Infinite Variety Productions Announces Panelists For Three-Night Online Event

Infinite Variety Productions announces panelists for their three-night In Their Footsteps: the Radio Play Online Launch event!

In honor of Veterans Day and to celebrate the launch of their new radio play, In Their Footsteps: The Radio Play, which follows the stories of five American women who served in Vietnam during the Vietnam War, Infinite Variety Productions is hosting three evenings of readings of the play followed by panel discussions with people intimately connected to the war in different ways.

Audience members will have the opportunity, after watching the reading of the play, November 9-11, to hear pieces of these women's stories and then to ask questions in a Zoom webinar Q+A format. Open discussion is encouraged. Signed copies of Nguya??n Phan Qua?? Mai's newest book, The Mountains Sing, will also be available for purchase to audience members of the event.

A Wide Variety of Panels and Panelists
November 9: US Veterans Then and Now
November 10: Vietnamese Perspectives
November 11: In Their Footsteps

November 9:

• Edie Meeks joined the Army Nurse Corps (ANC) in early 1968 and was sent to Vietnam just a few months later. There, Edie worked in the Intensive Care Units of the 3rd Field Hospital in Saigon and the 71st Evac Hospital in Pleiku in the Vietnam War. Edie has a nursing career that spans over 50 years as well as serving on the Board of Directors of the Vietnam Women's Memorial Foundation, the Board of Directors of the National Purple Heart Hall of Honor, and on Congressman Sean Mallony's Veterans' advisory board.
• Bob Staranowicz served in the 101st Airborne Division in Vietnam. While there, he befriended a nun and two boys who worked and lived, respectively, at the Kim Long Orphanage in Hue. He traveled back to Vietnam in 2008 and was reunited with them. Bob has authored a novel, Chapter One: The Story of Vic Charles, and co-written a play, Beyond the Etchings, which has been produced and performed by IVP.
• Maria L. Salazar was born in Peru and grew up in New Jersey. She served in the United States Marine Corps as a Logistics Specialist and was deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in January 2003 for an 8 month long deployment. She was honorably discharged in 2011 with the rank of E-5, having served 9 years. Upon entering the civilian sector, Salazar became a fitness and dance instructor and founded the nonprofit project Claymore Vets. Their mission is to use creative exploration with clay to provide veterans with a safe outlet to ignite interpersonal dialogue to foster reconnection and growth.

November 10:

• Kieu-Chinh is a legendary Vietnamese-American actress with nearly six decades of international contributions to the motion picture industry. Chinh's appearances exceed more than 100 film and television shows such as: M*A*S*H, China Beach, Dynasty, ER, NCIS: Los Angeles, A Yank In Vietnam, Operation C.I.A., The Joy Luck Club, Journey From The Fall. Kieu-Chinh is president, co-founder, and co-chair of the Vietnam Children's Fund (VCF) a non-profit organization along with the late Lewis Puller Jr., and journalist, Terry Anderson. Since its inception in 1993, VCF has built 50 schools in Vietnam providing safe and high quality education for more than 25,000 students annually.
• Nguya??n Phan Qua?? Mai has authored eight books of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction and has won some of the top literary prizes of Vietnam. Born in Via??t Nam in 1973, she grew up witnessing the war's devastation and its aftermath. Her debut novel and first book in English, The Mountains Sing, has been selected as a New York Times Editor's Choice. Qua?? Mai will be offering signed bookplates with the purchase of her new book to audience members of our panel discussion. Qua?? Mai currently divides her time between Indonesia and Via??t Nam. For more information, visit her at www.nguyenphanquemai.com.
• Laura Le Thi Satira - an adopted Vietnamese girl from Hue, Vietnam who was raised in Brooklyn, NY where she still resides. She has four beautiful children and one amazing husband. A yoga and gymnastics teacher and a crafter at heart who runs creative workshops in her community. She has a love for Brooklyn but one day she hopes to find herself in Vietnam again, serving and loving the land she came from

November 11:

• The cast and playwright will join these women with whom the characters of "In Their Footsteps" are based.
• Ann Kelsey served as a civilian librarian with Army Special Services in Vietnam. She returned in October 1994 as a member of a humanitarian group, Project: Hearts and Minds, delivering medical supplies to clinics and hospitals. She has been active in veterans' organizations and involved in documenting the oral histories of veterans.
• Jeanne "Sam" Christie served in Vietnam as part of the Supplemental Recreational Activities Overseas (S.R.A.O.) unit of the Red Cross. Also known as "Donut Dollies," the women in the SRAO units tried to bring comfort and "a touch of home in a combat zone" to the soldiers in the field. She has served as a White House Advisor on Women's Health on behalf of civilian women serving in Vietnam and as a consultant on the television program China Beach.
• Judy Jenkins Gaudino was in Vietnam from September 1967 to August 1970 with Army Special Services as a civilian Recreation Specialist under the Department of Defense. A specialist in Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Judy spent 15 years counseling Vietnam veterans and their families.
• Dr. Doris "Lucki" Allen, Ph.D, served in three major job fields during her 30 years of military service: Entertainment, Public Affairs (journalism) and Intelligence. She is also an author and member of one of the most exclusive organizations in the world: The Military Intelligence Corp Hall of Fame. While in Vietnam, Allen advised supervisors of a potential large-scale attack planned for January 31, 1968, and her report fell on deaf ears. The report was submitted 30 days prior to the Tet Offensive, which occurred January 30, 1968, and is today remembered as a major intelligence failure of the war.

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