Theater and storytelling can be beneficial to many different groups of people. Some stories that often go untold are those of military spouses.

The nationwide nonprofit, The Veteran’s Spouse Project (VSP), is putting on a play to share these with the public.

What You Need To Know

  • “In Between,” a show written by military spouses, is coming to life in the West Point community

  • This is the second time the play will be shared in a stage reading form. It was first performed in Tennessee last November.

  • All three women said writing and seeing the play come together has been a therapeutic experience in making them feel less alone

“In Between,” a show written by military spouses, is coming to life in the West Point community.

“I often say that this is like sacred ground. This space, these spaces that we're creating, spouses are coming in, they're talking about things they haven't necessarily ever talked about before,” said Amy Uptgraft, co-founder and artistic director of VSP.

This is the second play Uptgraft has written about what it’s like being a military spouse.

While stationed with her husband, who is now retired from the Army, in Alaska, she and other military spouses formed the nonprofit VSP in 2018. The goal is to bring together spouses of those in the United States armed forces to write and share their stories with other military spouses and civilian communities.

“I just was given an identity that I didn't know I was really missing,” said Audra Edwards, business and marketing manager of VSP.

Edwards’ story of moving from place to place with her Air Force husband is one of several being portrayed by actors in a reading of the play.

“It really tells about the experiences of the "In Between." So in that, we mean in between deployments, in between those big periods of military life that people typically have in their heads, but there's a lot of life that is lived in the in between,” Edwards said.

This is the second time the play will be shared in a stage reading form. It was first performed in Tennessee last November.

“It's just what theater does so beautifully. But to see the stories up on stage, sitting with the people who had written those stories, they literally put their hearts into everything that we put up on that stage. It was very indescribable,” said Lea Johnson, executive director and development director of VSP.

Johnson’s husband is wrapping up his military career at West Point. She has been with VSP from the start.

“Producing something like this in a town especially, you know, a small town, like Highland Falls that's so connected with West Point, it's been just a really exciting way to engage with the civilian community around the military base,” Johnson said.

All three women said writing and seeing the play come together has been a therapeutic experience in making them feel less alone.

“To hear these actors tell these stories and then to see an audience let out a collective sigh or kind of sit back in their chairs like, ‘whoa, I didn't know.’ It’s just so powerful,” Uptgraft said.

A reading of “In Between” will be presented to all members of the public who wish to attend at James I. O’Neil High School on Thursday, April 25 at 6 p.m.

The women hope to move this play forward beyond readings to more locations around the country.