Glitter, a one act play

In the World Wars and Vietnam, it was called "shell-shocked." In our more enlightened post-Iraq and almost-post-Afghanistan conflicts, it is called "post-traumatic stress disorder." Whatever the diagnosis, the results were men and women who endured incidents they would never dream of from the safety of their homes in the United States. One such man is Ron, waiting in a suburban train station in the fall of 1971 for transport. The very elements seemed stacked against him, as does the old-fashioned cup-dispensing Coke machine in the corner of the station. He can't get it to work and asks the help of a young woman who is also waiting for a train, possibly the same one for which Ron is waiting, possibly not. The third person in the station is an old man, with an Eastern European accent who is probably waiting for the rain to stop outside and using the station as a place to rest and snooze.
The combination is powerful and when the veteran experiences a "flash-back" to the jungles of Vietnam, both the young woman and the old man are drawn into the drama. Wars affect people thousands of miles from the conflict. Spend a few minutes with the characters in this one-act play as they attempt to continue lives affected by war to varying degrees. Glitter was produced in the 5 o'clock Theater at Penn State University in 1971, to the playwright's surprise and delight.