of art & design
University Theatre Presents A Piece of My Heart,
a play by Shirley
Lauro
Kennedy-McIlwee Studio Theatre, Thompson Hall,
NC State University
Campus
Thursday, October 28-Sunday, October 31
Wednesday, November 3-Sunday November 7
Wed-Saturday evening performances at 7:30 pm, Saturday and Sunday
matinee performances at 2 pm.
Adults $17; Seniors, Students, Alumni and
Parent Assn. Members, Students, Encore, $15; NCSU Students $5
Ticket Central 919.515.1100 or ncsu.edu/ticketcentral
"A Piece of My Heart Goes With Each of Them"
Since 1993, with the dedication of the Vietnam Women’s Memorial on the mall
in Washington DC, the women who served during the Vietnam era and their
families have gathered each Veteran’s Day for “In Their Own Words,” storytelling
of their experiences in the war. This year NC State University
Theatre’s Other Voices production will honor
the women veterans by bringing those voices to the stage in a production
of A PIECE OF MY HEART, a powerful play by Shirley
Lauro, suggested by stories told in the Keith Walker book of the same name.
SPECIAL EVENTS:
The playwright will be joining the audience, cast and crew for the opening night reception on Thursday, October 28, and for a post show discussion on Friday, October 29. >More
CANCELLED:University Theatre will host a pre-show discussion at Thompson Hall on Wednesday November 3 at 6 pm on Women in the Military, How Far We've Come, How Far We're Going. Join us! CANCELLED:
Call
for Vietnam Women's Memorabilia
Playwright Shirley Lauro Visits Opening Weekend
University Theatre Salutes Veterans
About the Vietnam Women's Memorial Foundation
The Women
According to the Vietnam Women’s Memorial Foundation, during the years of
the Vietnam War, 265,000 military and civilian women served and it is estimated
that as many as 10,000 women were assigned in combat zones alongside brother
soldiers. The women came from all over the United States, from all kinds
of backgrounds, races, education levels and religions. They served as nurses,
physicians, air traffic controllers, transportation and supply workers,
Red Cross workers, USO entertainers, in relief services and as news correspondents.
All of them were volunteers.
“The common ground we had, which is why I felt so strongly about honoring these women, was that not a single one of us had to be there,” Diane Carlson Evans said in remarks at the Omaha Nebraska’s Blue Barn Theatre production of A Piece of My Heart in 2003 (http://leoadambiga.wordpress.com). Veteran in-country nurse Evans spearheaded the ten-year campaign for the creation of the memorial in Washington DC. “We were not drafted. We were not conscripted. Nobody put a gun to our head and said go to Vietnam and do your duty. We could have stayed home, got our masters degree, had our kids, played golf and tennis and had a good life. But every one of us—Red Cross, military, USO—said, I want to do my part, and did, during a very unpopular war. We didn’t have a lot of support from home, from peers or from our country. We just thought it was the right thing to do.” Some of the women boarded planes with no idea they would soon disembark in a war-torn country where they would endure an emotional rollercoaster tour and then return to a nation that would take years to recognize and honor their contributions.
A
Call for Memorabilia for Display
In conjunction with our production of A Piece of My Heart, we would
like to honor these women with a display of memorabilia in our beautiful
new handcrafted front lobby display cases. If you are a veteran or know
of a woman veteran who may have photos or other items we might borrow for
the display cases, please call us at 919.515.3105 or email to universitytheatre@ncsu.edu.
The Play
A Piece of My Heart debuted at the Philadelphia Festival Theatre
for New Plays and was professionally produced in the 1991 Humana Festival
of New American Plays in Louisville. It premiered in New York City in 1991
at the Union Square Theatre by Manhattan Theatre Club. Scenes have been
presented at Veterans Day storytelling sessions at the memorial. The play
tells the stories of six women—three nurses, an officer, a Red Cross volunteer
and a country-western singer—who go to Vietnam in the late 1960s. The play
takes no political sides; the stories aren’t sugar-coated. They don’t present
the women as heroes that signed up to save the world, but instead offer
realistic portrayals of young and sometimes naïve women coping with the
fragility of life in the midst of war’s horrors. The music of the era intertwines
with the dialogue as the characters weave through the flashbacks of injured
soldiers and surgeries, finding good times and enduring bad times, to the
emotional traumas that continue to haunt them long after the war’s end.
Guest director and retired senior associate director Terri Janney says the play is important to attend because it is “an American history lesson from which our leaders have yet to learn. It is an incredible story of those women who served with little credit or acknowledgement by the American public. Adults should see this play to remember all that we have forgotten about the Vietnam War and the untold stories of the women who supposedly did not serve in combat. University students and even high school students should see this play to understand what our current service men and women are going through now in Iraq and Afghanistan and their difficulties readjusting to daily American life. These women put a face on the casualty of war.”
