VetRep Theater, American Legion hosted Saturday show
Eight young actors stood on the ‘stage’ in the American Legion Hall in Highland Falls last Saturday night and gave the 50+ members of the audience quite the show. In fact, they took some of those audience members on a walk back in time to their military days.
The show was a ‘workshop performance’ hosted by Cornwall’s Veterans Repertory Theater, and sponsored by American Legion Post 633.
Quite a few of those in the audience were veterans, so they understood the language and emotions in the show — which was set on an overseas military installation in the early 2000s.
In introducing both the playwright, Phillip Korth, and the actors — “it was hard to find eight young men who looked and sounded like Marines, that could also be phenomenal actors” — VetRep’s Christopher Paul Meyer talked about the ‘why’ of the evening.
“This is a big night for this play,” he said, explaining that the play was a finalist for the ‘Arts in the Armed Forces’ Bridge Award in 2020, and previously a finalist in the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s National Playwrights Conference. Korth, a Marine veteran, served two tours of duty in Iraq.
Earlier that afternoon, the actors had rehearsed the play for around four hours, Meyer said, noting that the workshop performances are typically like that.
VetRep’s ‘parlor season’ runs from April to December at their location in Cornwall, typically comedies on Saturday evenings, “bringing professional grade theater to the Hudson Valley”.
The focus is on veteran-authored plays. Meyer asked: “Why do we care about having veteran playwrights in the theater?”
He answered himself: “What’s important about having veterans in the live performance arts is because there aren’t many. American theater has a rich tradition but has become more and more provincial. It’s become something that is done in certain communities for certain people. And it shouldn’t be. It should be for everyone.
“And if you’re going to broaden that, I can’t think of a better segment of society to do that than the veteran community, and here’s why,” he continued. “I think what makes a veteran special is not because they’re stronger, faster or better looking than anyone else, but it is the high volume of significant events that happened to them over a short period of time, relatively early in life. That is experiential wisdom. That doesn’t necessarily make them an artist, but if they are an artist, they really bring something else to the table … drama and conflict. And that’s the basis of American theater.”
And then the show began.
The performance lasted just under two hours with an intermission. Throughout the play, the audience was quiet and seemed to be totally absorbed in the performance.
When it was over, audience members expressed that they couldn’t believe the actors had only met one another that afternoon.
“The sense of camaraderie they were able to imbue into the characters felt completely natural, as if they’d actually been a real platoon,” one said.
To close out the evening, everyone stayed for a lengthy Q&A with the cast and playwright. Almost all of the feedback was positive with several veterans commenting how it brought back memories of their time in service.
As well, the general sentiment from the audience feedback was that the play didn’t even need props or scenery because the writing and the actors were so captivating.
Korth said it was also his first time seeing it performed, calling that “an intense experience”.
A member of the audience asked Korth if the characters were based on him or people he knew.
He said most of the characters were based on servicemen he knew, and admitted the character of “Reed” was most like himself. Conversely, the character “Doc” was a totally original character he made up, Korth said.
Meyer expressed hope that perhaps the play could see an official run in New York City.
Early in the evening, Meyer also took a few minutes to thank the American Legion for allowing VetRep to use the space; he invited the Post’s Rob Carter to speak for a moment about not only the building, but the American Legion’s role in the community.
After the show, American Legion Commander John Flynn said how much he enjoyed the performance, and hopes the Legion Hall can host more events like this in the future.
The actors in the show were Xander Furman (Reed), Hedi B. Asencio (Cruz), Quinn Moran (Doc) Thane Madsen (Beckenbauer), Toby Davis (Wojciechowski), Tim Halvorsen (Fisher), James David Henry (Captain) and Peter-William Jamieson (Staff Sergeant).
Learn more about upcoming VetRep shows at www.VetRep.org.
