Despite joining the United States Army, a close-knit family from the Dominican Republic finds that there are few steady steps on the path towards success in America. Seeking respite in a gay bar while stationed in South Korea, two Black soldiers find eachother despite the risk of a policy that could cost them their career and force them out to their families. Two women veterans find support in each other on their journey toward becoming themselves again after years of training and survival in the military. Two new short poetic plays and a choreopoem by military veterans interwoven with poems by veterans and a veteran’s sister navigate becoming, and transitioning, through complex rites of passage silenced in American military experiences during and after service. 

The artists featured and celebrated in Veteran Voices: Rites of Passage are: Karen Alvarado, John M. Meyer, Miguel A. Faña, Omar Columbus, Valton Jackson, James Edward Becton, Román Baca, Jenny Pacanowski, Maria Salazar, Alex Mallory, Tara Krause, Drew Pham, Katherine Meyer, and Craig Manbauman.

Projection Design by Lisa Renkel and Brian Pacelli
Associate Projection Design by Nico Schiavone
Lighting Design by Christina Tang
Audio Design by Ray Archie
Stage Management by Chiara Johnson

Presented as a part of Poetic License Ritual, Poetic Theater Productions’ 10th annual festival of new poetic theater.

This work was made in part with the help of Theater Mitu’s Artists-At-Home program.