Letters

—Donna Weaver North Hollywood

DEAR EDITOR:

Tracers is not a play about an America, as Michael Green put it, “awash with domestic and political strife.” It is not a story of those who, as he did, walked the protest lines in their youth. It is an honest depiction of the soldiers who went to do what they believed was the right thing to do — serve and defend their country — but who found themselves in a situation unlike any I hope this country ever sees again. Tracers is told from the point of view of men who were seeing the situation from behind enemy lines, not from the protest lines. Nor is it told from the point of view of those who made the policies in Vietnam, but from the point of view of men, most of them still in their teens, who were expected to do what all soldiers must: follow orders.

Many soldiers, as Mr. Green noted — including some of those who wrote this play — joined the protest lines when they returned home. That is another story, and apparently the only one Mr. Green was willing to hear.

—Vaughn Armstrong(“Sergeant Williams”) Vietnam veteran and protester Los Angeles

DEAR EDITOR:

If Mr. Green needs to see a play about why the Vietnam War should never have taken place, I challenge him to write it. As for what Tracers is, I was moved and touched by this play about the very real emotions that each of these soldiers experienced.

—Darlene C. Ritz Mar Vista

FUEL FOR THE COMING WGA FIRE

DEAR EDITOR:

I just came across Ella Taylor’s film summary of Cast Away (see Current Film Releases), in which she describes “a bold directorial move — almost an hour of silence . . .” What bold directorial move is this? To shoot the second act as it was written and not put in dialogue that didn’t exist in the script? I’m a director, but I find irksome critics’ propensity for attributing writers’ inventions to directors.

—Mitchell Rose Hollywood