NEXT – There’s Always A First Time — For Everything
by Karen Tortora-Lee on February 9, 2011
The soliders wait to be called NEXT: Matthew Ferretti, John Weisenburger, Christopher Tocco, Sean Meehan & Charles Everett (photo by Andrea Varga)
Imagine yourself far away from home, stripped of your identity, doing the exact same thing as the interchangeable cog in the wheel beside you. Imagine that you are so scared by the fact that you have no idea what’s happening to you tomorrow that you coat yourself with a thick layer of false bravado just to get through another day . . .and another . . . and another. You’re so panic-stricken that someone will know you for what you really are that you’ll tell whatever story fits best – even stereotype yourself if you have to – just so you can be the perfect image of what you’re supposed to be. Now tell me: are you a soldier in the middle of a war? Or are you the whore that services the soldiers? In Stephen Gracia’s WWII play, Next, the answer is – both.
