We Will Remember - A Staged Reading

When students at Pine-Richland Middle School read a story by Gary  Paulsen about a Vietnam veteran and the devastating effects of his  inability to talk to his family about his war experiences, they wanted  to know more about the people who had lived the history they were  learning about in school. The school engaged Ms. Asher to develop  interviewing techniques and questions with the students. Then off they  went—students, teachers, and playwright—to talk to patients in a V.A.  hospital and veterans, family members and other residents of their  communities. They returned with written and taped interviews, plus a  grandfather's journal kept during the Normandy invasion, a mother's  collection of letters from her soldier husband, a cache of letters  written by a relative who had served in the Civil War, exchanges with a  Japanese veteran, and accounts of each interviewer's own feelings about  these interviews. This play, commissioned by the school and Prime Stage  in Pittsburgh, is the result of those intense, enlightening, and deeply  moving experiences. Following performances, veterans and their family  members in each audience have been inspired to step forward and continue  the conversation. It is hoped that other schools and communities will  use this play as a catalyst to further story-sharing—and to remember.