CSM Drama Department presenting Shirley Lauro’s A Piece of My Heart
College of Saint Mary’s Drama Department will present the emotionally-charged Shirley Lauro play with music, A Piece of My Heart the weekend of April 22-24.
The VVA Veteran magazine (Vietnam Veterans of America) called the play one of the most enduring theatrical productions to portray the Vietnam War. It has received numerous awards over the years, including The Barbara Deming Prize for women playwrights, The Susan Blackburn Prize, and The Kittredge Foundation Award.
“A Piece of My Heart is a retelling of the stories of six women who experienced firsthand the Vietnam War,” says the play’s director Nick Albrecht, CSM assistant professor of theater. “These stories remind us of the incomparable spirits of women and their ability to persevere even the most adverse and horrifying of circumstances.”
The drama features five nurses and a country western singer booked by an unscrupulous agent to entertain the troops. It portrays each young woman before, during and after her tour in the war-torn nation and ends as each leaves a personal token at the memorial wall in Washington.
“These women were either dropped into or put themselves into situations that they had no idea would affect the rest of their lives,” he adds.
The cast includes CSM students Leah Collisi as Martha; Sydney Svehla as Mary Jo; Alyssa Blum as Sissy; Amber Beighley as Whitney; Porschea McAllister as Steele; and Grace University student Andy Stone as The American Men. Mackenzie Dehmer, director of Grace University’s theatre program will portray LeeAnn.
Since its premiere in 1991 at the Manhattan Theatre Club, the play has been produced more than 1,800 times around the world, including a Command Performance in Washington, D.C. for the dedication of the Vietnam Nurses Memorial statue.
Show times include a preview performance on Friday, April 22 at 7:30 p.m., with a reception following; Saturday, April 23, 7:30 p.m.; and Sunday, April 24, 2 p.m. All performances will be held in College of Saint Mary’s Gross Auditorium, 7000 Mercy Road, Omaha. Presented by special arrangement with Samuel French, Inc. This production is free and open to the public.
