'Telling Project' Shares Veterans' Stories

Through the simple act of storytelling, some veterans hope to bring Towson a little closer to war.

The Baltimore version of The Telling Project, a nationwide initiative to use veterans' stories to create short plays, will be performed at Towson University on Friday and Saturday. Seven veterans and family members will tell stories from all chapters of the military experience, from enlistment and boot camp to coming home.

Writer Jonathan Wei interviewed the people whose stories are told, and then came up with scripts for them to read onstage. The Walters Art Gallery hosted the first performance of the Baltimore edition of The Telling Project in April.

The Telling Project began with 22 veterans in Eugene, OR in February 2008. It opened there to sold-out crowds and rave reviews. Since then, versions have been created and performed in towns including Seattle, Sacramento and Washington, D.C.

Patrick Young, a Catonsville native who runs the university's veterans center, got involved with the Baltimore edition through the local Veteran Artist Program. He said many angles of the U.S. conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan don't exactly make the evening news or front page.

"It's easy to disconnect from what's actually happening and it's really nobody's fault. The civilian population has been asked to give up very little to sustain these two conflicts," said Young, who served in the Marine Corps from 2001 to 2005. "And that's not necessarily a bad thing … but because of that, it's not on anybody's radar."

Young's office, which opened last year, has launched several outreach efforts, including film screenings, a discussion forum and a veterans awareness week.

Tracy Miller, a Ruxton resident and student advisor at Towson University, will speak in honor of her son, Nicholas L. Ziolkowski, who was killed in a firefight in Fallujah, Iraq in 2004. He was 22.

Since then, his mother has made it her mission to keep her son's memory alive through telling his story and supporting veterans' issues on campus.

"What I want is to make sure that Nick's memory lives on since his body can't, so it's definitely cathartic," she said. "I will say it's different this way, since it's in conjunction with other people's stories and I talk about my reaction with different aspects in the military."

Ziolkowki enlisted in 2001, before the Sept. 11 attacks.

"I wasn't happy about it but I don't think I could've stopped him," Miller said. "I also thought it would probably be a good thing for him."

Though Miller declined to give a preview, The Telling Project would be "a very emotionally wrought play—but good emotions, not just bad emotions," she said. "There are some really funny parts of this play."

The Telling Project will be performed Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. in the Stephens Hall Theatre at Towson University. Tickets are $10 general admission (or $5 for students) and can be purchased here.