A concrete bunker in Bangladesh. A berm on the rack in Saudi Arabia. The jungles of Vietnam. These are just a few of the places classroom No. 1130 has temporarily become over the past six weeks.
Stacked with a bleak, barren precipice of dinner plate-sized desks folded away and a towering poster board of the periodic table, the seemingly insipid lecture hall comes to life for a few hours each Sunday when the classroom acts as the backdrop for seven performances, seven journeys and seven different stories of bravery, tragedy and just about every other touchstone in the spectrum of human emotion.
It’s the rehearsal space for “Telling: Denver,” a heady, innovative and inspiring program that’s sneakily slipping into the city this summer.
Army veteran Tabitha Bennet sounds off during play rehearsal July 27 at Auraria Campus. “The Telling Project” is a play consisting of Veterans and military family members who will tell their own stories on stage from July 30th to August 3rd under the direction of The Romero Theater Troupe. (Marla R. Keown/Aurora Sentinel)
Marine veteran Jenn Calloway calls her troops to attention during play rehearsal July 27 at Auraria Campus. “The Telling Project” is a play consisting of Veterans and military family members who will tell their own stories on stage from July 30th to August 3rd under the direction of The Romero Theater Troupe. (Marla R. Keown/Aurora Sentinel)
Air Force veteran Anastasia Pyzhov recalls her rigorous training she went through to become an inflight nurse during play rehearsal July 27 at Auraria Campus. “The Telling Project” is a play consisting of Veterans and military family members who will tell their own stories on stage from July 30th to August 3rd under the direction of The Romero Theater Troupe. (Marla R. Keown/Aurora Sentinel)
Army veteran Tabitha Bennet recalls her drive home from Fort Sill, Oklahoma after hearing about 9/11 during play rehearsal July 27 at Auraria Campus. “The Telling Project” is a play consisting of Veterans and military family members who will tell their own stories on stage from July 30th to August 3rd under the direction of The Romero Theater Troupe. (Marla R. Keown/Aurora Sentinel)
Air Force veteran Anastasia Pyzhov recalls her rigorous training she went through to become an inflight nurse during play rehearsal July 27 at Auraria Campus. “The Telling Project” is a play consisting of Veterans and military family members who will tell their own stories on stage from July 30th to August 3rd under the direction of The Romero Theater Troupe. (Marla R. Keown/Aurora Sentinel)
Army veteran Rich McKee describes how big of a berm he and his fellow combat engineers had to blast through during the Gulf War. “The Telling Project” is a play consisting of Veterans and military family members who will tell their own stories on stage from July 30th to August 3rd under the direction of The Romero Theater Troupe. (Marla R. Keown/Aurora Sentinel)
Marine veteran Jenn Calloway reenacts running to the latrine during play rehearsal July 27 at Auraria Campus. “The Telling Project” is a play consisting of Veterans and military family members who will tell their own stories on stage from July 30th to August 3rd under the direction of The Romero Theater Troupe. (Marla R. Keown/Aurora Sentinel)
Air Force veteran Anastasia Pyzhov tells her story during play rehearsal July 27 at Auraria Campus. “The Telling Project” is a play consisting of Veterans and military family members who will tell their own stories on stage from July 30th to August 3rd under the direction of The Romero Theater Troupe. (Marla R. Keown/Aurora Sentinel)
Army veteran Tabitha Bennet has her soldiers mark time during play rehearsal July 27 at Auraria Campus. “The Telling Project” is a play consisting of Veterans and military family members who will tell their own stories on stage from July 30th to August 3rd under the direction of The Romero Theater Troupe. (Marla R. Keown/Aurora Sentinel)
Army veteran Jim Stevens pulls out his walking stick during play rehearsal after describing how the Army left bullet fragments in his head. “The Telling Project” is a play consisting of Veterans and military family members who will tell their own stories on stage from July 30th to August 3rd under the direction of The Romero Theater Troupe. (Marla R. Keown/Aurora Sentinel)
Army veteran Rich McKee describes how big of a berm he and his fellow combat engineers had to blast through during the Gulf War. “The Telling Project” is a play consisting of Veterans and military family members who will tell their own stories on stage from July 30th to August 3rd under the direction of The Romero Theater Troupe. (Marla R. Keown/Aurora Sentinel)
