Special showcase on November 10 at 6:00 pm in Chace Theater
PROVIDENCE: Trinity Rep announces its second annual Veterans Voices performance showcase, presented as part of the theater’s Green Light Ghost Light Project. Veterans Voices features performances, music, and readings from local veterans about their time during and after military service. This special event will be held on Thursday, November 10 at 6:00 pm, just in time for Veterans Day, in Trinity Rep’s Chace Theater at 201 Washington St. in Providence. Veterans Voices is free to attend and open to the public with a post-show reception to follow. To register, call Trinity Rep’s Ticket Office at (401) 351-4242 or visit trinityrep.com/veterans later in the week.
By combining Trinity Rep’s longstanding theatrical traditions with the emotions and experiences of local veterans, Veterans Voices aims to educate the community on veterans’ issues – and give veterans a platform to share their stories. Returning performers include West Point graduate and musician Big Lux and the band Guitars for Vets. Trinity Rep will also work with Providence Clemente Veterans’ Initiative (PCVI) to coordinate Veteran Voices for the second year in a row. Many of this year’s Veterans Voices participants are current or graduated students from PCVI humanities courses.
“Military service isn’t very common in the United States today,” PCVI Director Dr. Mark Santow said. “Too often, when we do turn toward our veterans, we do so with words and gestures that can feel trite or inadequate. They become symbols, not complex individual human beings, with stories and ideas and emotions that they need to share, and that we need to hear. We need to hear what they have to say not just to share their pride in their accomplishments, but to share at least some of the burden of their pain and loss, too – they carry these things, because we’ve asked them to. They don’t put them down when they come home, as their loved ones can tell you. We shouldn’t either. ”
Veteran Voices is an extension of Trinity Rep’s ongoing engagement with Rhode Island’s veteran community, The Green Light Ghost Light Project. Created to share veterans’ stories, the Green Light Ghost Light Project is a combination of the Greenlight a Vet initiative, in which communities light a green light to show support for veterans, and the Ghost Light Project, in which theaters leave a light on to signal that the theater is a safe space for all.
“This event sees the vision of the Green Light Ghost Light Project that I began here at Trinity Rep come to fruition, where veterans can make the stage their own: for their stories, by them, and I am so honored to have them here to share this moment.” Director of Community Engagement Dr. Michelle Cruz said.
In addition to last year’s Veterans Voices event, Trinity Rep hosted the Memorial Day Reflection Walk in May 2021 to honor those who lost their lives in military service. The walk, culminating at Providence’s Rhode Island Nine Memorial, also included a special message of support from Rhode Island Senator Jack Reed and QR codes participants could scan to learn the stories of nine Rhode Island Marines who died during the Marine Barracks bombing in Beirut, Lebanon in 1983.
