{"id":281708,"date":"2026-09-07T10:32:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T10:32:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/281708\/"},"modified":"2026-09-07T10:32:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T10:32:11","slug":"philly-fringe-shows-focus-on-veterans-with-iran-vietnam-parallels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/281708\/","title":{"rendered":"Philly Fringe shows focus on veterans with Iran, Vietnam parallels"},"content":{"rendered":"

Love Philly? So do we. Let\u2019s be friends. Sign up for the Billy Penn newsletter today<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The horror roared back \u2013 the burned bodies, the amputations, the blast injuries, and worst of all, the wounded children caught in the crossfire of war.<\/p>\n

So, when retired nurse and Army medic Jody Austin, now a playwright, learned that a servicewoman was among the first of America\u2019s military forces killed in the Iran war, she needed more than a moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt brought tears to my eyes,\u201d she said, recalling how she caught the news out of the corner of her eye on a patient\u2019s television set. \u201cI just excused myself and went into the bathroom.\u201d<\/p>\n

At a time when American military leaders are busy testing for testosterone<\/a>, Austin is busy countering that by presenting her play, \u201cNot Without Her Stories: Her Service Comes With A Sacrifice Too,\u201d<\/a> at this year\u2019s Philadelphia Fringe Festival<\/a>. Austin wants to make sure women like Sgt. Nicole Amor,<\/a> who died in a drone attack in Kuwait on March 1, are not forgotten.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"The cast of \u201cNot Without Her Stories\u201d rehearses before hitting the stage as part of Cannonball Hub in the Philadelphia Fringe Festival. <\/p>\n

\u201cNot Without Her Stories\u201d joins Vietnam War-based \u201cWaiting for Westy\u201d as two veteran-centric plays in this year\u2019s Fringe, the 350-plus show extravaganza<\/a> running Sept. 8-27.<\/p>\n

Austin, a reservist, saw tours of duty during Operations Desert Storm, Desert Shield and Southern Watch. As a medic, she helped assess patients, worked with them as they were transported from the front lines to hospitals in Germany, and then accompanied them back to the war zone if they could return to fighting.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s traumatic,\u201d she said. \u201cIt wears on you when you see the things you see \u2014 the amputations, the burn complications. You start seeing it over and over in your mind. You unfortunately take it home with you. I get flashbacks. I have a therapist. I just try to make sure when I feel triggered, I call my therapist.\u201d<\/p>\n

The play, co-written in part with her business partner Tiffani Dean, traces the lives and struggles of four women who meet in base camp, become friends, and stay in touch throughout their service and in the years afterwards. The play incorporates poetry and music,<\/p>\n

Like Austin\u2019s, their lives become complicated.<\/p>\n

\"\"Jody Austin and Tiffani Dean co-wrote the play \u201cNot Without Her Stories,\u201d which is part of Cannonball Hub in the Philadelphia Fringe Festival. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur needs are unique,\u201d Austin said. \u201cA lot of women veterans are mothers. You come back home and your children don\u2019t know you. My marriage did break up \u2013 separation puts a stress on the marriage. It felt like we grew apart.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople expect you\u2019ll pick up where you left off,\u201d she said. \u201cThat transition isn\u2019t that easy. It doesn\u2019t happen right away.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you come back, you feel you are stuck between the military way of life and the civilian way,\u201d she said. \u201cIn the military, you are used to a certain type of structure and a certain amount of camaraderie, and you don\u2019t have that when you come home.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Not Without Her Stories\u2019<\/p>\n

In the play, one character is sexually assaulted and struggles for justice. Her story mirrors the experiences of one of Austin\u2019s fellow servicewomen. It also reflects a current case, Austin said.<\/p>\n

While serving as a civilian engineer aboard a military ship in 2021, Elsie Dominguez<\/a> was raped by the ship\u2019s captain, she said in a lawsuit she filed against the military in 2023. In August, a federal judge dismissed the suit, ruling that the incident should be handled as if it were a worker\u2019s compensation case, \u201clike a sprain or a strain,\u201d Austin said bitterly.<\/p>\n

