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)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–$15.95
Play Description
An action-adventure about a mission behind enemy lines during the Gulf War.
Production Info
Cast: 6 total (1 female, 5 male)Full Length Drama (about 90 minutes)
Multiple Sets
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95
Play Description
THE TALENTED ONES looks at the thwarted dreams of immigrants eager to make it in their adopted country. As converts to the American Dream, how much more challenging and lethal do the notions of success and failure become? Omar is falling down in his attempts to make a success of his life, while his wife, Cindy, a fellow immigrant, appears to be doing much better, and is becoming increasingly frustrated by Omar’s struggles. His American best friend, Patrick, may be Cindy's way out. Mixing realism with memory and dance, THE TALENTED ONES dissects with increasing ferocity this couple's marriage and aspirations.
Production Info
Cast: 5 total (2 female, 3 male, doubling)Full Length Comedy (about 100 minutes)
Single Set
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00
Play Description
It is a few years after the end of World War II. Billy Maitland, a young wheelchair-bound ex-Army Corporal is the sole remaining patient in a VA hospital when a new patient, Flight Commander Simon Trevelyan, arrives — accompanied by his American ex-WAAF wife. When Billy, who worships FDR, discovers that his new fellow-patient was a former pilot in the Royal Air Force, he insists the cynical and disillusioned Simon join him in reliving the war, with Billy pretending to be FDR and Simon pretending to be Winston Churchill. In a time before PTSD was identified and when treatment for the effects of the horrors of war were little understood, their doctor thinks this play-acting might help them recover from the physical and mental traumas of their combat experiences. As the two servicemen's extremely different personal and historical stories unfold, HOTEL VICTORY portrays the aftereffects of battle and contrasts war as it is experienced by the Grand Figures of history vs. the way it is experienced by the men and women they send into the fight.
Production Info
Cast: 4 total (1 female, 3 male)Full Length Drama (about 100 minutes)
Single Set
Period Costumes
$15.00–$15.95
Play 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
$11.95–$15.00
Play Description
Three years ago, Sarah Kennedy thought she was hired as a translator for a corporate military prison in Baghdad, only to discover that she would be acting as an interrogator instead, retrieving information from prisoners of war — by any means necessary. Now, Lily Strauss, a disgraced reporter in the waning days of newspaper journalism, must uncover Sarah's story, cutting through webs of corporate lies and government deception until finally faced with the choice between her own journalistic ideals and the devastating consequences of telling the truth. A political thriller, ON THE HEAD OF A PIN is an exploration of who watches the watchers and what happens when they look away.
Production Info
Cast: 9 total (5 female, 4 male)Full Length Drama (about 170 minutes)
Multiple Sets
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95
Play Description
SOMEWHERE IN THE PACIFIC takes place on a troop ship at the end of World War II. The ship's captain is haunted by the death of his son in battle, and the young marines under his command are terrified and restless as they are stalked by an invisible enemy.
Production Info
Cast: 9 total (9 male)Full Length Drama (about 90 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Period Costumes
$15.00–$15.95
Play Description
Midway through Albert Camus's The Stranger, an Arab is killed. Leaping from this moment and working backwards through possible histories of tangled romance, ethnic conflict, and random violence, Betty Shamieh has crafted a play inspired by this unnamed character. Infused with elements of Middle Eastern oral storytelling traditions and set in French Algiers on the brink of revolution, THE STRANGEST is an absurdist murder mystery about three Algerian brothers who vie for the love of the same woman. Their bitter rivalry ends with one brother being inexplicably gunned down by a French stranger.
Production Info
Cast: 7 total (2 female, 5 male)Full Length Drama (about 100 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95
Play Description
Shrouded in mystery, the circumstances surrounding six ordinary people grappling with the emotional casualties of war unfold.
Production Info
Cast: 6 total (1 female, 5 male)Full Length Drama (about 100 minutes)
Multiple Sets
Contemporary Costumes
Play Description
Four Arab women from across the ages meet in the afterlife. As these characters — who include the Biblical Delilah and a secular modern Arab-American — struggle to come to terms with their lives and their choices, this shockingly funny play skewers traditional views on sex, family, and terrorism.
Production Info
Cast: 4 total (4 female)Full Length Drama (about 100 minutes)
Single Set
Period Costumes
$15.00–$15.95
Play 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