Douglas Taurel stays busy around Veterans Day.
For more than 10 years, he’s performed his 90-minute one-man play, “The American Soldier,” for audiences across the country. Franklin will have its turn at The Franklin Theatre on Nov. 8 at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m.
Taurel plays 15 different characters, weaving a story that spans from the American Revolution through the Iraq War and the War in Afghanistan.
The play is about war, service and sacrifice, but he works hard to add some laughs, too, he tells Williamson Scene.
Taurel was inspired to create "The American Soldier" following 9/11. He was living in New Jersey at the time, and every day his commute included taking a PATH train that opened up under the World Trade Center Twin Towers. The first plane hit 10 minutes after he left the station.
Following that traumatic event, he started reading stories about people who completed several military deployments, yet couldn’t pay their bills. He found that no one wanted to talk about 9/11 or what followed anymore.
In his research, he found that it is a common reaction to war — it’s happened in every war that the country has been a part of. He began reading letters at the New York Public Library — thousands of them.
“The country gets to a place, and it wants to move on from the war,” he said. “That was true in the Civil War. It was true in World War I. It was definitely true in World War II. I found that really interesting. That here we are as a country is trying to move on, but then those who are engaged don't get to move on because those memories are still fresh.”
“The American Soldier," which was first performed in 2013, was Taurel’s way of paying tribute to veterans and remembering the past. Since then, he’s performed at the Kennedy Center three times, the Library of Congress and had a recent Off Broadway run. He has toured more than 53 cities in 25 states and was nominated for an Amnesty International Award.
At first, he struggled to find a theater that would let him put on his show, but it has stood the test of time. The feedback from military families has fueled him from the first performance.
It’s beyond “thank you for your service.”
“The emotions that I get from vets and military families when they see the plays, it's something that I could have never in a million years ever imagined,” he said.
It’s not political; it’s just a human story, he said.
“I hope that people realize how fortunate we are to have had so many people who have served and sacrificed for us.”