SMC drafts 'A Piece of My Heart'
By MICHAEL VANEGAS
Scene Editor
Forrest Gump went to Vietnam because it was the only place that would take him.
The love of his life, Jenny, protested it.
Robert De Niro and Christopher Walken went to Vietnam in "The Deer Hunter," to fulfill their duties as an Americans.
Meryl Streep, who loved them both, stayed home, waiting for their return.
Hundreds of thousands of American men served in Vietnam, for various reasons, and with various outcomes.
Thousands of American women endured the Vietnam War as well, typically as war nurses, and also as entertainers.
"A Piece of My Heart," which opens tonight at the small theater of Saint Mary's Moreau Center, focuses on the experiences of the American woman in Vietnam, weaving the stories of six women into one quickly paced quilt of humor, regret, drama and catharsis.
At Monday's dress rehearsal, the cast's first run-through in full dress and with full technical work, the energy of a performance ready to burst onto stage was high. This was evident even in the sound booth, led by a gal named Kate, who couldn't help but yelling, "OK. I have way too much damn energy tonight."
Monday night was also the time for the cast to realize the importance of acting in real-time. Prior to the opening scene, director Mark Abram-Copenhaver told his actors, "Do not play off things that are imagined; play off things that are actual." When the rehearsal ended 90 minutes later, the cast had finished a real performance, and it filled the energy potential felt in the beginning.
But "A Piece of My Heart" does not try to baffle audiences' emotions with deeply profound dramatic scenes. Instead, it attempts to lightheartedly and honestly delve into the hearts and minds of the American women who served in Vietnam. More than a feminist take on American military history, the play provides a raw and visceral perspective of life in the late '60s, at the heart of America's involvement in Vietnam.
The small cast of "A Piece of My Heart," which includes six women and two men, provides a look at the diverse nature of those Americans who served in the war. There is the war brat, the intellectual, the sheltered pariah, the hippie, the African American and the showgirl. Each cast member works with the other to present short but detailed fragments of the Vietnam experience. This, of course, requires great emphasis on the value of the team over the individual. The effectiveness of the cast as a team is clear, as much of the play involves physical intimacy and highly synchronized timing.
Ultimately, the strengths of each of the actors in "A Piece of My Heart" will shine in the small auditorium at Saint Mary's. In a play where there is no designated lead actor, keeping the audience's attention depends largely upon the evolution of the unknowing American female recruit into the hardened but sensitive American female military nurse.
That this evolution takes place within "A Piece of My Heart" is what will make the play a pleasant and eye-opening journey into Vietnam.
All Scene Stories for Friday, November 12, 1999