Director Chris Getzan checks in with the troupe of veterans before rehearsal starts up July 27 at Auraria Campus. “The Telling Project” is a play consisting of Veterans and military family members who will tell their own stories on stage from July 30th to August 3rd under the direction of The Romero Theater Troupe. (Marla R. Keown/Aurora Sentinel)
Director Arnie Carter checks in with veterans before their play rehearsal July 27 at Auraria Campus. “The Telling Project” is a play consisting of Veterans and military family members who will tell their own stories on stage from July 30th to August 3rd under the direction of The Romero Theater Troupe. (Marla R. Keown/Aurora Sentinel)
Director Arnie Carter checks in with veterans before their play rehearsal July 27 at Auraria Campus. “The Telling Project” is a play consisting of Veterans and military family members who will tell their own stories on stage from July 30th to August 3rd under the direction of The Romero Theater Troupe. (Marla R. Keown/Aurora Sentinel)
Air Force veteran Gina Fasciani makes her way to the stage during rehearsal July 27 at Auraria Campus. “The Telling Project” is a play consisting of Veterans and military family members who will tell their own stories on stage from July 30th to August 3rd under the direction of The Romero Theater Troupe. (Marla R. Keown/Aurora Sentinel)
Started in 2008, The Telling Project melds the two seemingly disparate worlds of military life and theater, giving veterans and their family members an opportunity to reflect, vent and tell their stories to a live audience.
“It’s really great to feel heard,” retired Marine Sergeant Jenn Calloway said. “I was afraid to talk about this stuff for so long, but sharing through this format is helping to change something deep for me.”
Each veteran has a uniquely compelling experience and story to relate — from that of a field nurse in Afghanistan to a Green Beret in Vietnam — but all of them share Calloway’s sense of healing and relief in telling their tales publicly.
“It’s great being able to talk to and with other vets,” retired Army Master Sergeant and former Delta Force Direct Support Richard McKee said. “I had a hard time talking about a lot of this stuff for a long time. It’s easy to shut down while you’re over there (in a tour of duty), but really hard to turn those emotions back on when you come home. This has really helped.”
Bringing these experiences to life on the stage began over four months ago, when members of the Telling Project recorded each veteran’s story and turned it into a stage-ready script. From there, each veteran tweaked their lines and cut or added pieces depending on what worked or felt appropriate to share, according to retired Air Force Captain Ana Pyzhov.
In the months and weeks after the scripts were finalized, the group teamed up with members of the Romero Troupe, a local theater company that helped the performers hone their pacing and delivery.
“They were our encouragers and supporters and we constantly looked to them for feedback on our parts as we practiced,” Pyzhov said of the Romero Troupe.
Apart from the coaches at Romero, the servicemen and women also looked to each other for advice and support, sometimes meeting outside of organized rehearsal to better their performances. This camaraderie is what attracted Pyzhov to the program, and is something she said she misses about her time in the Air Force.
“It’s been great being around military people again and hearing all the jargon,” she said. “Getting that sense of camaraderie back has been really awesome and hearing everyone else has helped me learn so much.”
There’s one notable duo in the production that shares something even more than camaraderie — they’re family. Father and daughter Jim and Megghan Stevens deliver one of the most powerful emotional wallops of the program as they co-narrate Jim’s stirring journey since retiring from the Army in 1979. A member of the U.S. Army Special Forces Green Berets in Vietnam, Jim lost his sight 20 years after returning home from combat when a bullet fragment, still lodged in his brain from wounds inflicted in the line of duty, shifted and permanently damaged his optic nerve. Since losing his sight, Stevens has become a master scrimshaw artist with pieces displayed and collected around the world, as well as a black belt in taekwondo and the only legally blind man to win the Martial Arts Tournament of Champions.
Stories such as Jim’s are abound in the production, though they are all tethered back to the theme of veterans and civilians having an open conversation about the difficulties and civilian perception of military service.
“This isn’t our burden, it’s not our pain,” McKee said of he and his fellow veterans. “It’s everybody’s, this war is everybody’s.”
Telling: Denver
Fri., Aug. 1 & Sat., Aug. 2 at 7:00 p.m., Sun. Aug. 3 at 3:00 p.m.
St. Cetejan’s Church, Auraria Campus, 1201 5th St., Denver.
$5 tickets can be purchased here.
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