After almost 60 years, the stories of Northeast Tennessee’s World War II veterans will be relived on the stage of the historic Veterans Affairs Memorial Theatre in Johnson City.
ETSU’s Division of Theatre opens its fall season with the first staged production of The Brave and the Free, a play based on the oral histories of World War II veterans including many from Northeast Tennessee.
It will be presented Saturday, Oct. 9, at 2 p.m. at the City Square in downtown Rogersville as part of the Heritage Days celebration, and in Johnson City Monday-Thursday, Oct. 11-14, at 7:30 p.m. in Memorial Theatre, Building 35 on the campus of the James H. Quillen Veterans Affairs Medical Center at Mountain Home. The performance on Thursday, Oct. 14, will feature sign language interpretation for the hearing-impaired.
General admission tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students with valid I.D. Thursday, Oct. 14, is “Faculty-Staff Appreciation Day,” when ETSU employees with valid I.D. will be admitted free of charge. There is also an added benefit to VA residents at Mountain Home, who may see any performance at Memorial Theatre free of charge by presenting their ID.
This play is made possible through the Expanding Community Partnerships Program, funded by the third grant awarded to ETSU from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation of Battle Creek, Mich. It is also a partnership between the ETSU Division of Theatre and the Rogersville/ Hawkins County Council on the Arts.
The play grew out of ETSU’s efforts for the Library of Congress-affiliated Veterans’ History Project and incorporates the stories of Rogersville residents John Peeler, Hubert Barker, Joe Davis, J.L. Haun and Esther E. Price, along with many other veterans from this region and around the nation. In fact, the drop for the play is painted with pictures of the five Rogersville veterans. Rogersville artist Randy Constantino painted the drop using photos taken during the war.
Written by ETSU Director of Theatre Bobby Funk, the play features musical direction and arrangements by Anne Cook. However, The Brave and the Free is not a musical.
“The music is used to help tell the story and to make transitions through it,” said Funk, who also directs the play. “The play opens with WACs (Women’s Army Corp. members) singing ‘Sentimental Journey’ as though we are in peacetime. Then, all of a sudden, you hear radio news reports about the air raid on Pearl Harbor.”
Cook made new arrangements of big band music that was played during World War II for the play.
“She is a great musical director and she is really good at doing musical harmonies,” Funk said. “She’s also making the soundtrack.”
Cook will digitally create the sound of a small jazz combo to accompany much of the harmonies.
In addition to using three-person harmonies, Funk decided to incorporate radio addresses to highlight shifts in the play.
“The idea I have had from the beginning is to make the audience feel like they are sitting at home listening to the radio,” he said. “That’s another way we are doing transitions to get into our stories.”
The stories Funk speaks of are those found in the veterans’ oral histories. The need to tell their stories is ultimately what inspired Funk to write the play, which has taken him more than a year and a half to complete.
“I got to thinking about how I had many uncles pass away who were in the war, that no one recorded their stories,” he said. “They made sacrifices that we can’t even begin to understand. We can’t forget those stories. If we don’t preserve these stories they’re going to be gone. Thousands of World War II veterans are dying every day. A lot of people made a lot of sacrifices for us.
“My hope in the long run would be that the play gets produced elsewhere and the stories will survive,” he added. “These are real people who lived through a very difficult time. (NBC News anchor and bestselling author) Tom Brokaw calls (them) America’s ‘greatest generation.'”
Funk made sure to add that not all the stories in the play are serious. He recalled a story about a WAC who was engaged three times. “She only got one diamond and didn’t marry anybody. But, she had a good time.”
This play was not influenced by the current war in Iraq, said Funk. “This is not a political play at all,” he said. “It’s about those people. It’s their stories; it’s not about ideologies at all. Some people may find it patriotic, but it’s not really a patriotic play. As all plays have to be, it’s about the people, what they went through and how they felt about it.”
The play will be performed by an ensemble of eight actors, each of whom portrays a variety of characters. The cast includes E.T. Tarleton, Corey Zachery, Jeffrey Carrier, T.J. Kent, Brad McKenzie, Ryan Basham, Vanessa Baisden, Amy Laws and Mary Blair.
The stage-manager for the production is Ryan Greenwell. Melissa Shafer designed the sets and lighting and Karen Brewster will design the costumes.
In addition to performances in Rogersville and Johnson City, the Division of Theatre will present The Brave and the Free at the state Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival, which will take place Oct. 21-23 at Lambuth University in Jackson.
For reservations, more information or special assistance for those with disabilities, contact the ETSU Division of Theatre box office at 439-7576 or theatre@etsu.edu.

Author