Carthage Veteran Night of the Arts

This website is dedicated to all the veterans who have so unstintingly shared their stories with the faculty and students of Carthage Theatre, and trusted us with their most personal and sacred memories.

Vet Night: The Beginning

In 2015 Carthage Theatre embarked on the first of our verbatim theatre projects, Afghanistan/Wisconsin, written by student Laurel McKenzine '16, based on interviews with 12 veterans of the war in Afghanistan. In addition to performing at Carthage, we also toured the show to various off-campus sites. I had researched various venues to bring the play to, and we forged agreements with the Kenosha Public Museum, the Wisconsin Veteran's Museum in Madison, and to UW Stevens Point.

At the last of these, our host was David Chrisinger, an instructor pioneering a curriculum to help veteran students transition into higher education through writing. After presenting our show, David reached out to me wanting to know how we could keep the spotlight on veteran issues through art. We started to germinate an idea for a dedicated event. Due to our busy schedules, we determined it would be one night, and would leverage existing content and personnel as much as possible.

We also decided the event would be a fundraiser. With Afghanistan/Wisconsin we had donated ticket proceeds to several veteran organizations, including Veterans Outreach of Wisconsin, based in Racine. VOW's mission is to help veterans in danger of homelessness to transition back to stability. We decided to donate all Vet Night proceeds to VOW.

We also included student veteran Lawrence Gums, who became a great ally and friend to us and a booster of our efforts, as he strove to raise awareness of veteran issues on the Carthage campus. Larry and other key students would play an essential role in Vet Night's overall success.

We approached the Carthage Theatre faculty and worked with them to schedule the first Vet Night around Veterans Day, November 2016. Thus we were able to secure a large performance venue (our theatre) free of charge. We gathered and edited texts from Afghanistan/Wisconsin as well as several stories from David Chrisinger's writing workshops, and an excerpt of veteran author Matt Hefti's debut novel. Carthage professor Mark Miller also offered us excerpts of his memoir My Confessions from Vietnam.

Dance program director Stacy Pottinger offered a piece for the evening, and also put us in touch with veteran and noted dancer/choreographer Edwin Olvera, who agreed to perform a solo piece. Dave connected us with veteran Tyler Pozolinski who shared his animated video essay from Wisconsin Public Television. And Carthage student Colleen Ochab filmed an interview Herschel Kruger's Uncle-In-Law who served in World War 2.

A veritable "army" of students prepared, rehearsed, put up posters, and requested raffle donations from local businesses.

Vet Night 2016: eclectic offerings

Our first Vet Night was one of our most diverse in terms of the type of offerings that made up the night's program (see photos here):

• Staged Reading: We Didn’t Understand, by Yvette Pino: story from David Chrisinger's book of student-written essays

• Documentary Video: World War II Veteran Honored - An Interview with Carlos Chavez by Carthage Theatre student Colleen Ochab

• Staged Reading: My Confessions from Vietnam , a book by Professor Mark Miller

• Dance: Three Responses To Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, excerpted (2007) Choreography by Carthage Professor Stacy Pottinger

• Staged Reading: A Hard and Heavy Thing by Wisconsin veteran author Matthew Hefti

• Dance: This is for Them, solo dance by veteran artist Edwin Olvera

• Video: Not Everyone Who Comes Home is Home, by UW Stevens Point student Tyler Pozolinski and Wisconsin Public Television’s Veterans Coming Home Project

• Staged Reading: Excerpt from Afghanistan/Wisconsin by Laurel McKenzie

• Staged Reading: Life Under Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell, by Dr. Karis Graham (excerpt from Afghanistan/Wisconsin)

• Intermission with donuts and coffee

• Talkback with the audience

We also included visual art, courtesy of Wisconsin veteran artist Yvette Pino, who brought several examples from the Veteran Print Project, and taught a printmaking workshop earlier in the day.

The evening also featured raffle prizes donated by local businesses.

Vet Night 2017: Cry Havoc!

The second Vet Night featured a first act of staged readings followed by a very special guest: actor/activist Stephan Wolfert. Larry had gotten a student travel grant to fly to New York City and see Stephan's one-man show, Cry Havoc! He was so impressed that we decided to try and get Stephan to Carthage. Through the generous support of the Fine Arts and Humanities Division, Carthage Theatre, and Art Cyr of the Clausen Center for World Business, we were able to make it happen (see photos here).

The first half of the evening was made up once again of readings:

• When​ ​Everything​ ​was​ ​Beautiful​ ​and​ ​Nothing​ ​Hurt,​ ​​by​ ​Matthew​ ​Hefti

• His​ ​Torch​ ​Beckoned​ ​like​ ​a​ ​Searchlight,​ ​​by​ ​Ryan​ ​Mallek

• The​ ​Last​ ​Thing​ ​to​ ​Do,​ ​​by​ ​Joy​ ​Craig

• Guns,​ ​Booze,​ ​and​ ​Suicide:​ ​How​ ​Stupid​ ​Saved​ ​a​ ​Life,​ ​​by​ ​David​ ​Chrisinger

• Innocence​ ​Amidst​ ​the​ ​Chaos,​ ​​by​ ​Dan​ ​Bellis

• Excerpts from AJAX, by Carthage students Melody Abbott and Lawrence Gums

In order to celebrate the contributions of the VOW veterans, we invited them to a pre-show catered dinner, and welcomed them to hear their stories being shared with the public. Most attended, and then came onstage for the post-show talkback as well. And of course we featured donuts, coffee, and raffle prizes in our lobby at intermission.

