Veterans Take their Experiences to the Stage in War in Pieces

March is always a busy time for New York Times bestselling author David L. Robbins who helps direct and coordinate War in Pieces with the Virginia War Memorial Foundation and Firehouse Theatre. This year’s festival will be held April 4 through 13.

This co-production, now in its fourth year, has grown out of the VWMF’s free veterans writing program, The Mighty Pen Project, which offers 12-week long university-level writing classes throughout the year encouraging veterans and their loved ones to commit to paper their memories and reflections. 

The project was originally founded as a nonprofit by Robbins who wanted to help veterans learn more about the writing process. After three years, the program moved under the purview of the VWMF. “It was the ideal situation,” Robbins says.

All of the plays presented in the festival were written in Robbins classes, originally as stories. The stories are narrowed down and four are chosen to produce. Robbins and the four playwrights go through another 12 weeks of classes to develop the scripts.

The writing process can be challenging for veterans who often feel the loss of control after their experiences in the military. By writing these stories, they regain control.

“It puts their hands back on the wheel of these things,” Robbins says.

Stories and situations that they couldn’t tell friends or family “they can tell the page,” he adds. “We give them the vehicle and very often it becomes a healing vehicle for them.”

This Year’s War in Pieces Plays

• Kaho’olawe by Harry Mayer: On a small Hawaiian island once used for bombing practice, an unexploded bomb must be defused, but it isn’t going to go down quietly.

• War’s Teeth by Shani Miller: A young mother, home from deployment in Afghanistan, thanks a Vietnam vet for his service, unleashing for them both memory and healing.

• The Salute by Larry Meier: An Army captain accompanies the flag-draped remains of a fallen soldier from Vietnam, home to the remote coalfields of Virginia.

• A Couch by Cam Torrens: An Air Force officer pushes to be in the first wave of responders to the 9/11 attack, but his wife – who outranks him – has different ideas.

Robbins is directing War’s Teeth and Kaho’olawe. Each play runs up to 20 minutes.

“It’s a nice night of theater. It’s one-and-a-half hours of theater with just enough humor, insight, action, wit, grief and loss. Audience members will have different emotions in each of these four plays,” Robbins says.

Watching the plays is “an incredibly powerful experience,” says Nathaniel Shaw, producing artistic director of Firehouse Theatre. “We as theater makers get used to putting on plays, but to see these veterans who have the courage to share their personal experience and have that brought to life on stage, reminds you of the true power of theater.”

The plays bring real life to the stage, he adds. “It’s a wonderful opportunity for the veterans and also for all of us to learn more about what it is to serve your country and be a veteran in such a personal way.

For the full schedule and to purchase tickets, please visit FirehouseTheatre.org.