David Beach is a playwright, director and educator living in the New River Valley in Southwest Virginia. He is an associate professor of English at Radford University and is a member of the Playwright’s Lab at Hollins University. Produced plays include Constellation Park; Moving Toward Equinox; Common Law; Who Killed Garland Pettibone?; and Say Hi to Mick Jagger. Selected directing credits: Red (2014 Best Production, WV Theatre Association), “Art” (2013 Best Production, WV Theatre Association); Walter Cronkite Is Dead; Stupid Fucking Bird; A Steady Rain; The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs and The Year of Magical Thinking.
About the Play
“Merry Christmas, Good Soldier” is a short play about the first Christmas after a veteran has died. Two brothers visit their father’s grave at a military cemetery seven months after he’s died. Near their father’s grave is a fresh grave, which a woman is tending. They begin to chat and find a common thread in their lives through their fathers. They part, not knowing each others’ names, but knowing the world is smaller because of that which they share.
