Culture

Three OU Offices Collaborate to Present BASETRACK Live Oct. 12

Posted on: Friday, October 7, 2016

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The Ohio University Performing Arts Series in collaboration with the Campus Involvement Center and the Veterans and Military Student Services Center present the theatrical touring production of BASETRACK Live on Oct. 12 at 7:30 p.m. in Ohio University’s Memorial Auditorium.

BASETRACK Live is a documentary theatre piece produced by the not for profit theatre company En Garde Arts about the impact of war on veterans, and their families.  Two actors portray the real life characters of AJ and Melissa Czubai., a young Marine and his wife.  We follow their journey through his deployment to Afghanistan and back home again, her birth while he is overseas and his injury that sends him home.  Photographs and videos shot by embedded journalists bring to light the stories of other Marines whom AJ served with in Unit 1/8, their feelings about deploying and their hopes and dreams for coming home.  There is additional video footage of Marines and their families once they are back home, that shows the transformation of ordinary people fundamentally changed by the extraordinary experience of fighting a war.

BASETRACK Live does not represent these characters as either heroes or victims.  Instead, it shows a complicated and sensitive portrayal of how war affects us all.

Perhaps unlike any other theatre piece of the last decade, BASETRACK Live gives us an up close and personal look at the impact of war on the families and caregivers of those who have served.  Right along with them, we come to experience the difficulty of separating from a loved one, the anxiety provoked by their long absence overseas, the angst of not knowing day to day whether or not a family member is safe and the tremendous adjustment families undergo when those who have served come home and begin to reintegrate back into American life in search for a place for themselves.

The production was created by Edward Bilous, Director of the Center for Innovation in the Arts at the Juilliard School.  The inspiration for the project came when Bilous visited an exhibition at Google that featured the work of a group of photojournalists who were embedded in Afghanistan.

This event is free and open to the public. For more information, visit www.ohio.edu/performingarts.