NYC and Children of the April Rain

April 23rd, 2016 saw the new cast of Bill Doty's Children of the April Rain present this compelling play in an enhanced stage reading production, Off-Off Broadway at Judson Assembly Hall, Washington Square, New York! With Vietnamese adoptees, survivors, playwright and authors in attendance, directed by myself, the cast of thirteen professional actors (Mark Redfield, Mary Anne Perry, Michael Alban, Jill Redding, Altorro Prince Black, Michelle Norris, Donald Imm, Alexis Barone, Dan Franko, Justin Woo, Mary Agnes Shearon, Allana Kirk and Matthew J. Bowerman) shared the devastating story, recounted in first and third person memoirs, of the men and women whose lives were inexorably changed by Vietnam, Operation Babylift and the fall of Saigon in 1975.

Below are photos from the NYC production, as well as last October's production staged in the Women's Veterans Memorial Theater at Arlington National Cemetary (co-directed by Robert Neal Marshall and Dan Franko). Pictured left to right are: Matthew J. Bowerman as Ross Meador, the real Ross Meador, Donald Imm as Byron Noone, the real Lana Noone, the real Sgt. Phillip Wise and Altorro Prince Black as Phillip Wise.)