After Austin left the military, she went on to become a nurse and retired in April from her job at a Veterans Administration hospital.<\/p>\n

Life moved on, but war\u2019s after-effects linger. Fourth of July fireworks trigger Austin\u2019s post-traumatic stress disorder, as does the memory of Sept. 11, 2001.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe current war is very triggering,\u201d she said, describing it as \u201csenseless.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI worry about our troops. They\u2019ve been deployed too long. Their morale is low. You start to feel hopeless.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Waiting for Westy\u2019<\/p>\n

Playwright Joshua Crone understands all those feelings and explores some of them in his play, \u201cWaiting for Westy.<\/a> The play, based on what he heard was a true story, involves Vietnam vets who hang out at the Doyle-Gerszewski Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 8051<\/a> clubhouse on Front Street in South Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

In the play, they\u2019re gathered at the clubhouse in 1987, on the night before the Philadelphia Vietnam Veterans Memorial<\/a> is set to be dedicated with Gen. William Childs Westmoreland making an appearance at the memorial and at the VFW post, which was nearby.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey refused to let him in,\u201d Crone said. Crone, a former Marine turned playwright, had long wanted to write about the Vietnam War, but couldn\u2019t find a way in until he learned about what happened at the VFW.<\/p>\n

\"\"Joshua Crone as Froggie in \u201cWaiting for Westy\u201d as part of the Philadelphia Fringe Festival. (photo by Giacomo Badalamenti II)<\/p>\n

\u201cWestmoreland was a controversial figure. Some people really liked him,\u201d Crone said. \u201cHe had every reason to think he would show up and be welcomed and treated like a retired general.\u201d<\/p>\n

But many at the post loathed the general, blaming him particularly for deaths that occurred during the 1968 siege of Khe Sanh \u2013 274 troops were killed and 2,500 were wounded.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was incredibly hard to resupply,\u201d Crone said. \u201cThey were living in horrible conditions, not getting enough food, getting bombed constantly and getting eaten by rats. They were just used as pawns in a PR way. It was an example of the decisions that were made that showed total disregard for the lives of our American service men and women.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crone, who is also acting in the play, said he conceived \u201cWaiting for Westy,\u201d to use every bit of his Yellow Bicycle Theater,<\/a> located above a restaurant on the second floor of a building at 15th and Arch streets. Crone built a bar in the theater and got a special use permit to serve the audience drinks so they can pick up the VFW vibe. They\u2019ll move around the building \u2013 walking from the bar to a room with a pool table. At one point, the audience will be on the stage, watching the performers acting among the seats.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t set out with any agenda drawing parallels\u201d between the war in Iran and the Vietnam War, Crone said. \u201cBut you could argue that the stuff with Iran could go down that same path.\u201d<\/p>\n

For him, the motivation was to learn about the Vietnam War while veterans are still alive. \u201cThat generation isn\u2019t going to be around much longer, and I wanted to understand them,\u201d he said. \u201cThey talk about battles in history books, but these guys are talking about them from the viewpoint of being in the foxholes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNot Without Her Stories: Her Service Comes With A Sacrifice Too,\u201d<\/a> produced by the Collective Mic, a women and BIPOC-owned arts group, Sept. 8, 11, and 13 at the Asian Arts Initiative<\/a> Third Floor, 1219 Vine St., Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

\u201cWaiting for Westy,\u201d<\/a> Yellow Bicycle Co.,<\/a> Sept. 9, 10, and 13 at Yellow Bicycle Theater, 1435 Arch St., Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

Philadelphia Fringe Festival<\/a> Sept. 8-27 \u2013 tickets to all shows available online.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Love Philly? So do we. Let\u2019s be friends. Sign up for the Billy Penn newsletter today. The horror…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":281709,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[76655,76656,34,179,53509,1381,36],"class_list":["post-281708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-iran","tag-cannonball-festival","tag-fringe-festival","tag-iran","tag-military","tag-theater","tag-veterans","tag-war"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/117229305821979881","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281708\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}