Exploring the Lives of Those Who Have Served
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. The audience will 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.
Hear from the audience themselves in their heartfelt testimonaials about Basetrack Live.
Basetrack Live Audience Response from Anne Hamburger on Vimeo.
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.
Basetrack Live 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. The exhibition was part of an online citizen journalism project called Basetrack that was created by the nonprofit organization November Eleven, and funded by a News Challenge grant from the Knight Foundation.
Did you know? Basetrack Live opened at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on Veterans’ Day 2014 followed by a national tour of theatres and military bases across the country. The premiere also marked the 100th anniversary of the start of World War One. The original adaptation of Basetrack was premiered at the Center for Innovation in the Arts at the Juilliard School.
Following the Juilliard production, an artistic team further developed the show with additional interviews conducted with veterans post deployment and their families. Jason Grote adapted the material in collaboration with Seth Bockley and Anne Hamburger. Ed Bilous co-composed the music with Michelle DiBucci and Greg Kalember.
Experience Basetrack Live for yourself at The American Theatre on Saturday, November 5 at 8pm!