Non-Traditional Casting

The world of the play is November 1969 so if I wanted to be true to story of these young men for the most part I would have to stick with what the author has put together. During the Vietnam War in far flung forward areas such as where this story is set there would not be any women present, or even in the unit. This unit goes "outside the wire" to pick up dead bodies after fire fights and retrieves the dead... not a job for women at this time. Though here at SHSU we have a great assortment of different races, colors, and creeds it could possibly be done with a couple different actors. This play would not work with handicapped actors, due to the fact that these people are not allowed into the military. It has only been in our current war that a few amputies have been allowed to stay in the service. The character of Deacon could be done by a Latino man. I say this because Deacon is from urban Detroit, I'm sure there were white folks living there in the 1960's, but due to the way race played such a huge role in how people acted toward each other I can't really see a white man in this role. Tito could stay a Latino man, or I suppose that a Black man could play the role as well; Tito Jackson, a black man and one of the Jackson 5. If one did cast another race in the place of Tito some minor cuts would have to be made to the script; this being the places when he is refered to as a "P.R." (Puerto Rican). Straw could be played by another race seeing that for the most part of the story he is just trying to find his own way to deal with the war, and not so much being wrapped up in talking about his past or where he has come from. The character of 1LT Johnston could be played by a another race. Johnston is the picture of aloof, frat-boy, college guy who is more interested in getting his men to play volley-ball than the war around him. Plus he is more of a bit part, and we really don't get any depth into his character.

If this play could be retooled and set in Iraq of Afghanistan then the characters could be played by more actors of color, and possibly gender. This would work due to women are now more intermixed in many units that now preform body recovery, and preform postmortem duties. If this was set in the Global War on Terror the weed smoking scene would either have to be cut, or retooled somehow.