What: A Piece of My Heart
When: Oct. 14-18 at 7:30 p.m. and Oct. 18-19 at 2:30 p.m.
Where: Cave Theatre
Cost: General Admission, $6
In the first Cave show of the season, one actress’s personal connection to the story has allowed her to become closer to her own mother.
Set during a 20-year time period of personal unrest after the Vietnam War, “A Piece of My Heart” features six women who struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after serving their country.
Director Joel Kirk, a junior theatrical directing major, defines PTSD as “a perpetual reliving of a traumatizing experience.” He goes on to describe this performance as a “memory play” which “is a reflection of how the women handle revisiting these life-altering moments and how they pursue peace through the war echoes in their mind.”
Senior acting major Jessica Ervin plays LeeAnn, a half-Chinese/half-Italian hippie. Originally, LeeAnn plans to express her anti-war sentiments while taking care of soldiers after they return home from combat, but she is sent to Vietnam despite the fact that she didn’t volunteer.
Since her character works as a nurse in the war, Ervin consulted her own mother, who served in a similar capacity herself.
“One of the coolest things about this experience has been working with my mom,” said Ervin. “She was a nurse during wartime, and I’ve been able to draw a lot from her. I feel a lot more equipped to play this part because of her.”
In addition to having connections to the life of an actress in this show, the play also has connections to real women who were an integral part of the Vietnam war: the script is based on interviews with real people and tells the stories as they are.
“The government failed to make official lists of the women who served in Vietnam,” Kirk said. “More information concerning enemy weapons that were acquired exists than documentation regarding the 15,000 women who served our country. This staggering reality made research difficult and the need to tell the story imperative.”
Senior acting major David Cole plays all of the male roles in the show, totaling to more than a dozen separate characters.
“I play anything from a nameless soldier you meet at an airport to boyfriends the girls have lost,” he said. “I represent all of their memories: people they remember very well and others—they’ll never forget the moment, but they can’t remember the person.”
These kinds of moments come together to tell the story of these service women and their contribution to history. Kirk said he hopes the audiences will come to a better understanding about the sacrifices of those who were “disregarded and denigrated” by history.
“This is a play about women who find victory through unthinkable tribulation,” he said. “These women are nothing short of heroes.”
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