UNIFORM CODE:
SYNOPSIS
The Telling Project has spent the last six years creating performances in which veterans and family members speak directly and honestly to their communities about their experiences in and with the military.* We are connecting military and civilian populations at a community level during a time of war.
In our ongoing efforts to respond to the understanding gap between civilian and military populations, we are developing a new series of plays, our Topic Series, that address stories, experiences, issues and ideas of particular urgency. Our first play in this series, entitled UNIFORM CODE, will address Military Sexual Trauma. The US military has seen a thirty-nine percent rise in reported incidences of MST since 2010. Congress is currently deliberating on our nation's way forward in addressing this critical situation.
In January, 2014, The Telling Project will bring a cast of MST survivors and survivors' family members to Washington, DC to develop, rehearse and premiere UNIFORM CODE. UNIFORM CODE will be these individuals telling their own stories, a three-act, play constructed through interview, transcription and scripting, rehearsal and ultimately performance, the method The Telling Project has employed since 2007. The Veterans History Project of the Library of Congress in Washington, DC has invited The Telling Project to premiere this play in Coolidge Auditorium.
WHAT WE NEED
$50,000 will bring the cast and critical staff to Washington, DC for the two weeks necessary to assemble this performance. It will pay for the best artistic, production and promotion personnel that the vibrant DC theatre scene has to offer. And it will underwrite an outreach campaign through congressional offices, constituents and networks inviting, urging and, where necessary, pressuring congressional representatives to attend the premiere of UNIFORM CODE.
WHAT YOUR SUPPORT WILL DO
Your contributions will ensure that this matter of critical importance to the character of our nation is given a face, voice and body, that it receives the national and international attention that the stage at the Coolidge Auditorium affords, and that it is witnessed by those who have the power to steer our nation's response to this urgent matter.
The injuries suffered by our men and women in uniform are of critical concern to all of us. Those suffered at the hands of their fellow soldiers, and our response to them reflect on our moral character as a people. UNIFORM CODE is an opportunity for us, as a nation, to break the silence that has surrounded these individuals, and to bear witness to the service they have given our nation under unacceptable duress.
*Eugene, OR; Portland, OR (Portland Center Stage); Seattle, WA; Washington, DC (Lisner Auditorium, George Washington University; Coolidge Auditorium, Library of Congress; Corcoran Gallery); Sacramento, CA; Starkville, MS; Baltimore, MD (Walters Museum); Iowa City, IA; Stockton, NJ; Annapolis, MD (Maryland Center for the Performing Arts); Des Moines, IA; Hunt Valley, MD; Austin, TX; Frederick, MD; San Francisco, CA (Mission Cultural Center)
Upcoming performances: Minneapolis, MN (Guthrie Theater); Roanoke, VA; New York, NY (Fashion Institute of Technology); College Station, TX
