Boots on the Ground

Photographs by T Charles Erickson

True stories. This 90-minute play about the early years of the American invasion and war in Iraq is distilled from interviews of nearly 70 US soldiers and their families, medical workers, journalists, ministers, and others. It is a riveting study of intimacy and what war does to a person’s core relationships.

“OK, look. This is what theater is for. It’s for bringing people into a room to speak and think and feel something unexpected about something important. Together. It’s for sharing a million uniquely individual stories to remind us that we all share one story: We are all human. And when we experience a real work of art with other humans, we remember what that means. Boots on the Ground is a real work of art.”—The Boston Globe

“Boots on the Ground does not ‘whitewash’ or tip-toe around uncomfortable issues. It is wonderfully conceived, and honestly acted…the material that ‘Boots’ is drawn from, and the people who provided it, are treated with enormous respect and appreciation.”— Broadway World

“Boots on the Ground is one of the most passionate, powerful plays I have seen in over 50 years.”— The Warwick Beacon

“The first reaction to something as vital and timely as Boots on the Ground is that it has to go on the road and move among the people. Take it to a church, a school, a town common on a warm spring night. Take it to places where its characters can seem like the friends and neighbors they are. Boots On The Ground is important…It has things to tell us that we’re not hearing anywhere else.”— The Providence Journal

Credits:

Premiere production:
Created by Laura Kepley and D. Salem Smith
Written by D. Salem Smith 
Directed by Laura Kepley
Set Design by Beowulf Boritt
Costume Design by William Lane
Lighting Design by Brian J. Lilienthal
Sound Design by Peter Sasha Hurowitz
Photo Credits: T. Charles Erickson

Featured Richard Donnelly, Annie Scurria, Stephen Thorne, and Rachael Warren, and Joe Wilson Jr.