Veterans 10-Minute Play Festival at Sophia Gordon Center for Creative and Performing Arts

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Salem State University to host Veterans 10-Minute Play Festival, celebrating fifth anniversary of popular event   

Salem, Mass. –  Salem State Theatre, in conjunction with Salem State University’s Center for Creative and Performing Arts will host its fifth annual Veterans 10-Minute Play Festival from November 9-11 at 7:30 pm. The performances will take place in the Sophia Gordon Center, 356 Lafayette Street.  

 The event, which features six selected plays performed by 24 students and directed by two faculty members, will touch on a range of issues, including respect, desertion and homelessness. Requirements for submissions include that a play focus on military service and/or how that service affects a community.  

“The development of the veterans’ playwriting contest and festival uses theater as a tool to bring the community together to discuss the themes of war, patriotism, and service in a way that increases understanding, empathy and compassion,” said festival artistic director Julie Kiernan ‘96, of Marblehead, associate professor of theatre and speech communication. 

A national call for submissions goes out each spring with winners selected by a panel of judges, including veteran and alum Tom Laaser ’20, of Windham, Maine, who was an inspiration for the festival in 2019 with a play he wrote in 2018, Kiernan said.  

“The festival is vitally important on Veterans Day because it is not benign. It’s not for show. It puts veterans and their lives front and center and asks hard questions of us all. It generates conversations we need to be having on this day,” said Laaser, who served with the 10th Mountain Division out of Fort Drum, New York from 2011 to 2016 with one deployment to Afghanistan. 

The performances are free and open to the public and often sell out. Advanced reservations are recommended at www.salemstatetickets.com 

Submissions and winners of previous playwright competitions have included military family members, social workers and psychologists who work with vets and even civilians. One winner was even a writer for the hit 1970’s television show, MASH. 

The play “VFW Post 1209,” written by Salem State visiting assistant professor of theatre and speech communication and alum Brendan O’Neill ‘95, a veteran from Salisbury, is among this year’s selected works. It’s about a female ex-soldier who wanders into the bar to use the phone and the people she then meets.   

O’Neill has also directed plays in the festival. “I think voicing some of the issues our veterans have dealt with is such important work and continues to be topical,” he said. 

Following each evening’s performance, audience members also have the opportunity to speak to the directors, playwrights and actors to discuss all aspects of the production and themes of the plays.   

“The post-show conversations that are part of this festival affirm the value of sharing stories as they are rich and oh, so human,” said Karen Gahagan, director of the creative and performing arts center. 

Laaser agreed. 

“It is important for veterans and those military affiliated to tell their story. It is important for the community to hear their story and ask questions,” he added. “I believe creative expression and community discussion is one of the highest ways to truly honor the human beings we call veterans.”

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 About Salem State University  

Known as the Commonwealth’s civic engagement university, Salem State University, established in 1854, is a comprehensive, public institution of higher learning located approximately 15 miles north of Boston, Massachusetts. One of the largest state universities in the Commonwealth, Salem State enrolls about 6,500 undergraduate and graduate students. It offers 32 undergraduate programs and graduate programs that offer degrees in 24 fields. The university also has a continuing education division that offers both credit and non-credit programs. Salem State proudly participates in the National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement and has shown a student voting rate above the national average, earning it a Silver Seal from the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge. In 2020, Salem State received Carnegie Community Engagement Classification. The university is designated a Best for Vets College by Military Times.