Veterans' Stories to Come Alive in TELLING: MINNESOTA at Dowling STudio, 10/19-20

The Guthrie Theater today announced a presentation of the Telling Project in conjunction with the theater's current production of An Iliad. Max Reyneard directs Telling: Minnesota an original, three-act play written from interviews with the performers.These free performances-aimed at prompting the community's discussion and recognition of the realities of military service-will be staged on Saturday, October 19 at 10:00 a.m. and Sunday, October 20 at 1:00 p.m. in the Dowling Studio. The Saturday performance is for active service, veterans and their families only. A post-play discussion will follow the Sunday afternoon performance.

Detailing military service from Vietnam through to the present, six Minnesota veterans will step onstage to give their first-hand accounts of their lives and the military. The cast of Telling: Minnesota features local veterans Kenneth Plant (United States Marine Corps), Angie Gagnier Batica (United States Army), Vincent Undis (United States Navy), Stu Rawling (MN Air National Guard), Theodore John(United States Marine Corps) and J.A. Moad II (United States Air Force). Nate Stanger will stage manage the project.

Stories range from capture and escape in Southeast Asia and SCUD missile attacks in Saudi Arabia, to accompanying Lynn Anderson to the Marine Corps Ball, flying injured soldiers out of Iraq and Afghanistan, repairing helicopters in South Korea and military sexual trauma in the Army. Telling: Minnesota is an unvarnished look at the heroism, absurdity, horror, wonder and banality of military life as told by the Minnesotans to whom these things happened.

The Telling Project has performed previously at the US Library of Congress, Maryland Center for the Performing Arts, Portland Center Stage in Portland, OR, Lisner Auditorium in Washington, DC, and been supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian Institute, the National Endowment for the Humanities, Metabolic Studios and others. Telling: Minnesota is made possible by a generous grant from the Bob Woodruff Foundation, with additional support from The Hubbard Broadcasting Foundation.