Entertaining Angels Unawares

You never know how your actions may affect others. Several days after Vet Night, Shannon from VOW contacted me to let me know an anonymous donor who had seen the show donated a check to VOW for $10,000! I guess we were doing something right!

Vet Art Encounter 2017

2017 was the first year we offered the Vet Art Encounter. We paired veterans with student and faculty artists and writers so they could listen to the veteran's stories. The artists and writers then spent a week creating responses to what they had heard, and all art and writing was collected and displayed in our theatre lobby for Vet Night. All works were collected and published in booklet form with the help of Professor Jose Montoto. In addition, each veteran was allowed to take home the original artwork they inspired as a keepsake of the experience. See the booklet below.

Vet Night 2018: a shift to the verbatim approach

In its third year, Larry discussed with me the possibility of creating a verbatim project with Vet Night. He knew firsthand how impactful these projects can be, and wanted to help create another such experience. We decided to work directly with the residents of the VOW Vet Village of tiny homes. Now we deployed the verbatim technique to capture untold stories and raise awareness of issues of homelessness.

The workload definitely increased from previous years where the content was largely pre-existing. Larry and I visited VOW multiple times and interviewed eight veteran residents, gathering about 20 hours of audio. A team of six Carthage Theatre students worked through the fall to transcribe the anonymized audio. I compiled the script, and Larry wrote an introduction. The resulting full-length play is titled Voices of VOW.

The evening’s readings were punctuated by music from Kenosha musician/poet laureate Brent Mitchell. The veterans and staff of VOW attended the performance, and spoke to the public at the talkback. As usual, the intermission featured donuts, coffee, and raffles, and all proceeds were donated to Veterans Outreach of Wisconsin.

See photos and read the script here.

Vet Art Encounter 2018

The Vet Art Encounter continued for 2018. A new gathering of veterans and artists yielded another inspiring booklet and lobby display. See the booklet below.

Vet Night 2019: 2 new plays

Voices of VOW had gone so well, we decided once again to focus on residents of the VOW Vet Village using verbatim theatre techniques to tell their stories. Due to logistics and time constraints, we interviewed fewer people and collected less audio to ease the fall workload. I conducted interviews with four VOW residents.

I then recruited student playwright Emma Swain to take on the project of transcribing and creating the “Voices of VOW” presentation for the coming fall. I had previously worked with her on AJAX, where she had served as the dramaturg, and done a great job. I knew I could trust her to complete the task. She ended up having to transcribe most of the interviews herself, although I helped when I could. We were aided this time around by the discovery of the Otter free transcription app, which helped speed up the work.

The second act of Vet Night was to be a presentation by an outside group, but this fell through. Left with this gap, I decided go propose that a play I had been working on that summer be moved into the slot.

I had conducted interviews with 2 veterans at Carthage with Larry in spring 2017, but the recordings had been languishing in my hard drive as I had lacked the time to work on them. My sabbatical finally gave me time to process and edit these conversations into a one-act play. Over the summer I worked closely with two former students, Alex Johnson and Elodie Senetra, to edit and rehearse it, hoping someday to stage a reading but without a specific plan.

I ran it by our department chair and he agreed, so my play Welcome Back? became the second act of Vet Night 2019 (see photos here).

• • First act: Emma Swain’s Voices of VOW 2019, written based on transcripts of interviews I had conducted with Larry Gums over the summer at the VOW Vet Village in Racine.

  • Second act: Welcome Back? The actual veteran participants were able to attend the show and see their own stories acted out.

Read Welcome Back? here

Due to time constraints, the Vet Art Encounter was not held, but artwork from previous events was displayed, along with original works by Blake Buchanan, Ryan Bigelow, and Grace Schmidt which were up for sale in a silent auction to benefit VOW.

As with in previous years, we raised funds for Veterans Outreach of Wisconsin and their Tiny Homes project, inviting their residents to a catered dinner before the show, and offering a talkback afterwards.

Just Live: Vet Night 2019 Superstars

The real highlight of Vet Night 2019 happened after the show. During the talkback, Robert Stevens of the "Just Live Inc." suicide prevention organization, took to the stage with several of their board members to announce a $6000 gift to Veterans Outreach of Wisconsin, as well as an additional $3000 gift to the Carthage Health and Counseling Center!

Vet Night: Partners

The following groups, businesses, and individuals supported Vet Night with resources or raffle donations:

The Clausen Center for World Business

Milwaukee Tools Snap-On Tools The Coffee Pot

Carthage College Bookstore Carthage College Starbucks Milwaukee Repertory Theatre

La Fogata Waterfront Warehouse

The Sweet Life Donut Shop Mike's Donuts and Chicken

Modern Apothecary Performance Running Outfitters Seebeck Galleries

Valeo's Pizza Armando's Collision The Brat Stop

Paielli's A Little R&R Cafe The Buzz Coffee Shop

Blake Buchanan Ryan Bigelow Grace Schmidt

Lawrence Gums

The following organizations participated in our informational lobby table expos or with publicity and outreach:

Veterans Outreach of Wisconsin NAMI Kenosha Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs

The James Lovell Federal Health Center Wisconsin Veteran Chamber of Commerce Just Live Inc.

Greg Berg/WGTD UW Parkside Veterans Club Gateway College Veteran Services

Carthage Fine Arts Events VFW Kenosha Freedom Farm For Vets

Veteran Print Project Carthage Health and Counseling Center Horizon Hospice