Casualty of War at Theatre Row

The story of a mother’s sometimes hilarious, sometimes heartbreaking trip to Normandy’s D-Day beaches with her unwilling teenage son, written and performed by Sharon Lesser (Off Broadway: In the Daylight, Twelfth Night, Tartuffe) with direction by Austin Tooley and dramaturgy by Anisa Rose Threlkeld.

Sharon’s got a perfect itinerary planned: A mother-son tour of Normandy and Omaha Beach, with some road-tripping, great French food and a visit to Paris. What she gets is a journey with a sullen, heart-broken adolescent whose own emotional D-Day turns him into a hostile adversary pining for home. There’s a war brewing and it’s not between the Germans and the Allies. While trying to make the best of things by attempting to outmaneuver her son’s everchanging moods (i.e., being a mom), she’s surprised by how the WW2 history they encounter invokes memories of antisemitism and the impact the Holocaust had on her family. Casualty of War explores the timeless themes of motherhood, intergenerational trauma and identity. You’ll laugh. You’ll cry. You’ll crave rosé.

The runtime is 68 minutes with no intermission.

Sharon Lesser (Writer/Performer): A native of Manhattan, Sharon began acting after a successful career scripting on-air promos at Nickelodeon, Oxygen, and The Food Network. TV credits include: Raising Kanan: Powerbook III, The Deuce, Blue Bloods, Law & Order SVU, Tell Me A Story (Paramount+), I Love You, But I Lied, (Lifetime) Off-Broadway: In the Daylight, (McGinn/Cazale Theater), Twelfth Night, Tartuffe, (Pearl Theatre Company), Captivity Narrative (Playwrights Horizons) and Public Service (13th Street Repertory Theatre). Film credits include Junction, Drug Mule (Best Actress, Long Island Film Festival), and Off Season (Best Actress, LIIFE). BA in English Literature from Middlebury College. Proud member of Actors’ Equity Association and SAG-AFTRA.

Austin Tooley (Director) is an NYC-based director and dramaturg who received his MFA in Dramaturgy at Columbia University in 2021. Austin most recently worked as associate director at the Geffen Playhouse on Every Brilliant Thing. Additional recent directing work includes Argonauts, by Jacob K Robinson; at Columbia University, The Outposters, for PrideFest at The Tank; and Narcissus, a Roman pantomime live-taped in partnership with PBS. Recent dramaturgy includes play development residencies in Waterford Ireland, for Purgatory, by Colm Summers and Ciara Ni Chuirc, and at the Catwalk Art Residency in Catskill, NY, for Barbies, by A.A. Brenner.

Anisa Rose Threlkeld (Dramaturg) is a NYC-based dramaturg, actor, and musician. She received her MFA in Dramaturgy at Columbia University and a B.A. in Drama and Psychology from Vassar College. She also studied opera performance at The Bel Canto Institute and Queens College Baroque. As a dramaturg, she has developed work for Syracuse Stage, City Lyric Opera, Breaking the Binary Theatre, Queens Theatre, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, HERE Arts Center, NYSAF/The Lark, The Tank, #HealMeToo Festival, NYU Tisch, Vassar College, and Columbia University. She believes that the ultimate purpose of theater is to disrupt habit.

United Solo™ is a theatre company based in New York City, dedicated to the genre of one-person performance. Our goal is to present solo pieces, both local and international; discover original scripts; bring creators together; exchange perspectives; and inspire creativity related to solo performance.