A Piece of My Heart has enjoyed over 1,800 productions around the world, is the Recipient of the Barbara Deming Prize, The Kittredge Prize, and The Susan Blackburn Prize(finalist). The play was named by Vietnam Vets of America, Inc.: “The most enduring play in the nation on Vietnam.”
University
Theatre Welcomes Playwright Shirley Lauro
The playwright of A Piece of My Heart, Shirley Lauro, joins us for
opening week activities. Ms. Lauro is the author of many plays with political
themes and stories from women’s experiences. Her latest play, The Radiant about
Marie Curie, was commissioned by The Sloan Science Foundation, and will receive
its World Premiere Production at New Theatre in March, 2011. The Chicago
World Premiere of All Through The Night, another recent play, received
a Joseph Jefferson Nomination as “Best New Chicago Play of the Year” and
subsequently was presented by Ashby Stages, Berkley, CA, and Traveling Jewish
Theater of San Francisco. In 2009 it was presented in its off-Broadway New
York by Red Fern Theatre and is a Samuel French 2010 publication.
Other plays include Clarence Darrow’s Last Trial, recipient of an NEA “Access to Excellence” grant, a Carbonell nomination as Best New Play in Florida, and The New American History Play Prize(finalist), and her multi-generational play, Speckled Birds. Her play Open Admissions, on Broadway, received one Tony Nomination, two Drama Desk nominations, a theatre World Award, a Samuel French Award, was a New York Times pick for “Ten Best Plays of the Year,” and received the prestigious Dramatists Guild’s Hull- Warriner Award. Ms. Lauro subsequently adapted the play for a CBS TV Special starring Jane Alexander and Estelle Parsons. In 2008 the play was honored by publication in Writing Through Literature, where it joined works by Walt Whitman, Ionesco, Langston Hughes and Toni Cade Bambera in the book’s section, “The Lesson.”
Other work includes: The Coal Diamond (Heidemann Prize, Humana Festival; “The Best Short Play Anthology; Nothing Immediate (OOBA Festival Winner); Railing It Uptown (Playscripts,Inc., Take Ten Anthology;); Sunday Go To Meetin’ (“30 Plays for Three Actors”, Humana Festival); Pearls on the Moon (Ensemble Studio Theatre; Stamford Theatre Works with Joanna Merlin, Pauline Flanagan). Edited by Ms. Lauro with Alexis Greene, the anthology, “Front Lines: Political Plays by American Women,” enjoyed publication by New Press, June, 2009 and was chosen as an “Honoree of The Coalition of Professional NY Women in Arts and Media.” Ms. Lauro is also author of a novel, The Edge. Her major fellowships include The Guggenheim in Playwriting, three National Endowment for the Arts Grants, and The New York Foundation for the Arts. >Read more at Shirley Lauro's website
Honoring the veterans
In honor of the upcoming Veteran’s Day, University Theatre also invites our
theatre patrons to contribute with a donation to the Vietnam Women’s Memorial
Foundation, which has helped with contacts and research for this production.
Look for this and other veterans’ information in our lobby during the production.
>More resources and information
The Vietnam Women’s Memorial,
A Legacy of Healing and Hope 
During and after the Vietnam War, there was little acknowledgement or support
for the thousands of women who had voluntarily served. In 1983, one lone
former Army nurse, Diane Carlson Evans, founded the Vietnam Women’s Memorial
project to champion for the placement of a memorial near the controversial
Vietnam Wall. The committee was soon fighting a flurry of criticism that
the Wall was complete as is, no matter that the accompanying Three Servicemen
statue, without a woman, underscored the prevailing national belief that
only men served and bore the wounds of war. Diane Carlson Evans spoke to
the congress, “Is not saving the lives of over 350,000 soldiers who were
wounded in Vietnam, and touching the lives of more than 59,000 soldiers
whose names are on that wall, and trying to save their lives and being
with them in their last moments—is that not of lasting historical significance
to America?” Finally in 1988, President Reagan signed the approval for
the memorial’s creation and in 1989, President Bush authorized the location.
Final designs were approved and in November of 1993, the memorial was dedicated
and the women of the Vietnam War were officially welcomed home at last.
>Read
more at the memorial's website
“If it wasn’t for us, the wall would be much wider and much higher.”
Diane Carlson Evans
Press release and photos available at http://www.ncsu.edu/arts/media
TICKET INFORMATION: Visit our website at http://www.ncsu.edu/arts, 919-515-1100.
$17-Adult ticket; $15 - Seniors, NCSU faculty and staff, students, alumni
association members, parent association members and Encore; $5 NCSU student.
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