Combat Trauma & the Arts

Don't you hate learning about things after the fact that you really wish you could have gone to, if only you'd known?  Today's contender for that is an original play performed in 2006 at the Trinity Repertory Theatre in Providence, Rhode Island. The play is called "Boots on the Ground," and it's a 90 minute docudrama, "built around the words of nearly 70 soldiers and their families, medical workers, journalists, ministers, ethicists and teachers, who shared stories of courage, sacrifice and dedication, in Iraq and here at home."  The play was written and conceived by Laura Kepley and D. Salem Smith, the Rep's artistic associate-resident director, and playwright in residence, respectively.  All reports are that it was extremely moving and powerful, especially because based on actual personal experiences, artfully elicited and woven through the story.  Sure wish I could have seen it when it played.  If I learn more about its availability in any recorded form, I will post that information here.