A nonprofit in Surprise is bringing military veterans together through the art of theater.
Army veteran Kurt Schulz and his scene partner and Marine Corps veteran Ia Feraren are performing selections from the play “Proof” by David Auburn for the Arizona Frontline Theatre. They face each other in a small gallery surrounded by artwork on the walls.
Feraren, who started acting in 2023, says it helps her process her anger. And when she found this theater group that connects her with fellow veterans.
“It's like wow I can actually let out everything and I can actually talk about my feelings,” Feraren said. “And I’m around this really manly man and they’re also letting out all their feelings. And it’s like I somehow feel so free.”
That’s exactly what Arizona Frontline Theatre’s founder Michael Maisano says he wants to help with. He served in the Marine Corps and the Arizona Army National Guard, and he has a doctorate in clinical psychology.
“One thing I keep hearing over and over again any time I talk to a veteran of any age is the transition,” Maisano said. “They’re really good about bringing you in, creating who you are and your identity in the military. But after you get out, that transition back to civilian life, I guess you’ll call it, was really lost.”
So he created the Silent Survivors Project, which houses the theater group, to support local veterans and serve as a medium to tell their stories and bring awareness to veteran mental health.
“It’s the Charles Dickens model,” Maisano said, “where you can preach all day long but until you show them, or entertain them just like he did with ‘Oliver Twist’ talking about the plight of child labor and children in London, that’s what we’re doing here. We want to continue that conversation so we want to bring these shows and plays that you might not see to the Valley.”
Maisano’s goal is to have an entirely veteran-led company in the next five years. He says he wants to eventually collaborate with similar organizations as well as host a drama festival that welcomes new works from veteran playwrights.
Maisano says for now, the group mostly performs plays about or written by veterans, including their first showcase of the season “Class,” which opens Aug.13.
Greg Lutz served in the Navy and has a leading part in the play. He says performing veteran stories helps him as an actor “relax into” the role.
“Art, especially acting, which has always spoken to me allows both an escape, kind of allows you to reboot your brain in a way,” Lutz said.
Another Navy veteran Michael Rogers says he’s drawn to the excitement theater provides — whether he’s on stage in front of an audience or feeling the pressure of behind the scenes work.
“I used to hang out of an H-60, you know, hang on a crewman's safety belt, going 100 knots 70 feet above the deck,” Rogers said. “So the rush of acting and doing a scene, or making something or producing something, whether it be a costume or doing an acting scene, doing a film or doing a play is kind of the rush I get now. So [it's] a little safer.”
In addition to the play “Class,” Arizona Frontline Theatre will also put on “Adopt a Sailor” this fall — both written by veteran Charles Evered. The group is also planning a production for the Christmas season.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This story has been updated to correctly identify Greg Lutz in a photo caption.
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