To celebrate Veteran’s Day, historical fall play dramatizes two veterans Vietnam War experiences

Healani Brennan
Staff Writer 

This year, Pierce College’s fall play, “The Last of the Boys” illustrates friendship and betrayal in an interesting turn. Set in the era of the 1960’s, it follows two Vietnam air veterans who come together every summer for thirty plus years, until one summer secrets that have been kept from one another tear the two apart. The air vets are Addison Kelly, who portrays Ben, and both Grant Hillard and Ammanfil Oreta as Jeeter.

The mother-daughter duo, Loraine and Salyer, are played by Cassandra Atkins and Georgina Tyler. Estrangement develops between the two after Salyer finds out that her father, whom was drafted into Vietnam, died in action. Salyer finds out not from her mother, but from the veteran’s memorial wall, that her father died in action. She becomes determined to take all of the names with her, and gets them tattooed on her body.

Playwright Steven Dietz wrote the play while Steve Cooper, a member of the business for forty years, guest directs. The two previously collaborated in 2006 on a play about Dracula, written by Steven. “I did Dracula and it was just amazingly well-written, and when I read this [script) I instantly fell in love with this one too and said ‘I have to direct this.’”

Being set in the 1960’s, the play posed some difficult challenges for Cooper, as well as some of the actors. “There’s a lot of history in this play,” says Cooper, so students had to research the 60’s a little in order to understand the references made.

“It’s a big challenge for me to direct them because there’s no frame of reference with people like Robert McNamara, the Cuban Missile Crisis, or the Domino theory or anything else like that. I have to go and explain over and over again what these things mean, and they have to research what these things mean so their characters are true,” comments Cooper.

Angel Colon plays a ghostly character who depicts the conscience of Ben, materializing in the form of a young soldier. A very long scene with Ben and the soldier created some technical difficulties, with many lighting changes and sound cues that make up majority of the scene.

Audiences should not be too worried about the accuracy of the play. 60’s era music is also incorporated into the play during pre-show, intermission, and during the play. In one scene a reference is made to the Rolling Stones’ “Time is on Their Side” and another character must sing a portion of the song.

Cooper plans to be involved in another play, this year or the next. In the meantime, catch his current product, “The Last of the Boys”, starting Nov. 9.