Posted on 10/04/2007 10:52:42 AM PDT by Doctor Raoul
What could distinguish these Temple University theater students - humping from class to class, hanging out, diving into bull sessions - from their doubles hunkered down in Baghdad, staring down a blasted Fallujah street, gulping a Coke on a shadeless day?
The answer could be as brief as a gunshot, as long as a memoir, as cryptic as fate. But beginning with tonight's opening, at 7:30 at Temple's Randall Theater, these 11 students will crawl inside the skins of actual Iraq war veterans in a difficult effort to convey on stage the real deal of death and life in the desert.
They will bring the voices of war home.
The play, In Conflict, is a world premiere adapted from former Daily News reporter Yvonne Latty's book of the same name, a collection of interviews with Iraq veterans. Directed by Temple's resident artistic director, Douglas C. Wager, In Conflict runs through Oct. 13.
"When the war started happening, I was living in Virginia, which is a very military area, and I heard about it constantly. And after a while you hear about it less, and then it's just this thing that's still going on," recalled senior Ethan Haymes, 22. "But one thing that I really admired about both of my characters is that they were both men of action - Army Capt. Jon Soltz and Patrick Murphy, who's now a congressman. Doing this is different from bringing a normal script to the stage because we have a duty to these people, and I feel that it's part of our calling as college students to say what they say, to have their story heard. There are certain things, and you're reminded about this more and more as you try and think about the war and solutions; there are certain things we just don't know because we haven't been there."
None of the students has been a soldier. None has been on a battlefield. But they have entered the war and these voices of the war by literally listening to the raw audio tapes from Latty's interviews. They absorb the disjointed cadences of adrenaline-laced action, the broken sentences of rationalization, the terseness and lassitude of disappointment.
One of the characters portrayed by Damon Williams, 20, is Herold Noel, a vet who came home to not a little hostility and mammoth indifference. He quickly found himself homeless and fending off devouring memories.
"He was on patrol," Williams said, trying to wrap his own mind around the story. "There was a tank that was flipped over. It was in a ditch. . . . A crowd of onlookers was surrounding them. They were just onlookers, but it's a civilian war, you don't know if one of them has a bomb or anything. Everybody's telling them to back up. Back up. Back up. Back up. And this one lady started walking toward them very slow. So they don't know. And she was holding something in her arms. They don't know what it is. Could be a bomb. Could be anything. Tell her to back up. She's not listening.
"So Herold ends up firing and shoots the lady in the head. And what was in her hands falls, rolls, and ends up being a baby. And while the baby is on the ground, Herold is stuck. He's just shot this woman who was holding a baby thinking that it was something that it wasn't. Goes to pick up the baby. Another convoy rolls over the baby. Multiple times. And that's something that he describes, he still has nightmares about it every day."
What do you do with such an experience? Where can you put it?
"People constantly say the soldiers are doing horrible things," said Stan Sinyakov, 21, a senior. "You go to war, it's a different life and it's a different lifestyle. There's a very fine big red line between society, civilians, the laws and the rules you abide by, and what happens in war. You will kill when you go to war. You will shoot someone. You are trained for these things. . . . Then you come back to society and there's no room for you. You're too different now. They come back and it's like, 'Well we don't kill here. We don't blow things up. Are you crazy?' It's like, 'I'm sorry. I was trained that way. My mind works like that.' And that's why nobody wants to talk about that stuff, who they killed."
For the students, entering the cloaked worlds of these veterans has worked a transformation on their own lives. They pay attention to the news. They read the newspapers. They have become linked to the larger political universe.
"That was something I struggled with a lot at the beginning of this process," said junior Amanda Holston, 20, who portrays Kelly Dougherty, leader of the Philadelphia-based Iraq Veterans Against the War. "I had a lot, and still hold a lot, of guilt that I didn't look into pursuing all of the facts about the war and really educating myself about what's happening over there and really caring about it. Until now. Until I had to do it. I'm sure all of us feel that. And now that I recognize it, I'm trying to make up for lost time. I'm really trying to know everything I can and keep up to date. It's changed my viewpoint and life in that way. Because I'm certainly not going to be apathetic about the war after this. You get a glimpse of what it actually is and you can't stay the same."
