Hoboken Actor to Star in Cold War Drama

It was the darkest hour of the Cold War. The U.S. and Soviet Union were eyeball to eyeball over the Cuban Missile Crisis and the world faced Armageddon. Churches were filled, supermarket shelves picked clean, fallout shelters were prepared and school children taught to “duck and cover.”

“This play focuses not on the names we know – Kennedy, Khrushchev, Castro – but on two obscure men who history may have forgotten, but who may have had more to do with saving the world than anyone knows,” said actor Jack Coggins of Hoboken. “I play the American – ABC reporter John Scali. He races against time to strike a deal with his Russian counterpart before it’s too late.”

Back Channel by Joseph Vitale, which opens April 13 at Maplewood’s Burgdorff Center for the Performing Arts, recounts the meetings between Scali and KGB spy Alexander Feklisov in the old Occidental Grill on Pennsylvania Avenue during that fateful week in October 1962 when Kennedy announced he was blockading Cuba. The two men had known each other for a few months, but now their governments had sent them on a clandestine mission. Out of the glare of the media, Scali and Feklisov tried to work out a deal. But was each man who he said he was? With the fate of the world at stake and the clock ticking, could they learn to trust one another? And, most importantly, would they have enough time?

The play, a production of the Union-based Theater Project, and will run Friday, April 13 at 8 p.m.; Saturday, April 14 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, April 15 at 2 p.m. at the Burgdorff Center, 10 Durand Road, Maplewood.

“It’s easy to forget that, with so many nations still possessing nuclear weapons, we’re still just one crisis or miscalculation away from catastrophe,” said Coggins, who won the Best Actor Award at the Theater Project’s Think Fast one-act festival in February. His other roles have included Andrey Botvinnik in Lee Blessing's A Walk in the Woods and Marc in Yasmena Reza's Art, both for Hoboken’s Theater Collective.

In addition to Coggins, the 90-minute drama features Alexander Carney as Feklisov and Eli Ganias as George, the Occidental Grill waiter who serves the American and the Russian during their lunches and provides running commentary on what is happening in the news.

"Despite the political aspects, the essence of Back Channel is human,” said Coggins. “Two men from opposite sides have to learn to trust one another. They can’t work out anything until they do that.”

Each performance of Back Channel will be followed by an audience discussion featuring the playwright, director, cast and a scholar or writer who will speak about U.S.-Soviet relations, the Cold War, nuclear policy, and how today’s geopolitical situation compares with the period of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Dr. David Foglesong of Rutgers University will be the guest panelist following the April 14 performance. Madelyn Hoffman, executive director of NJ Peace Action, will be the facilitator for the discussions.

Tickets are available at the box office, by calling (908) 809-8865, or by visiting www.thetheaterproject.org.