While skipping around and talking in a British accent at a theatre last month, the management let me look at seven short plays they had selected to produce for their short play festival. Thinking of me for acting, they asked me to look at the one about a doctor getting interviewed by a police detective for shooting his wife (whom he deduced was an alien) & an absurd piece about love and egrets. It was a script they hadn't mentioned, however, that piqued my interest. It was called "The Sentry."

It was a tale about soldier who kept watch over a base in the war zone as a sniper. He is interviewed by television reporter Jill Bellows and filmed by her cameraman. An easily staged three-person play. While on camera, the sentry tows the military line with stock answers to why he's on his third tour of duty in the war zone:

"Our enemy hates freedom, ma'am. Someone's got to stand up and fight for freedom. That's what our president says. And I just decided that someone is me. You gotta stand up for what you believe is right. And what we're doing here is right."

The camera suddenly looses its uplink, and Jill continues to ask questions to the sentry off the record while he scans the perimeter with the scope on his rifle. It becomes clear he doesn't know how long he's been on tour, what month it is, and that he has gone insane with the thought of 'Paco:'

"I met Paco last year during my second tour...Paco was running around shooting from the houses just 50 yards away and I would shoot back and we'd open up whole fucking ammo clips at each other like it was nothing...Anyway, I loved it. I volunteered for the post."

The sentry talks about getting shipped home, but that it didn't seem real. It was like some amusement park. Paco would come to him in his dreams and call him out, so he reupped. He explains that he almost didn't make it back in because of some stuff he said, but after tests, the military said he could come back if he took some pills. He doesn't take them because they make him feel stupid, and you can't be stupid when you're looking for Paco from the tower.

The cameraman asks the naive question of whether the sentry ever kills Paco:

"Kill Paco? I kill Paco all the damn time. Every chance I get. My second tour I'd come up here and blow Paco's fucking head off 10, 12, 18 times a night. Big mustache Paco, round bottom Paco, those little bitty crying Pacos...I see them, I kill those fuckers dead, that's my job."

The reporting crew decides to wrap up the segment quickly, and while the reporter feels sympathy for the sentry, the cameraman is ready to quickly get out of there. They stick a tag line on their story claiming the sentry an American, another everyday hero.

Then comes the kicker. Although many allusions are made to the Iraq war, it's never said where they are until the reporter ends her piece:

"This is Jill Bellows with Golf Company Two/Six, 2nd Division as forward firebase Toro...Los Angeles, California."

If you're not paying attention, you'll miss that this is really the race war of the near future. The play ends with the sentry slowly scanning the perimeter and spotting a Paco. He acknowledges his prey, and after blackout, a lone rifle shot is heard.

While I would have loved to have played the sentry character, I wanted to direct the piece even more. After a couple mojitos with the artistic director of the theatre, he agreed to let me put on the director's cap.

Of the seven plays, mine was easily the most serious and intense. My sentry pointed a rifle toward the audience for much of the piece. They slotted The Sentry in the sixth slot of seven, which was perfect. A little sober reminder toward the end of the night of short plays. While people chuckled through most of the pieces, the reactions turned to gasps and shocked silence when The Sentry occurred. Welcome to war, theatre goers.

I'm not directing a full-length piece until early 2008, so it was nice to get in some directing work this summer. It's also refreshing to know that a playwright from Maine named Michael Tooher is out there writing something about the modern day war issues we are facing. No one thought The Sentry was their favorite piece (I liked the disturbing one the best!), but everyone acknowledged its potency.

If you give us enough grim news, art will respond is some stunning and intense ways. How many soldiers will come back with Paco on their minds?

Chris Jungle has no plans to ever go to war.