Into The Fire:An exploration of the issues and trauma of disabled veterans

(Wausau, WI) – We have all heard stories of combat-related injuries and know individuals who are forever changed by war.  On Tuesday, Sept. 6, from 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m., Northcentral Technical College (NTC) will present Into the Fire, an exploration of returning vets with disabilities and combat-related trauma, which includes stories of how they integrate into their families, communities, educational institutions and the workforce.  Into the Fire explores the full spectrum of issues relating to disabled veterans including the generational effects of the war experience on the children and families of our veterans. Specific disabilities include: post -traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury, hearing loss, loss of limbs, chronic pain and mobility challenges.  In addition, many employers and educators are anticipating the opportunities as well as the challenges that may occur when including returning veterans.

Into the Fireincorporates actors/playwrights who recreate the stories of both male and female veterans who have returned from Iraq, Afghanistan and Vietnam. Humor and music will be interspersed throughout the play, allowing the participants to digest and process these powerful stories.  The audience will meet people who will elicit a wide variety of emotional responses and thoughts designed to create awareness, empathy and new ways to respond to veterans as they rejoin our workforce and communities.  Following the play the actors/playwrights will facilitate an interactive discussion with the participants using their emotional reactions to the play as a springboard to examine the effects of war on their communities and ways to create meaningful opportunities for returning veterans.

Course information:

Integration of Returning Veterans – Into the Fire

Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2011           6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.

NTC Wausau Campus Room E101-102

The cost of the course is $20.  To register visit, www.ntc.edu/continuinged/register and register for course number 27271.

Into the Fireis presented by Had To Be Productions. In 1997, Carrie Gibson founded Had To Be Productions, named for its inaugural production of Renee Taylor and Joseph Bologna’s It Had To Be You, selected as the Outstanding Independently-produced Play for 1997 by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. This comedy allowed Gibson and Anthony Curry to meet and perform together for the first time. In her first original project for Had To Be, Gibson created a one-woman show on cultural diversity, Not Until You Know My Story. The following year Curry joined her to create the play, Not Just Ramps, which evolved out of the intense audience response to the character of Emily, a young woman with cerebral palsy and Curry’s personal experience raising his son Adam who is autistic. They have been an acting and writing team ever since. In 2008 they updated Not Until You Know My Story and integrated Curry into the performance. They created Into the Fire in 2009, followed by Because You Know Mein 2010 and The Gender Agenda in 2011.

Had to Be Productionshas toured unique theatrical documentary plays and workshops throughout the country to government agencies, corporations, educational institutions and conferences. These presentations have been seen by audiences as small as a dozen people to over 1000 people in a variety of settings and venues. Had to Be Productions has performed in 24 states and, in 2010, officially became an international touring company with its first presentation in Toronto, Canada.

Carrie Gibson,M.A. Psychology, worked for a variety of social service agencies and has created and led numerous groups, workshops and retreats focusing on issues of addiction and family dynamics.  Since 1989 she has also pursued a career as an actor, teacher and playwright and was the founding Artistic Director of G.A.P. (Growth and Prevention) Theatre, one of Seattle’s most successful educational theatre companies.  She brings over 25 years of facilitation skills to her work and is particularly focused on the intersection of empathy and inclusion. Ms. Gibson has performed comedy and improvisation in California, Washington State and D.C.  She has produced and performed in It Had to Be You, Anthony Curry’s Divine

Hysteria: that Millennium Thingand The Perfect Sister, her solo play that premiered in Los Angeles. And if you do not blink, you might catch her in an occasional national commercial.

Anthony Paul Curry, Ed. B Theater and Communication, brings 40 years of experience as an actor, director, playwright and teacher. He is the recipient of numerous acting awards as well as the 2000 Artist Trust Fellowship for Playwrights. He has performed on stages across the country from New York to Hawaii. Television credits include: The Fugitive, Northern Exposure, Jake & the Fat Man, Tour of Duty and Hawaiian Heat. As a writer, Curry was commissioned by the Seattle Opera to co-create a children’s adaptation of Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Divine Hysteria: Armageddon Outta Here, the first of his Hysteria Trilogy, was produced Off-Broadway in New York. His interest in using theatre as a medium for social engagement and dialogue began in 1993 when he co-founded T.A.L.K. Theatre, a touring company that taught sexual abuse prevention in Washington State schools.