Vietnam War Tracers by 7 veterans Vietnam ConflictWar

Vietnam War Tracers, by 7 veterans

Vietnam Conflict/War © 1959 -1975 (dates of American involvement) © Vietnam’s history of resisting colonizers: China, France, Japan. © Cold war conflict: 1954 temporary partition pending elections; North was socialist, South a republic. Human rights abuses both sides. © US perceived communist threat everywhere post WWII. © 1964: Gulf of Tonkin. Attacks on US recognizance ships leads to resolution allowing US military action, not called “war. ”

War continued © 1964 -68 War escalates under LBJ ©Minimal info policy to press; gov’t loses credibility ©Brutality of conflict, guerilla warfare, new chemical weapons (Napalm) © 1969 -73 Slow pull out; Nixon’s “peace with honor” ©Pullout of troops, but failed to supply money and other needed aid, as agreed in Paris Peace Accord © April 1975: N overruns S Vietnam © Casualties: US 57. 5 K; S Vietnam: 240 K; N Vietnam: over 250 K

Hair! © 1968, USA © Pacifist, anarchist, and counterculture; depicts youth protesting the war … among other things © Vietnam as a waste of human life, on both sides © Improvisation in performance © Loose structure as concert, with story elements of love affairs, drug use, paternity, draft dodging and war protest. © Rock and roll -- first musical to use it. Hits: Age of Aquarius, Let the Sunshine In © Concept musical -- based not on plot but concept of hippie tribe taking over theatre

Miss Saigon © US’s final departure of military in 1975, with flashbacks to earlier times © US military and Vietnamese civilian love affair. © Prostitution of women for US military; hope of love (Kim and Chris) safety (Gigi, Kim) © Amerasian children have no life there (Bui Doi) © Based on Puccini’s Mme Butterfly; Frenchmen Schonberg and Boublil wrote in 1989; Richard Maltby: English lyrics © Video “The Heat is On” documented audition thru opening night

Tracers, 1983, conceived John Di. Fusco ©Slips in time, but 3 basic ones: © 1960’s basic training ©Williams is harsh to help them survive: 18 weeks vs. 18 months (USSR. p. 23) ©Vietnam - the life of the average, teenage soldier ©Patrols, drugs, rats and rabies, prostitutes, killing, blanket patrol © 1980’s veterans discuss ongoing problems ©PTSD, war wounds, birth defects in children, cancer, children left behind, ingratitude of nation

Evolution of Tracers ©Workshoped by actors who are also veterans, with a writer to help shape text ©Director, lead writer, actor Di. Fusco ©Workshop performance to complete writing ©All scenes based on real events ©Characters are composite of experiences ©Veterans of today, looking back, is the frame of the play

Tracers Quotes © “Eighty percent are © “The unwilling, led targets; we have no by the uneducated, to time to train them to do the impossible for be more. Ten percent the ungrateful” are fighter. One in a Habu, p. 61 hundred may become a warrior. ” Williams, p. 23