Senior Sam Paul, 21, said the critical part of the performance lay in letting the voices of each individual soldier breathe, no matter what the content of the story told.
"You draw your own conclusions," he said. "We're not saying the war's bad. We're not saying the war's good."
Sean Lally, 20, a junior, broke in: "It's about the truth."
Contact culture writer Stephan Salisbury at 215-854-5594 or ssalisbury@phillynews.com.
.Let’s see -—
That’s Congressman Patrick Murphy, Kelly Dougherty, John Soltz and Herold Noel.
I wish I knew how to look up these people’s records.
University students absolutely drool over these tales of horror. They love them. It’s such a big thrill to pretend to be a soldier in combat.
I hope they are all phony.
Yeah, I just heard Rush say that Jesse Macbeth’s birth name was Jesse al-Zaid.
America is in real trouble.
Soldier Censored at Kos Convention
PJM LA
August 5, 2007 5:52 PM
Fireworks broke out at a Friday morning session of the second day of the YearlyKos Convention titled “The Military and Progressives: Are They Really That Different?”. An as yet unidentified uniformed soldier attempted to address the panel on the subject of the “Surge”. He was unceremoniously escorted out by panelist Jon Soltz.
The soldier’s words were either suppressed or inaudible on the convention’s own video. They can be heard here on this exclusive PJM Video by Andrew Marcus, who also interviews the soldier and tries to interview Soltz.
http://pajamasmedia.com/2007/08/soldier_censored_at_kos_conven.php
What a disgusting thing to do.
Why aren’t parents and ex-military families marching outside of this moonbat school demanding this crap be stopped, and the moonbat instructor fired for this atrocious defamation of our military?
This Democrat sponsored BS has to stop.
I heard the same thing and did a double take. An internet search nets a bunch of references to that fact.
I can dream...
Your student loan support program has been suspended. Full payment of outstanding balance is due 1/1/08.
Thanks you for your prompt attention to this matter.
I saw the video a while back. Jon Soltz is a real prick. And he didn’t serve but 4 months in Iraq and was not in any combat while there. He was a dek jockey.
What he did to that soldier at the convention was disgusting.
how can this crap be legal! GRRRRRRRRR
Was that Wesley Clark smirking next to him on the panel?
Yes.
recalled senior Ethan Haymes, 22. “But one thing that I really admired about both of my characters is that they were both men of action - Army Capt. Jon Soltz and Patrick Murphy, who’s now a congressman.
This actually sounds reasonably balanced to me (though obviously the article doesn’t tell us the whole content of the performance). But there’s not a word here implying evil intent on the part of the soldiers. And we’d all do well to remember that many soldiers do come home having experienced things that leave them psychologically fragile. They were doing their best in a horrible situation and they’ll carry the after-effects for the rest of their lives.
http://www.iava.org/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=110&Itemid=119
Here’s a brief story about Herold Noel, with links to a lot of others. I see nothing wrong with these kids telling his story. He’s certainly no anti-war activist.
Seek professional help.
HATRIOTS!!!
Jesse MacBeth’s REAL name is Al Said!!!
That is Herold Noel??? geesh.
It’s described as an accident, unavoidable given the circumstances, and having left the soldier with nightmares. Hardly suggests that our soldiers are out there deilberately killing babies and not giving a crap about it. Herold Noel is a real soldier, who has encountered the same poor treatment as many others upon arriving home, and still believes that serving in the military in a war like this one is a good thing. If these college kids wanted to put on a totally biased anti-war show, they’d have made different choices of soldiers — it’s not all that hard to round up some Iraq vets who want to rant against the war and the Bush Administration, but that’s not what was done here.
http://www.gnn.tv/articles/article.php?id=1054Despite everything, Noel says he would enlist again.
“I’m always going to be a soldier. I’m going to speak so my country can be a better country. I’m not bashing the military – but if you want people to protect this country, you have to protect them.”
Freepers need to pool their smarts and start something called “TRUTH MATTERS”!!! These people’s backgrounds need to be looked into!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.