Perspectives: ReEntry Performance

Join us for a special performance in recognition of Veteran’s Day with this unflinching look at the lives of Marines getting ready for, and returning from deployment. ReEntry is a docudrama exploration of the challenges faced when re-entering family, community, and country. Honest, moving, and surprisingly funny, this play is based entirely on interviews with Marines and their families.  This performance will take place in our auditorium on a first come, first seated basis.

Included with museum admission; Free for members and UT students, faculty, and staff.

The Blanton is located at the intersection of Congress Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

Paid parking is available in the Brazos Garage on Brazos Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Parking is $4; bring your ticket with you to the museum.

About ReEntry

USMC Colonel and author of the best-selling Thieves of Baghdad, Matthew Bogdanos said, “Based on hundreds of hours of interviews with returning combat veterans and refreshingly presented without agenda or sub-text, ReEntry is a tour-de-force of loneliness, fear, and anger overlaid with moments of warmth, growth, and inspiration.  In other words, ReEntry is like war itself: complex, layered, and visceral.  It will resonate as much with those who have lived through the horrors of war as it will with those who have only ever seen war through the often sanitizing distance of reportage that can never truly capture the sights, the sounds, and the smells that remain long after the gunfire has ended.” 

What the Critics say

 “Provocative and Powerful!” New York Times

“Thoughtful.  Raw power. Searing impact.” Variety

“Powerful high wattage theater. Scalding, moving, and highly entertaining. All it does is place hot-blooded life on the stage, a rare accomplishment that deserves to be lauded and, more importantly, seen.”  Backstage

“In Emily Ackerman and KJ Sanchez’s excellent documentary-theater work on Marines coming home from war, poor old “imitation” gets a sharp kick in the nethers. Critic’s Pick” Time Out

“Gut-wrenchingly raw.” Military Writers of America

The actors are flat-out fabulous, never striking the false notes that could nudge things toward caricature.” – The Washington Post, Nov 21, 2010

“Suddenly, you’re face-to-face for 90 minutes with real servicemen and women, who give unvarnished answers to questions about what they’ve seen, what they’ve felt, how they’re adjusting. A dozen or so characters are portrayed by a cast of five. This production, revised since the 2009 premiere at the Two River Theater Company in New Jersey, employs a smoothly matched cast of actors who have been associated with “ReEntry” from the start. Some military units would envy the precision of these performers; some theatrical troupes would envy their naturalness.” – The Baltimore Sun, Nov 20, 2010

American Records

American records is a theater company devoted to making work that chronicles our time, work that serves as a bridge between people. AR’s flagship work is ReEntry, based on interviews with Marines returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. ReEntry has been seen at theaters across the country as well as over 50 military bases and hospitals throughout the U.S. as well as throughout Germany and Italy. Other American Records projects include Twix These Rocky Pillars, a new play about refugee resettlement, commissioned by The Guthrie Theatre, X’s and O’s, about American Football and the concussion crisis, commissioned and produced by Berkeley Rep and Baltimore’s Center Stage, Highway 47 a play about the history of New Spain and a land grant in Tome, New Mexico, presented by HERE Arts Center, Playmakers Rep, and Collaboration/Teatro Vista, Cincy King, about the history of Rock music in Cincinnati, commissioned by Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Life in the Middle, a musical about the lives of kids in middle school, produced by Asolo Rep and Two River Theater Co, Death for a Living, a musical about those who work with death for a living, produced by Juniata College and Hiccups about OCD (currently in development) www.amrec.us

About KJ Sanchez

KJ is the founder and CEO of American Records, dedicated to making theater that chronicles our time, theater that serves as a bridge between people. She is also an Associate Professor at UT Austin and head of the MFA Directing program.

She is the director, co-author and producer of ReEntry, which has been performed at theaters across the country as well as over 50 military bases and hospitals in the US and abroad, the author of X’s and O’s, a documentary about American Football and is currently writing a documentary play about the US Refugee Resettlement Program. As a playwright, KJ’s been produced at (select list) Berkeley Rep, Playmakers Rep, Asolo Rep, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Two River Theater Company, Baltimore’s Center Stage, Frontera Rep, Round House, Cornerstone Theater Company and Off-Broadway at Urban Stages and Here Arts. Her plays are published by Playscripts. KJ has directed across the country, including Off-Broadway. As an actor, KJ performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and internationally including the Toga-Mura Festival in Japan and the IberoAmericano Festival in Bogota, Columbia. (She is also the voice of many characters on the cartoons Dora the Explorer and Go Diego Go.) KJ is a Fox Fellow, Douglass Wallop Fellow, and a recipient of the 2014 Rella Lossy Playwright Award and a recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts/TCG Career Development Program. She is an Associate Artist with Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park and The Civilians in New York as well as a New York Theatre Workshop ’Usual Suspect.’