Beautiful American Soldier
3M, 2F · 90 mins
Winner of the Kennedy Center’s Quest for Peace Playwriting Award
Finalist for the National New Play Network’s 2010 Smith Prize
Beautiful American Soldier is a two-part story exploring the never-ending ripple effects of war. In part one, two sisters, unexpectedly lost along a quiet roadside in war-torn Iraq, find a friend in a man peddling junk. In part two, a veteran of the war in Iraq discovers that he has much more in common with a homeless man than he wants to believe. Together, all of these shattered hearts must find a way to deal with the consequences of war.
Part I is available in Best American Short Plays 2005-2006 (Applause) here.
Two monologues from Part I are published in Best Monologues from Best American Short Plays: Volume One (Applause), available here.
Productions
Backstage, Dubai, UAE
Source Festival, Washington D.C.
McGill University, Montreal, Canada
University of Tulsa, Tulsa, OK
Rutgers Theatre Company, New Brunswick, NJ
Workshops and Public Readings
The Lark Play Development Center in NYC, InterAct Theatre Company, Philadelphia, PA, Boston Theatre Works, Boston, Massachusetts Woolly Mammoth, Washington DC,
Character Descriptions
Part I: Iraq
LAMIYA, awkward, clumsy, and in love, Iraqi, 20
ULA, her sister, Iraqi, 29
BAHLOOL, in search of treasure, Iraqi, 26
Part II: America
CORPORAL DANIEL PEREZ, from the desert, Latino, 24
STAFF SERGEANT ISAIAH BROWN, from the jungle, African American, 59
