LSNelson Productions
presents

VIETNAM…THROUGH MY LENS

Written & Performed by STU RICHEL
Directed by LINDA S. NELSON

Voiceovers: CHET BROOKS, AL SMITH, & TERENCE McCARTHY
Scenic Designer: MARISA MERRIGAN
Lighting Designer: ELAINE WONG
Photo Montages/Video Design: MICHAEL LEE STEVER
Costume Consultant: SAMANTHA NEWBY
Graphic Designer: PHILIP EMEOTT
Website Design/Development: CHRISTOPHER A. McCARTHY & CHRISTOPHER T. EVANS
Marketing Consultant: TERENCE McCARTHY
Assistant Stage Manager: MELISSA E. CARROLL
Stage Manager: AMY HENAULT
Press Representative: DALE HELLER, HELLERHIGHWATER

Dorothy Strelsin Theater
312 West 36th Street
New York, NY 10018
www.vietnamthroughmylens.com
November 9 through 23, 2014

STU RICHEL had just earned his law degree when New York called him up for the draft in 1967. He kind of took his time reporting, and when he did, it was too late for him to go in as an officer. Straight to boot camp in Georgia, and here’s your stylish new haircut. Get ready for reality, city boy.

RICHEL wrote this memoir from the viewpoint of how his service in Viet Nam changed him. He had opportunities to avoid the draft. One was to join the Coast Guard National Guard. But something in him prevented him from taking that route. A slim, scholarly looking young man, he neither acts nor thinks like a “killer”. Yet he decides he wants to see action. Once in ‘Nam he is assigned to the JAG office, far from the front and using his legal skills to deal with soldiers who had gone AWOL. He still wants to go into combat. His pals decide he is crazy.

He gets his wish, stuffed into a cargo plane headed into conflict, into an area filled with booby-traps and gunfire. He takes up smoking, since all the C-Rations (Army for “food”, sort of) contain a little pack of cigarettes, generously supplied by the tobacco companies. The camaraderie was deep, the dangers many, and RICHEL wonders at the many potentially suicidal things he did, like crawling into underground tunnels with just a flashlight and a gun. He recounts the joys: a weekend pass to Saigon with its hot showers, real food, and wonderful smells. R&R was in Taiwan with an equal array of delights. During his days at the front, he even meets a very brave, devoted man---who will turn out in the end to be a famous spy.

By 1970 he’s back on Long Island, passing the N.Y. bar exam. He bounces out to San Jose, then to Greenwich Village. In April, 1995, the twentieth anniversary of U.S. withdrawal from Viet Nam, he gets a call from CBS. They are doing a special broadcast and would like him to participate. He’s not sure he wants to go back and touch that sadness.

I’ll let him tell you the rest, including the lessons he learned from the war. RICHEL has written and performs an absolutely engaging, realistic yet primarily light-hearted, view of his participation in a war that tore not only Viet Nam, but this country, to shreds. During the production, photos from his days in the jungle are displayed on a white screen behind him, including pictures of his pals. In a postscript, the screen displays then-and-now photos of him and his friends, and what they are doing in life these days.

VIETNAM…THROUGH MY LENS will resonate with anyone who remembers that era. If you know the Viet Nam War only through history books or your father’s stories, this play will fill in the lines with colorful details and cruel truths. RICHEL tells a great tale, no matter what your age.

-Karen D’Onofrio-