When the soldier comes home

Lanie has recently returned home from her tour of duty in Afghanistan to find that the world she left behind during her deployment is not the same world that she has returned to. Much like the legendary soldier Odysseus, Lanie learns that home will never be the same again for a soldier returning from war.

Next Tuesday, Artists Repertory Theater will present the world premiere of Ithaka, a new play commissioned specifically for Artists Rep, written by Andrea Stolowitz and directed by Gemma Whelan.

The play tells the story of Lanie, a U.S. Marine who, upon her return home from the war, experiences many of the difficulties readjusting to civilian life that often affect returning soldiers.

For Lanie, the problems take the form of an inability to remember what were once routine tasks and an inability to relate to her husband and friends.

After one particularly bad blow-up with her husband, Lanie decides to hit the road to undertake her own physical and psychological odyssey in search of a place that will restore her to peace.

Ithaka is the rare play that tells the story of the aftermath of war from the perspective of a female soldier.

“I like that the play has a strong female character and that it is a female soldier,” Whelan said.

Whelan pointed out that there seems to be a public misconception about the experience of women serving in war because of the longtime ban on women in combat, which has only recently been lifted.

“The truth is they’ve always been on the front lines,” she said. “Once you are in a war zone, anywhere you go you’re liable to be attacked, and of course women have been [killed] and severely injured.”

Whelan sees this play as a timely opportunity to start a discussion about a reality that everyone, civilians as well as soldiers, experiences as they are returning home from war.

“There is a tendency to try and put it behind you,” she said. “This is why there are so many problems with families, breakups, divorces and suicides—they can’t talk about it because it is so horrific.”

Actress Dana Millican, who plays Lanie, found that this role presented some unexpected challenges. In her research, Millican discovered that the deployed soldier has a very clear job, and it is the only thing they are doing.

The goals and the missions are very specific, and there is the sense of being part of something very important. In doing their job, soldiers are put into very dangerous situations in which their daily life oscillates between mind-numbing tedium one minute and sheer terror the next.

As horrible as this is, it becomes a way of life for soldiers.

“And then to be lifted out of that environment that’s immediate and intense, and to be tossed back into a world in which you have to get a job and pay your bills and remember your sister’s birthday—I don’t know how they do it, to be honest,” Millican said.

In a theater press release, playwright Stolowitz described Ithaka as “a play about the intensity of human connections in a war zone and at home.” It is “a play for our times about war, friendships, guilt, being human and staying alive.”

The play originated in early 2011, when two longtime supporters of the theater, Stephanie Fowler and Irving Levin, approached Artistic Director Allen Nause with a proposal to commission a new script to be produced and performed at Artists Rep.

In January 2011, the theater invited playwrights from across the county to submit their ideas for the award now known as the Fowler/Levin Prize. Of the 14 playwrights who submitted proposals, Stolowitz’s concept was the unanimous choice of the artistic leadership at the theater.

Stolowitz is a graduate of the playwriting master’s program at the University of California, San Diego. She has had her plays developed and presented at many venues, including Cherry Lane Theatre, The Old Globe Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre, New York Stage and Film and Mill Mountain Theatre.

She is a member of the Dramatists Guild and has received grants from the Regional Arts and Culture Council as well as the Oregon Arts Commission. She is also the recipient of a 2012 Oregon Literary Arts Fellowship.

Artists Rep’s production of Ithaka is one of the last major projects for Nause, who is retiring at the end of this season.

“We are grateful to Stephanie Fowler and Irving Levin for supporting Artists Rep’s longstanding commitment to new work with their tremendously generous gift,” Nause said in a press release. “Andrea Stolowitz is an amazingly gifted playwright whose work I have long admired, and I look forward to this new play with great excitement and anticipation!”