Veteran Writers Explore their Voices Through Theatre

Poetic Theater Productions started their Veteran Voices programming in 2011 and since then, have created spaces, classes, showcases, and events for military veterans and their families to explore poetry and performance. In the winter of 2021, New York Theatre Workshop and Poetic Theater Productions teamed up to create their first playwriting program that would provide a cohort of military veterans the opportunity to write original plays and to collaborate with professional theater artists from our community. 

The Veteran Voices Playwriting Seminar is a free virtual program under the guidance of NYTW Teaching Artist Dylan Guerra and with the assistance of veteran and Poetic Theater Productions’ Veteran Voices Program Director Jenny Pacanowski. By the end of December, two cohorts of veteran artists will have completed this nine-week seminar, which culminates in a public presentation of excerpts from their work-in-progress plays read by professional actors. The veterans meet over Zoom once a week from all over the United States, representing a wide variety of military branches. The cohorts are intergenerational, a diverse community that includes women veterans, veterans of color, and queer veterans. 

During the nine-week seminar, Guerra introduces the basics of playwriting to students and new tools for them to write their original works. Many of the veterans and their family members are poets, who are now finding theatre as a new artistic expression. The new works written by the cohort members are as diverse as they are, having covered many genres, including fantasy, spaghetti westerns, realism, and contemporary kitchen sink dramas. 

“Teaching Veteran Voices has been one of the most inspiring moments in my career. The Veterans lead every class with truth, humor, vulnerability and an unbelievable amount of creativity and will,” shares Guerra, “The greatest joy for me is watching them excavate and experiment with their specific and profound voices.” 

To learn more about Veteran Voices, please visit Poetic Theater Productions’ website. To attend NYTW and Poetic’s free virtual presentation of work-in-progress by the 2nd Cohort of Veteran Voices Playwrights, please RSVP here. 

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Categories: Community Spotlight and Education.