Telling Tampa Bay
Fri.-Sat., March 13-14, 7:30 p.m.
Hillsborough Community College
Campus Theater
NE corner of East Palm Avenue
& North 14th Street, Ybor CityWed., April 1, 7:30 p.m.
Largo Cultural Center
105 Central Park Drive, Largo
Lobby opens at 6:30 p.m. with community resource tables for veterans
On March 3, six veterans and one military spouse stood in front of an audience at the Studio@620 and shared personal stories about life-changing injuries, rape, atrocities and ultimately, hope, survival and their return to civilian life.
The group will be telling the stories again on Friday and Saturday night at HCC-Ybor and on April 1 at the Largo Cultural Center in the storytelling showcase Telling: Tampa Bay.
The soliloquies were pared down from interviews with each of the participants. Director Lisa Powers structured the piece with an introductory company march, some stage blocking and divided up the pieces into acts that correspond with a soldier's tour of duty — basic training, battle, honorable discharge, etc.
Local theater favorite Powers (American Stage's former artistic director, director of the Florida Humanities Council’s Dreamers and Schemers ) has served as chief commander of the uniquely narrative performance, which is part of the national Telling Project. Founded in 2008 by Jonathan Wei, the Telling Project helps bridge a communication gap between the civilian population and the less than 1 percent of the population of military personnel that has served over the past dozen years of war. Local performances, presented by the Florida Humanities Council, are scripted and based on interviews with the veterans conducted by Wei.
"He’s an amazing interviewer," Lisa Powers said of Wei, a writer based in Austin. "He asked few questions. Knows all the language, jargon. The vets were very comfortable with him. His demeanor and his compassion helped them in really opening up. Some talked for two hours and kept talking."
Summoning deeply personal and painful memories onstage turned out to be a nerve-wracking experience for some, but the vets had the guidance of a veteran stage professional to help them manage the jitters.
Participant Michael Dunlap, who found himself homeless after serving for six years in the 1980s, says Powers picked up on his nervous tics, something he didn't want to admit as a Marine who prides himself on swagger and confidence. He says he started pacing and rubbing his hands together. "I'm not Italian but I like to speak with my hands," Dunlap joked during a recent phone interview.
Powers told Dunlap — who now has a job assisting veterans through Warrior Bridge and is used to public speaking — to pick three focal points in the audience, left, center and right, to help prevent him from shuffling. "I didn't expect to express any apprehension and nervousness," Dunlap said. "Lisa is an excellent leader."
"What I wanted to do mostly [was] get them comfortable on stage," Powers said, emphasizing that she didn't persuade them into going into subject matter that was too difficult. "Mostly I got them to have safety in their blocking, reminding them that the audience is generous, not judging."
Storyteller Ryan Simonson, who served 13 years (1998-2011) in the Army, including multiple tours in Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom, said that the performances were only a small part of the project's value to the community. The aim is to have follow-up, he says, and elicit more interest and create more conversation within the community about veterans. "All of the talkback sessions have been longer than the performances," he adds. "It was encouraging to see the audience's level of engagement."
Powers stressed that the experience is just as therapeutic for the audience as for the storytellers. One Vietnam vet at a past show gave it sincere praise for bringing him the healing inspiration of an AA meeting.
"Some of the stories are very hard," director Powers said. "Some people’s family members are hearing the stories for the first time. That was the case for Marine Jessica McVay, who became a victim of military sexual assault. "Not only is that a hard topic in a general and in our society, people don’t like to hear about it talked about, and that's times a hundred in the military." But McVay handled it expertly, Powers said. "She’s a strong, strong woman and handles the talkbacks extremely well."
Telling: Tampa Bay is produced in partnership with The Telling Project with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Bob Woodruff Foundation, and the Saunders Foundation. In case you missed it, WMNF-88.5 FM's Rob Lorei interviewed veteran Taylor Urruela and Powers on his March 2 program. WEDU PBS is currently filming a one-hour documentary detailing the five-month process of Telling: Tampa Bay. Visit wedu.org/thetellingproject.
This article appears in Mar 12-18, 2015.
