Minutes after midnight on Good Friday, March 24, 1989, the Exxon Valdez oil tanker passed through the Valdez Narrows into Prince William Sound, bound for Long Beach, California.

The ship never made it out of the sound. After navigating around ice floes, the 1,000-foot-long vessel ran aground on Bligh Reef, ripping open its hull and spilling 11 million gallons of Alaska crude into the waters.

Dick Reichman was an aspiring playwright who had taken a job as a bartender in Valdez after a brief, sickening encounter with the toxic fumes while working at the pipeline terminal.

At a favored watering hole, Dick served drinks to many of the principal players in the unfolding debacle. What he succeeded in capturing was not only a pivotal moment in history but also the zeitgeist of the era — the culture of the town, the bar’s clientele (often lubricated by the very spirits he poured), and the deep impact the disaster had on the people along Alaska’s 600-mile coastline.

Join KBBI, Pier One Theater and The Porcupine for this live performance of the radio play The Big One: A Chronicle of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill, written by Dick Reichman and directed by Brian Duffy.