ADOPT A SAILOR -- 50 STATE TOUR Makes Final Stop In Charlottesville

Award winning playwright Charles Evered’s play “Adopt a Sailor” has been on a nationwide tour since 2018 to garner support for the Evered House, the playwright’s non-profit that supports creative military members and others who serve. 

The “Adopt a Sailor — 50 State Tour” began in 2018 in California, paused for two years during the pandemic, finally making its last stop in the playwright’s home state of Virginia on December 28th, 2024. The first ten states were completed between 2018 and 2020. There was a pause for Covid during 2021-2022, and the last forty states were completed between 2023 and 2024. 

The final presentation featured actors Ben Atkinson, Laura Heck and Benedict Burgess. 

“It’s really quite amazing,” remarks Evered, “I wrote a ten minute play almost twenty-five years ago, and its continued to speak to audiences in theaters, on screens and on this country-wide tour. This play has given me the gift of meeting scores of people across the country from every walk of life. Its been presented fully staged, as a reading in living rooms, in coffee shops, VFW halls, around picnic tables and even as a solo piece in Kentucky, where it was performed poolside by the housekeeping staff at a Motel 6. The thing that makes me most proud is to have created something that seems to truly unite people. A play that cuts across the divisiveness that seems so rampant now.” 

"Adopt a Sailor" began its life in 2002 as a ten minute piece first presented at The Town Hall in New York City as part of a program of other short plays called "Brave New World." That event brought together New York based playwrights to write pieces in response to the 9/11 attacks. That first production of "Adopt a Sailor" featured a rotating cast of luminaries including: Liev Schreiber, Neil Patrick Harris, Sam Waterston, Amy Irving, Eli Wallach and Anne Jackson among others. It was then expanded and performed off-Broadway after being commissioned by Andy Breckman, the creator of the hit television series Monk, which Evered wrote for. The 2008 feature film version, which Evered adapted and directed, starred Ethan Peck as well as Emmy winners Bebe Neuwirth and Peter Coyote. It premiered at the Palms Springs International Film Festival as well as at more than twenty film festivals around the world. It won several awards before being picked up by Showtime. The film continues to stream on Amazon Prime. The play, both the long and short version were published in an edition by Broadway Play Publishing, Inc. 

Evered started the Evered House program in honor of his father, Charles J. Evered, (1918-1979), who served in World War II. 

When asked how it feels to finally complete his goal after six years, Evered responds: “It’s actually been less of a goal and more of an obsession, really. And we have so many people to thank for it. More than a hundred and fifty actors, scores of directors and a bevy of supporters who opened their homes, donated theatre space, generated publicity, did it all. You simply can’t do something like this alone. I was lucky to have a great team of producers that stepped up to help put many of the parts together." 

Producers for the “Adopt a Sailor — 50 State Tour” included Andrew Henrickson, Jesica Paige and Loren Marsters. In addition, Evered’s daughter Margaret Evered lent logistical support, and his longtime colleague Marty James agreed to put together a film montage of all fifty casts.

Begun as a program focused on providing residencies for artists, the Evered House evolved out of necessity into a grant based model after the pandemic. “We just wanted to streamline support right to the artists. We've funded the work of former police officers, military veterans, front line workers, the whole gamut. What they all have in common is---they create with a higher purpose in mind, and it's our honor to do whatever we can to support that.” 

Evered, a lifetime member of the Writers Guild of America recently completed a writing residency at the George Washington Birthplace National Monument in Colonial Beach, Virginia. The play that emerged from that experience will be presented in September of 2025. Additionally, he was recently offered a Research Fellowship at the American Revolution Institute at the Society of the Cincinnati in Washington, D.C.—the first dramatist ever offered such a position. In 2023, his plays were added to the permanent Public History Collection at the Massachusetts Historical Society. In November of 2024, a new published collection of his work titled “Charles Evered, Fourteen Short Plays and Monologues, (1984-2024),” spanning forty years of his work, was released. 

Evered is currently developing a new feature film tentatively titled “Ruff,” to direct. He lives in Richmond, Virginia and Los Angeles, California. 

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