THE AMERICAN SOLDIER
"A relevant drama that left many in tears and asking why this play isn’t better known."
-Peter Marks, The Washington Post
SHOW INFO
Written by by Douglas Taurel
In 85 minutes, playwright and actor Douglas Taurel, performs 14 different characters affected by various wars, including men, women, and children. He exposes their scars with darkness and humor while transporting the audience to a dozen different wartime eras - from the sweltering jungles of Vietnam to the freezing fields of Valley Forge. Taurel masterfully portrays the stories of those most deeply touched by the scourge of war, including a father in the wake of his veteran son's suicide, a soldier dealing with the loss of his limb, a wife and son coping with a deployed father's absence, a grieving mother remembering her son at the Vietnam Memorial Wall, a perilously shell-shocked World War II veteran, a female combat veteran sharing her her struggles with PTSD and experiences as woman on the front lines, and many more. Created through exhaustive research, actual letters sent from soldiers to their loved ones, and verbatim language lifted from countless interviews with veterans, the play is an intensely personal look at the humanity behind the specter of war. The American Soldier is decidedly not a political play but a profoundly human story - a piece of theater created to honor our veterans and their families and to deepen our collective understanding of their experiences.
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT
DOUGLAS TAUREL recently played Joe Petito in the Lifetime TV Movie, The Gabby Petito Story. He worked opposite Thora Birch, who also directed the film. He has appeared in numerous television shows and movies, including The Affair, The Americans, Blue Bloods, Nurse Jackie, Mr. Robot, The Cobbler (Adam Sandler and Dustin Hoffman), and The Kindergarten Teacher (Maggie Gyllenhaal). He's been nominated for an Innovative Theatre Award and recently earned Best Actor and was nominated for Best Director at the GI Film Festival for his TV series Landing Home which he wrote and starred in. It tells the story of a Veteran learning how to adjust once out of the Military. You can view Landing Home on Amazon, Apple, VUDU, TUBI, and Google Play. The Library of Congress commissioned him to write and perform his second solo show, An American Soldier's Journey Home.