietnam War peace activists, tells the story of a break-in at the Maryland draft office on May 17, 1968, which resulted in the incineration of 378 draft cards with homemade napalm.

Brothers Philip Berrigan and Daniel Berrigan—both Catholic priests—led the movement and are joined by seven church parishioners in their protest for peace. In sharp contrast to the wave of young, liberal extremists that were making headlines at the time, The Nine offered a fresh face to the anti-war movement and inspired a new generation of activists in the process.