Soldier’s Heart
Play Description
Before heading off to war in Iraq, Casey Johnson neatly organizes her life into a box of lists, envelopes, and registration forms for her son's activities. Months later, she returns to Western Pennsylvania forever changed, with deep psychological scars that no amount of arranging seems to be able to fix.
Production Info
Cast: 7 total (3 female, 4 male, plus one male child)Full Length Drama (about 100 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
- Reviews
- About the Author(s)
- About the Book
- Special Notes
- Productions
Press Quotes
“Tammy Ryan’s poignant SOLIDER’S HEART shines a light on the struggles facing woman warriors … a tense, raw, troubling and no-nonsense examination of what happens to soldiers, particularly female soldiers, serving in the military … This is not an easy play to watch. Nor is it meant to be.” —Alice Carter, Tribune
“Portrayls of soldiers wrecked by war date to the ancient Greeks (see Aeschylus), but Ms Ryan adeptly reworks the time-tested recipe from a woman’s perspective to make it seem fresh again … Briskly written in brief scenes that easily flash back and forth … the subject of sexual assault in the military gives the play weight and merit. Ms. Ryan deftly layers critical incidents that culminate in a forceful climax … Frank, colloquial language delivers a strong sense of spontaneity.” —Michael Sommers, New York Times
“Ryan brings a searing story to life about the high cost of war … Ryan’s play could border on political [but] it’s all about relationships: what you give up in times of war and how families are destroyed in the process … a disturbing, topical production, building on the terror and sacrifices that never-ending wars entail.” —Liz Keill, The Alternative Press
“Ryan brings a heart-wrenching experience into alignment with the blisteringly traumatic aftershock of rape … It is a story worth telling.” —Simon Saltzman, Curtain Up
“Tammy Ryan has written an intense drama that grabs you from the first scene and doesn’t let go until the lights go down two hours later … a story with a strong dramatic arc … on an important subject with which we must deal decisively, now.” —Ruth Ross, NJ Arts Maven
“… richly nuanced, three-dimensional characters and a neatly constructed, riveting story. Ryan has done her homework.” —Bob Rendell, Talkin’ Broadway
Author(s)
Tammy RyanTAMMY RYAN is a playwright and librettist whose work has been performed across the United States and internationally. She was awarded the Francesca Primus Prize by the American Theater Critic’s Association for her play LOST BOY FOUND IN WHOLE FOODS (Premiere Stages/Playwrights Theater of New Jersey.). Other plays include SOLDIER'S HEART, DARK PART OF THE FOREST (Premiere Stages) A CONFLUENCE OF DREAMING, BABY'S BLUES, FBI GIRL (Pittsburgh Playhouse), and THE MUSIC LESSON (Florida Stage/2001 Carbonell Award Best Production/2004 AATE Distinguished New Play Award). In addition, her play, TAR BEACH (Luna Stage), a finalist for the Terrance McNally Playwriting Award and a Jane Chambers Award honoree was included on “The List” of the most outstanding plays by women playwrights in 2014 compiled by the Kilroys. Ryan has held fellowships at Virginia Center of the Creative Arts, Hambidge Center, and the Sewanee Writers Conference. Her work has been featured in the National New Play Network’s National Showcase of Plays and has been read and developed at the New Harmony Project, Premiere Stages Play Festival, The Ignite Festival, The Lark and elsewhere.
Book Information
| Publisher | BPPI |
|---|---|
| Publication Date | 8/5/2016 |
| Pages | 80 |
| ISBN | 9780881456707 |
Special Notes
If original stage producers credits appear in bold below, all licensees are required to include them in the following form on the title page in all programs distributed in connection with performances of the Play and in all advertising in which the full cast appears in size of type not less than ten percent (10%) of the size of the title of the Play:
Originally produced by the Pittsburgh Playhouse of Point Park University, Conservatory of Performing Arts, Ronald Allan-Lindblom, Artistic Director, Earl Hughes Producing Director
In addition, the following must appear within all programs distributed in connection with performances of the Play:
by special arrangement with Broadway Play Publishing Inc, NYC
www.broadwayplaypub.com
Upcoming and Recent Productions
Nonprofessional
Related Plays
$15.00–$15.95Play Description
Three American career women find themselves bound to chairs and interrogated by masked men. One is asked to renounce her country. Another is forced to make a hostage video. And in between, they meet in a suburban coffee shop to compare notes on the experience.
