Today was the first day of rehearsal for our production of HOW I GOT THAT STORY by Amlin Gray. We invited board members and patrons to join us for the Meet and Greet and first read through of the play. We were also fortunate to have a number of volunteer consultants joining us:
Sue Diaz, author of Minefields of the Heart and post show speaker for Feb 25 and March 3;
Joe Ciokon, Vietnam Veteran, Navy reporter, and post-show speaker on March 1;
Ernie d’Leon, Vietnam Veteran, ACVOW (American Combat Veterans of War) Board of Directors;
Max Gruzen, Vietnam Veteran, Army photojournalist;
Michael Kilpatrick, Vietnam Veteran, founding member of Veterans Village of San Diego.
They shared their personal stories and feedback from listening to the read-through.
Some of the themes, questions, discussion points, and quotes that emerged included:
- A theme in the play: what is real? what is true? how do you know?
- What were the reporters who covered the Vietnam war really like? How prepared were they?
- “Loss of innocence” through war
- After you’re there, you take on ownership, want to stay
- Loss of compassion for the enemy…. loss of compassion for yourself
- You change to survive
- Mind games
- Brotherhood
Costume Designer Jeannie Galioto and Scenic Designer David Weiner also joined us and shared their designs.
Here are some photos from the day:
[...] conducted writing workshops for war veterans in the San Diego area since 2007, and has served as a consultant on Mo`olelo’s production of How I Got That [...]