The George Bush Presidential Library Foundation will host Empires Fall, a play by Robert Lawson with Marlin Fitzwater that focuses on the relationship between President George Bush and General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev after the fall of the Berlin Wall and before the dissolution of the Soviet Union. A staged reading of Empires Fall, performed by the Texas A&M University Department of Performance Studies, will begin at 6 p.m. Friday, March 1 at the Annenberg Presidential Conference Center at the George Bush Presidential Library Center.

Robert Lawson is a writer, director, composer, screenwriter and visual artist. Recent work includes: co-author (with director Jonathan Glatzer), co-producer and 2nd Unit Director for Safety Glass; co-author (with Glatzer) of Tyler's Gap, a television project produced by Touchstone/ABC and Fox Television, Executive Producer; a commission by NGN Productions for the screenplay Dancing in the Dark; author of Hamlet: 7 rooms, produced by the Emergence Theater Co. in LA. His performance texts have been published in American Writing, Poems & Plays and The Northern New England Review, and his plays are published by Playscripts, Inc.

Marlin Fitzwater is best known as the White House press secretary for President George Bush and President Ronald Reagan. He was honored as a recipient of the Presidential Citizens Medal in 1992 after many years of service to the United States government. Fitzwater teamed up with Professor Robert Lawson to write Empires Fall which is based on the recollections of Marlin's time serving as President Bush's former press secretary.

The George Bush Presidential Library Foundation was established in 1991 as a nonprofit educational foundation to design, build and support the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum at Texas A&M University. In addition to sponsoring its own programs and activities, the George Bush Foundation provides logistical and financial support to the Bush Library and Museum, as well as to The George Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University. Through its outreach, the George Bush Foundation is helping make the George Bush Presidential Library Center a leading institution in cultural, policy and academic discussions.