Eugene weekly., October 09, 2014, Page 13, Image 13

BEN BUCHANAN (RIGHT) IN A 2013
PRODUCTION OF IN THE NEXT ROOM AT
LCC’S BLUE DOOR THEATRE
PHOTO BY MICHAEL BRINKERHOFF
When the
Hurly-Burly’s Done
RETURNING VETS FIND A HOME IN EUGENE THEATER by Rachael Carnes
A
fter enlisting in the Navy
at 19, actor Ben Buchanan,
now 26, first trained in the
stifling summer heat outside
of Chicago. Later, crossing
the equator, he experienced the traditional “shellback”
ceremony, a 400-year-old naval ritual in which mere
“pollywogs” are transformed into sturdy shellbacks. For
Buchanan, this rite of passage included being shot at with
fire hoses and crawling through garbage.
“It was pretty fun,” he says.
Buchanan served in Iraq and Afghanistan as a mechanical
aviation egress specialist — the mechanic responsible for
making sure the pilot can safely eject from the plane. For a kid
who moved a lot growing up and never took much interest in
school, it was a role he took seriously and played well.
Buchanan describes the ongoing wait for what he calls
“exhibition combat” — watching enemy combatants walk
down from the hills, usually in small groups of two or
three. On base, Navy snipers at the ready, they’d watch as
this week’s pair or trio would set up their rocket-propelled
grenade launchers. “Because of the rules of engagement,”
Buchanan says, “you can’t fire unless fired upon.”
And so they marked time, hours, sometimes days,
waiting for an RPG to hurdle towards them.
“We felt safe enough,” he says. “It’s not like they’d
come with 2,000 troops. After a point, you get a little used
to it. It’s a desensitization.”
After catching minor shrapnel from a rogue RPG,
recovering and then finishing his service, Buchanan was
honorably discharged when his four-year commitment
was fulfilled.
“They asked me to continue, but I didn’t have it in me,”
he says.
Buchanan found his way to Eugene to be nearer his
family, and to Lane Community College, paid for by his
GI Bill. It was at LCC that Buchanan found his first acting
class.
“I was a jovial kid,” he says. “But I came back subdued.
It made you grow up fast.”
The journey of the military veteran has been shouted
from the stage since theater began. The first recorded
plays in the Western canon are about war, yes, but not
about the glory and the spoils. On the contrary, the first
plays in recorded history are about veterans.
Aeschylus wrote about a once-great king, so deeply
wounded by his experiences in battle that he kills his
own daughter. Sophocles created a bloody ruin in his
character Ajax, a soldier trapped in traumatic memories of
the Trojan War who tortures livestock before committing
suicide. Great playwrights across the millennia have borne
witness to carnage, allowing veterans’ stories to be heard.
Look to the stage today, peer behind the curtains, peek
into the wings, and you’ll see military veterans of Iraq,
Afghanistan, Vietnam and Korea, finding home, comfort,
self, even meaning, in the theater.
EXPRESS YOURSELF
Expressive art therapies, such as dance, music, drama
or visual art therapy, may help to release pain and quell
some of the symptoms of stress, anxiety or depression in
traumatized populations.
“Many veterans with PTSD report that engaging in art
therapy fosters relief from symptoms such as flashbacks,
emotional numbing and panic states,” says Annette Shore,
a clinical therapist at Portland’s Returning Veterans Project
and professor of art therapy at Marylhurst University.
“The creative process provides an outlet for expression
and stress reduction,” Shore says. “While veterans are
trained to maintain control and remain strong, art therapy
allows them to access the nonverbal areas of the brain
where traumatic memories are stored and to express their
fears and pain as well as their hopes.”
Shore points out that building a sense of connection
can be an important aspect of such therapies. “Art
therapy groups provide opportunities for sharing distress
and finding support and relief from the inherent sense
of isolation and alienation that returning veterans may
experience,” she says.
Inherently relational, dramatherapy seems an
especially beneficial way to reach veterans.
Pioneered by Peter Slade in London in the 1930s,
dramatherapy first developed as a means to reach
underachieving, indigent children. Later, as Slade
recuperated from injuries he sustained in battle during
WWII, he began to apply these same theatrical techniques
when working with his fellow vets.
Although evidence points to the efficacy of arts
therapies in working with veterans, it’s possible drama
needn’t be “therapy” to have therapeutic effects.
THE ART OF KNOWING PEOPLE
Acting classes, then, challenged Ben Buchanan to
open up.
“I had a hard time being funny at first,” he says,
recounting how he just couldn’t seem to do Mercutio’s
famous Queen Mab monologue as a comedy.
eugeneweekly.com • October 9, 2014
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