Silent Heroes

Silent Heroes was written for Gerry Escalera
and all the Silent Heroes in our nation's past, present and future.


Roundtable Ensemble production: 
Rosalie Tenseth, Julie Jesneck, Lisa Velten Smith,
Sarah Saunders,  Dionne Audain, Kelly Ann Moore
Photo by Carol Rosegg


Synopsis

Silent Heroes is a 6-woman (early 20s to late 40s, one African American), full-length drama set in 1975 just after the end of the Vietnam War.   The action takes place in real time during a single scene on a single set - a drab government room where Marine pilots hang out before missions.   It contains no strong language and is appropriate for adult and adolescent audiences.

A plane crash.   A midnight phone call.   Now 6 wives of Marine fighter pilots wait to find out whose husband won't be coming home.   Each woman brings a different experience to the Ready Room where they wait.   JUNE (46), every inch the Commanding Officer's wife, automatically assumes command of the situation.   She is no stranger to waiting; it took two days to confirm that her first husband - also a Marine pilot - had died in Vietnam.   As June was burying her husband, MIRANDA (25) was protesting in anti-war demonstrations.   While she has hidden her "unseemly" past from the others, her idealism and lack of understanding of military life have created a divide between her and the other wives.   The only woman who has managed to broach this chasm is FELICIA (32), one of the Corps' few black officers' wives.   She, too, feels a distance from the other women because of the intense scrutiny she and her husband experience during the days of integration and civil rights.   In her desire to pass muster, she has become the Corps biggest cheerleader.   On the opposite end of the scale is ELEANOR (47) , a bitter woman, angry at the Corps.   Her needling and biting sarcasm fuel the frequent fights during the long wait.   KITTY's (35) humor is quite different from Eleanor's.   She uses her lighthearted, frivolous wit as protection from life's rough moments.   PATSY (37) , on the other hand, just lets life push her around.   She is stuck in a horrible marriage that she can't make better and won't leave.   Under the intense pressure of waiting, the women's secrets are revealed.   But just as they create a tenuous peace among themselves, the planes return - one by one.   And as each husband returns, a wife leaves.   Until there are two.   The tension mounts as the last plane arrives - and one husband doesn't.

Click here to download the first 10 pages of Silent Heroes.

Author's Note

My earliest childhood memory is stuffing the bra of a mannequin for the Marine Corps Birthday Ball. The first song my sister learned to play on the piano was "The Marine Corps Hymn." My brothers loved to sing "From the Halls of Chocolate Ice Cream to shores of Bubble Gum Bay" to the guards at the gate as the elementary school bus crossed into housing. We were a typical Marine Corps family. With a typical Marine Corps wife at the helm. My mother did indeed play bridge, knit sweaters for Navy Relief, tie up garbage cans during hurricanes and refer often to the Marine Corps Wives Etiquette book. We, too, were governed by rules of rank and by a code of honor different from the military's, although every bit as quirky and complicated.  But most Americans will never understand what my mother's life - and the lives of thousands of others like her - was like. The sacrifices made on behalf of our country.

Jump ahead to November 2000. My dear friend Evan Robinson told me a story from his past about a fatal crash on an aircraft carrier that happened while his Air Wing was conducting exercises. Somehow the wives found out and, in an attempt to discover who was not coming home, they gathered at the base as the planes returned. Evan's story ended there, but the women took up residence in my head and refused to leave until I told their story. I finished Silent Heroes in August and submitted it for the first time on September 10, 2001. I worried it was too patriotic for our cynical times.

The next day, it wasn't.

I set the play in Beaufort, SC where my father commanded his last fighter squadron. I picked 1975 because it was the year I moved to Beaufort. I chose the Saratoga because she was based in Mayport, Florida and could have used by a Beaufort-based squadron for exercises. After the play was finished, I found out that the incident that was the impetus for Silent Heroes actually happened in 1975 on the aircraft carrier Saratoga. The men killed were CDR Thomas W. Hogan (USN) and LCDR Wayne T. Mulholland (USN). Although I never met either man, I often think of them and the families they left behind. "No greater love hath a man than to lay down his life for another." John 15:13

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to the many people who have contributed to this project especially Capt. Evan Robinson (USN-Ret), Barbara Rudnick, Nardi and the rest of my lovely Pittsburgh ladies, Robert Koon, everyone at FutureFest 2002 including the Dayton Playhouse folks, the adjudicators, the audience and my fellow playwrights, the Richmond Playwrights Forum, Chicago Dramatists, Speert Publishing and all those who have been involved in readings from my living room to stages around the country.  And especially all the military wives I've known throughout my life - you were, and are, my inspiration.

I could not have written this play without my family: my mom who has been script consultant, technical advisor, stage manager, and went all the way to London on behalf of this script; Dwight, Karen and Dick who shared my many years of research; David, who made it possible to write this play; Nathan, the light in my life;  and Josh, my muse.

But most especially the person who instilled in me a great love for this country. We have not always seen eye to eye, but I will be eternally grateful that you risked your life to ensure that I would have the freedom to write this play.

Production History

Productions
Roundtable Ensemble, off-off Broadway (2009)
The Women's Theatre Project, Ft. Lauderdale, FL (2008)
VetStage, Los Angeles, CA (2007)
Theatre Jacksonville, Jacksonville, FL (2006)
Source Theatre, Washington, DC (2004)
Barksdale Theatre, Richmond (2004)

Workshops
Source Theatre, Washington, DC (2003)
Gemini Theatre, Pittsburgh, PA (2002)

Readings
Orange Park Community Theatre, Orange Park, FL (2004)
Chicago Dramatists, Chicago, IL (2003)
Firehouse Theatre, Richmond, VA (2003)
Dayton Playhouse, Dayton, OH (2002)
Richmond Playwrights Forum, Richmond, VA (2001)

Awards
2003 Washington Theatre Festival (Best Ensemble) - Source Theatre -Washington, DC
1st Annual Festival of New American Plays (Winner) - Firehouse Theatre - Richmond,VA
2002 Writer's Digest Writing Competition (Finalist)
2002 William P. and Arlene R. Lewis Playwriting Contest for Women (Semi-Finalist) - Brigham Young University
FutureFest 2002 (Winner) - Dayton Playhouse, Dayton, OH
2002 Source Literary Prize (Winner) - Source Theatre, Washington, DC
2002 Pittsburgh New Play Festival (Winner) - Gemini Theatre, Pittsburgh,PA
2002 Southwest Festival of New Plays (2nd Place Latino Division) - Stages Repertory Theatre, Houston, TX
2001 Fall Footlight Series (Winner) - Richmond Playwrights Forum - Richmond, VA



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