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Actor’s deployment preempts stage role
By Jimmy Biggerstaff / Hi-Desert Star
JOSHUA TREE — In a classic example of life imitating art, a local U.S. Navy doctor cast for a role in a play about service members in a war zone had to leave the production. He was deploying to a war zone.
“I’m not going to be playing someone who’s deploying, I’m actually going to be deploying,” exclaimed Cmdr. Greg Crabill, a family medicine doctor aboard the Twentynine Palms Marine Corps base.
Crabill was cast in the role of the commander in the Hi-Desert Cultural Center’s upcoming production of “Another Day In Baghdad,” which opens Friday at the Blak Box Theatre and runs through April 27.
I’m disappointed,” Crabill said of the military call-up’s preemption of his off-duty acting. “I felt comfortable in that role and was looking forward to it.”
“My hope is that I’m very bored over there,” the physician said of his impending departure for Afghanistan.
Crabill’s previous acting experience included a part in Theatre 29’s production of “Rumors” in January.
Director Ron House stepped in to fill the commander role; Rebecca Havely is co-directing.
Some of the military props used in the play are on loan or donated by the local Marine Corps base, along with technical assistance regarding the proper handling of the realistic but non-operational weapons.
“Baghdad” was written by David Tucker II, a retired U.S. Army Reserve major who was called to active duty and commanded a special operations unit in Baghdad from April 2003 to March 2004. The now-retired soldier also served in Kosovo and Haiti.
He characterized his script as a series of snapshots about the experience of living in a war zone. What happens during the course of the play are events that Tucker either experienced personally or that he knew took place.
Monologues the playwright used in his script are composites of the words of soldiers with whom he had come in contact during his military career.
When Tucker initially returned from the war zone, he said he didn’t want to think about Iraq, he just wanted to put the experience behind him.
Molding extreme, real-life experiences into a dramatic production was at the same time cathartic and emotionally difficult for the play’s author because he revisited memories and emotions that he otherwise would not have contemplated.
Tucker explained his play is about individual soldiers who develop a camaraderie that only war can create. The characters face challenges that will change them for the rest of their lives. “Some come home, some don’t,” Tucker said in a telephone interview from his Seattle home.
Tucker hopes to “open a window into something a lot of people never experience, to create a bridge of understanding between the audience and people fighting war.” The play, he added, “hopefully speaks to everyone, whether they were in the military or not.”
The production does not have a political agenda, the playwright said. “When I was in Iraq, politics was not the issue. We tried to do the mission well and bring home everyone we took with us.”
“I’m not going to be playing someone who’s deploying, I’m actually going to be deploying,” exclaimed Cmdr. Greg Crabill, a family medicine doctor aboard the Twentynine Palms Marine Corps base.
Crabill was cast in the role of the commander in the Hi-Desert Cultural Center’s upcoming production of “Another Day In Baghdad,” which opens Friday at the Blak Box Theatre and runs through April 27.
I’m disappointed,” Crabill said of the military call-up’s preemption of his off-duty acting. “I felt comfortable in that role and was looking forward to it.”
“My hope is that I’m very bored over there,” the physician said of his impending departure for Afghanistan.
Crabill’s previous acting experience included a part in Theatre 29’s production of “Rumors” in January.
Director Ron House stepped in to fill the commander role; Rebecca Havely is co-directing.
Some of the military props used in the play are on loan or donated by the local Marine Corps base, along with technical assistance regarding the proper handling of the realistic but non-operational weapons.
“Baghdad” was written by David Tucker II, a retired U.S. Army Reserve major who was called to active duty and commanded a special operations unit in Baghdad from April 2003 to March 2004. The now-retired soldier also served in Kosovo and Haiti.
He characterized his script as a series of snapshots about the experience of living in a war zone. What happens during the course of the play are events that Tucker either experienced personally or that he knew took place.
Monologues the playwright used in his script are composites of the words of soldiers with whom he had come in contact during his military career.
When Tucker initially returned from the war zone, he said he didn’t want to think about Iraq, he just wanted to put the experience behind him.
Molding extreme, real-life experiences into a dramatic production was at the same time cathartic and emotionally difficult for the play’s author because he revisited memories and emotions that he otherwise would not have contemplated.
Tucker explained his play is about individual soldiers who develop a camaraderie that only war can create. The characters face challenges that will change them for the rest of their lives. “Some come home, some don’t,” Tucker said in a telephone interview from his Seattle home.
Tucker hopes to “open a window into something a lot of people never experience, to create a bridge of understanding between the audience and people fighting war.” The play, he added, “hopefully speaks to everyone, whether they were in the military or not.”
The production does not have a political agenda, the playwright said. “When I was in Iraq, politics was not the issue. We tried to do the mission well and bring home everyone we took with us.”
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