The Draft

Synopsis

The Draft is an award-winning documentary play that explores the tumult of the Vietnam era through the real-life stories of 10 young Americans — eight men and two women — whose lives were shaped and forever changed by the military draft in the U.S. during this period. Dramatically enhanced by archival photos, film clips, and music, the play chronicles the choices these ten individuals made when confronted with the draft and the impact of those choices then and since.

Written by Peter Snoad and based on the book Called to Serve by Tom Weiner.

The play is available to license for production by contacting the playwright directly.

Download the Discussion Guide (written by Tom Gardner and Peter Snoad)

Release Date:2016

Duration:107 min

ISBN:1-944024-04-2

Subtitles:English

Trailers

Watch the trailer

Awards

Winner, Best Ensemble in a Play, ArtsImpulse, 2015

Nominee, Best New Work, ArtsImpulse, 2015

Nominee, Best New Work (Small Stage), Independent Reviewers of New England (IRNE), 2015

Resources: Downloads and Related Links

Downloads:

Discussion Guide

Praise

“Provocative, sad, enraging, beautiful. I was moved to tears and riveted throughout.”

Hillary Goodridge, Roslindale, Massachusetts

“I was privileged to watch a performance of The Draft with a group of students, which allowed me to fully appreciate how brilliantly the play made events that happened 50 years ago both real and relevant to the current generation. For our students, the experience was a revelation: they began to understand both the Vietnam War and current conflicts in a profoundly new and personal way. As a member of the generation whose lives the play explores, I found the experience was no less powerful: the memories it calls forth, some long forgotten, are simultaneously heart-breaking and affirming.”

Elizabeth Preston, Interim President, Westfield State University

"Striking . . . powerful . . . freighted with pain [yet] healing."

Edge Media Network

"A monumentally important new play. Has the potential to reach history classrooms and new generations while bridging to veterans and current soldiers."

ArtsImpulse

“Beautifully written and performed. The Draft is one of the best tools for understanding the broad human context of the Vietnam War era and the racism and militarism at the root of U.S. foreign policy then and now.”

Maggie Martin, Co-Director, Iraq Veterans Against The War, Iraq War Veteran (2003, 2005)

“Moving, inspiring, soulful.”

Pat Hynes, Director, Traprock Center for Peace and Justice, Greenfield, Massachusetts

“The Draft could not be a better introduction to a conflict that today's students know little if anything about. Alternately poignant and electrifying.”

Steven Bauer, Emeritus Professor of English, Miami University, OH

“I was a child when the men in my community went off to the war, or didn't. You captured the confusion in my community so carefully and exactly. I feel so grateful to get to review/re-see that time in a way that feels healing to me. I pray many people get to see this work.”

Laura Ruth Jarrett, Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts