NH #743: SPECIAL! Libbe’s play ATOMIC BILL AND THE PAYMENT DUE a Smash at the Wilmington College Peace Resource Center

Ollie Basta, playing the lead role of podcaster/activist Jessie Keever, addresses a rally at the United Nations at the climax of ATOMIC BILL AND THE PAYMENT DUE

This Week’s Two-Part Very Special Feature – The Peace Resource Center at Wilmington College and the Play, ATOMIC BILL AND THE PAYMENT DUE:

• Nuclear Hotseat producer/host Libbe HaLevy‘s new play, ATOMIC BILL AND THE PAYMENT DUE, received its world premiere staged reading at the Wilmington College 400-seat Heiland Theatre on September 9, 2025. Produced by the Peace Resource Center at Wilmington College, an internationally honored archive of materials on the human effect of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the staged reading played like a full production, even on a minimal-budget, book-in-hand staged reading. Audiences cheered, yelled “BRAVO!” laughed, cried, and held the silence as the two-hour reading played out.

Ollie Basta as podcaster/activist Jessie Keever in ATOMIC BILL AND THE PAYMENT DUE.
Behind her, projection of the logo painted on the side of Bockscar,
the plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki.
(Photo credit: Randall Sarvis, Wilmington College)

(r-l) Otto Cipollini as Gen. Leslie Groves, Kevin Wall as William L. Laurence (“Atomic Bill”) and behind him, Gary Sheldon as NYTimes editor Edwin James – the moment when Groves co-opts Bill into the Manhattan Project. (Photo credit: Randall Sarvis, Wilmington College)

(below) Ecstatic author in the immediate aftermath of watching the successful staged reading of her play. (Sorry for the ginormous size, but I haven’t figure out how to resize a video):

Wilmington College Peace Resource Center: A Little-Known Treasure of an Archive on the Human Impact of the Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

• The Wilmington College Peace Resource Center (PRC) celebrates the 50th anniversary of its founding this year with a series of events and exhibits, of which ATOMIC BILL AND THE PAYMENT DUE was one.
  
  The PRC was founded in 1975 by the Quaker peace activist Barbara Reynolds (1915-1990) who worked ceaselessly toward creating a world free of nuclear weaponry and war and to helping atomic bombing survivors share their stories of the tragedy of military conflict. Currently, the PRC develops events and programming that encourages dialogue on the Wilmington College campus about how to resolve conflict from the personal to the global level. The PRC assists faculty and students in creating student-led projects, internships, and local/global collaborations so that Wilmington College and its local region can become an even greater part of a global community of peace.
  
  The PRC and its director, Tanya Maus, have long held that art in all its many forms is an important way to communicate atomic and nuclear truths.

ATOMIC BILL director Tara Lydy (l) and author Libbe HaLevy, seen at entry to the art exhibit “Memorializing the Hibakusha Experience.” (Photo Credit: Tanya Maus)

Photo wall installation of 108 close-ups of the eyes of Hibakusha and Downwinders who witnessed the atomic bombings of Trinity, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. (Photo Credit: Tanya Maus)

Display case showing 1947 New Yorker magazine that was completely given over to the original John Hersey report on Hiroshima, and Japanese magazine with similarly innocuous cover that contains the first published photos of Hiroshima survivors, 1952. (Photo credit: Libbe HaLevy)

Hibakusha Yamaguchi Senjihi shaving. Original photo by Tomotsu Shohei

Author/Nuclear Hotseat host Libbe HaLevy (l) and Peace Resource Center Director Tanya Maus (r) in front of the PRC.

Articles on ATOMIC BILL AND THE PAYMENT DUE:

• Atomic Bill and the Payment Due by award-winning veteran environmental journalist Karl Grossman in Counterpunch.
• “Atomic Bill”: The Bomb Publicist and the New Play by award-winning filmmaker, author, and nuclear gadfly Greg Mitchell
• A more personal take on the play by Karl Grossman: I’m a character in Libbe HaLevy’s new play “Atomic Bill and the Payment Due” 

TO PRODUCE READING/STAGED READING/FULL PRODUCTION OF ATOMIC BILL AND THE PAYMENT DUE, CONTACT LIBBE HaLEVY:

• Email: [email protected]
• Or use the CONTACT link on this website: https://www.nuclearhotseat.com/contact/