Red Fern Theatre Company Presents A Shot Away, 3/31-4/17

Tina Priest is dead. Is it suicide? Or, is it because, just weeks before, this American soldier reported she had been raped on her Army base in Iraq. Her mother and twin sister are left with many doubts and unanswered questions.

Priest is not alone; six other soldiers recount their experiences as survivors of military sexual trauma. A Shot Away is a docu-drama about sexual assault in the US military, based entirely on interviews with American soldiers who have been sexually assaulted by their "fellow" soldiers. In their own words, the soldiers explore this ongoing epidemic in our military and examine what can be done to address and prevent instances of sexual assault and rape in the military.

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. According to a 2009 U.S. Department of Defense report, there were over 3,000 reported cases of sexual assault committed by soldiers against soldiers. This number does not represent the estimated 80% of unreported cases of sexual assault.

On Tuesday, February 15th, more than a dozen U.S. veterans filed a class-action suit in federal court, attempting to force the Pentagon to change how it handles cases of military sexual trauma.

Panayiota Bertzikis, a Coast Guard veteran, is a plaintiff in the lawsuit and one of the veterans interviewed for A Shot Away."The problem of rape in the military is not only service members getting raped, but it's the entire way that the military as a whole is dealing with it," says Bertzikis. "From survivors having to be involuntarily discharged from service, the constant verbal abuse, once a survivor does come forward your entire unit is known to turn their back on you. The entire culture needs to be changed." http://tinyurl.com/APMilitarySexualTrauma

March 31-April 17, 2011
Thursdays at 8 p.m.
Fridays at 8 p.m.
Saturdays at 8 p.m.
Sundays at 3 p.m.
Additional performance on Monday, April 11 at 7pm.
Tickets $25
www.redferntheatre.org or 866.811.4111

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