Production Info
Cast: 5 total (3 female, 2 male)Full Length Drama (about 90 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95Play Description
Leila and Rashid, Egyptian Americans, attempt to solve their relationship issues by inviting a relative stranger into their bedroom to engage in a threesome. What begins as a hilariously awkward evening soon becomes an experience fraught with secrets, raising issues of sexism, possession, and independence.
Production Info
Cast: 3 total (1 female, 2 male)Full Length Comedy (about 95 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95Play Description
A comedy about the Iran-Contra affair.
Production Info
Cast: 8 total (1 female, 7 male)Full Length Comedy (about 100 minutes)
Single Set
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95Play Description
O JERUSALEM centers around an American State Department official who becomes entangled in Middle Eastern politics before and after September 11, 2001. Along the way, the protagonist encounters a Palestinian woman from his past.
Production Info
Cast: 5 total (3 female, 2 male)Full Length Drama (about 110 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95Play Description
WORLD SET FREE is the story of the top-secret race to produce the first controlled, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction. Brilliantly eccentric Hungarian scientist Leo Szilard and Enrico Fermi tell the story of the fevered work of a unique collection of scientists that were gathered at the University of Chicago in April of 1942. WORLD SET FREE explores the meeting place between the scientists' secret culture, the popular culture of the time, and a world on the brink of atomic power.
Production Info
Cast: 8 total (3 female, 5 male)Full Length Drama (about 90 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Period Costumes
$15.00–$15.95Play Description
A promising Ethiopian soccer star in Israel is courted by an American sports agent. The athlete is involved with another Ethiopian who risks being deported. Meanwhile, there is also a reckless, clandestine operation afoot to airlift one last group of Falasha Jews from Ethiopia to Israel.
Production Info
Cast: 8 total (3 female, 5 male, multiethnic cast)Full Length Drama (about 85 minutes)
Multiple Sets
Contemporary Costumes
Play Description
It is Armistice Day, 1962. Three veterans of the World Wars exchange army stories, lament the vagaries of age, and wait for the arrival of Harry, their old army buddy. OLD SOLDIERS is about friendship, loyalty, and the very personal realities of war.
Production Info
Cast: 4 total (1 female, 3 male)Short Drama (about 50 minutes)
Single Set
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95Play Description
Set in 1963, LAST DAYS OF THE HIGH FLIER is the story of a young man waiting for his life to begin, the mysterious ex-pilot who enters his life, and the intricate dance of friendship, betrayal, and forgiveness that takes place between the two men. Historically based, the story revolves around political conspiracies, including the CIA’s secret war in Laos. It also addresses personal struggles that occurred almost a half-century ago but still have relevance in an age in which intelligence failures and civil liberties threats dominate the news.
Production Info
Cast: 10 total (4 female, 6 male)Full Length Drama (about 130 minutes)
Multiple Sets
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95Play Description
In this lyrical, searing one-act, an American soldier has an unexpected encounter with two Afghan sisters who are ready to embark on a new life. Their fates — and his — become entangled as the lines between their divergent realities become dangerously blurred.
Production Info
Cast: 3 total (2 female, 1 male)Full Length Drama (about 50 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95Play Description
Set in South Lebanon, HOW HIS BRIDE CAME TO ABRAHAM is a soaring love story. When a fleeing refugee encounters a soldier wounded by a roadside bomb, irresistible Palestinian and Israeli characters clash, then ignite a passion that heals.
Production Info
Cast: 2 total (1 female, 1 male, multiethnic cast)Full Length Drama (about 100 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes