Elliot, A Soldier's Fugue

Somehow, I don't go to the theater as often as I'd like. It tends to be such a big production. So many choices! How to decide? I don't love planning weeks or months ahead only to find myself not in the mood when the day arrives. And ticket prices, even for an off-Broadway show, can be sky-high.

So it was a special pleasure to find myself at a matinee at the local Luna Stage theater company for a beautifully done production of "Elliot, A Soldier's Fugue", by a brillliant young playwright, Quiara Alegria Hudes. Done in one intermission-less sitting with a simple but perfectly evocative stage setting in a tiny, tiny theater and with just four outstanding actors, it's a poetic story of three generations of a Puerto Rican family involved in three American wars (Korea, Viet Nam, and Iraq). Apparently it ran briefly in NY last year (to rave reviews) and was a Pulitzer finalist.

My "senior" ticket was just $16, a hassle-free on-line purchase made just yesterday, and the theater is barely a mile away. I'm so lucky to have this sort of thing available practically on my doorstep. I need to remember to take better advantage of it.