Tag Archives: Shirley Lauro

Reflection: Shirley Lauro’s A Piece of My Heart

In late September, the production of Shirley Lauro’s A Piece of My Heart wrapped at Hale Park nearby Summit, IL. The production that I was a part of, that was so incredibly emotionally and mentally draining for me (but was ultimately worthwhile) had its last show with an avenue opening for a reprise / revival to occur sometime down the road.

However, very early on in the rehearsal process I originally wanted to read the book “A Piece of My Heart: The Stories of Twenty-Six American Women Who Served in Vietnam” Put together by Keith Walker. In the end I decided not to due to the possibility of having twenty-six different voices in my head versus just one voice that is a conglomeration of a few of the stories. Granted there are pros and cons in reading the original stories… But in the end I was glad I made that decision of not reading any of the original stories prior to the run of the production.

However, now that the run is over, I was tempted to go and read the book that inspired the play:
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Endeavors: “A Piece of My Heart” by Shirley Lauro

Recently I was asked to participate in a production of “A Piece of My Heart”. I had other plans and ideas, other productions I wanted to audition for: but once I knew more of the story and the characters I realized that this was one of those stage productions that I would ultimately regret turning down.

From Shirley’s webpage about this stage play:

The true stories of six courageous women sent to Vietnam and their struggle to make sense of a war that irrevocably changed them and a nation that shunned them. A work with the music and soul of a tumultuous era in our history.

Also from the Samuel French website:

This is a powerful, true drama of six women who went to Vietnam: five nurses and a country western singer booked by an unscrupulous agent to entertain the troops. The play portrays each young woman before, during, and after her tour in the war-torn nation and ends as each leaves a personal token at the memorial wall in Washington.

Before I go on… typically I would not talk about any productions that I have been a part of because by that time I would have a very biased view of the production that I would be able to give a reasonable objective view. However, after the first read through and the first rehearsal I felt that it is necessary to write my thoughts and feelings down about this production else it might overwhelm me… it is that deep and thought provoking… right up my alley.

So for the sake of keeping this as objective as possible I will not mention the remainder of the cast, production team or where this production is going to take place… if you are interested in knowing more about this production you could message me directly from my personal Facebook Page or send me a tweet and I will provide the information. But for the purposes of this blog post I just won’t place any bias on this script and story.

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