Immersive, Independent Production About Vietnam War Protests Makes Its Point With Creative Staging in City Theatre Lobby
By SHARON EBERSON
As I scanned the scene during the new play, Sixty-Nine — Seventy, at people my age or not far off, it seemed obvious that most of the audience would know the names Phil Ochs, William Kunstler, Bernadette Devlin and other antiwar, environmental and civil rights activists, some mentioned just in passing, some seen on video, and what they meant to the movements of their day.
The title refers to the years 1969 and ’70, and that the four characters are living in those dangerous times, at Buffalo State College (now a university). It struck me more than once that the actors were possibly the youngest people in the room, playing students of different backgrounds who had endured during the Vietnam War and the United States’ draft lottery.
On the other hand, much about what they were saying and doing could have been taken directly from today’s headlines.
We say and feel it a lot these days, that a theatrical experience resonates from a point in time to today. This particular play, by Michael Eichler, who attended the University of Pittsburgh to earn a social work degree, found the bullseye over and over, as I expect it will for the Baby Boomer/Generation Jones (I fall in the latter) members of the audience. For those who are not well-versed with the time of “peace, love and war” but living in today’s climate, the experience should be just as impactful, just as visceral.
The 90-minute+ monologue play with no intermission takes a while to get going, starting with the four characters, seen on the video screens of the City Theatre lobby, looking into mirrors, telling themselves what to expect at the start of the school year.
Instead of in the round, with the stage and action taking place in a middle area, the audience swivels in their seats as the actors rotate to different points at the edges of the lobby. The creative setting includes three raised stages on the rim of what serves as a student union. Sight lines change often, so you may have an actor delivering a monologue 2 feet from your seat, or across a crowded room. The movement forces engagement in different directions, and is a triumph for lighting designer Tyler Hieb and sound designer Janus Young, who come to the production from the staffs of City Theatre and the New Hazlett Theater, respectively.
Sixty-Nine — Seventy, in the City Theatre lobby. (Image: onStage Pittsburgh)
The four characters are each of a type, recognizable at once to anyone who has been on a melting-pot college campus. Their video introductions aside, we get to know them intimately through monologues, with interactions via names only.
Jack Senske, as loud, take-charge Barry, is an antiwar protest organizer and leader who can be insufferable. Senske hits the nail on the head portraying someone who is self-righteous, but also willing to put himself in harm’s way to prove a point, and who can’t understand anyone who wouldn’t do the same.
Barry is just the type of guy that Sharon and Naomi might go out of their way to avoid when they arrive on campus.
As Sharon, Mal MacKenzie goes on a journey that many young women faced, going from 1950s housewife to burning bras. MacKenzie’s Sharon starts as a home ec major (remember that?) with a long-term jock boyfriend, with motherhood the prime goal.
Early on, conservative, content Sharon remarks that she can’t find a cause that inspires her, despite the raised voices all around her, and the vulnerability to the draft of the men in her life. As she becomes more enlightened, she finds herself heading on a believable change of course.
Marissa Lily as Naomi represents the Black minority on campus, there on a SEEK (Search for Education, Elevation, and Knowledge) grant, confronted over and over again with the otherness of her skin color and assumed economic challenges.
With so many people mentioned in accordance with the times, I expected inspiration from a Gloria Steinem or an Angela Davis to be in the mix of activists. Instead, Naomi is brought into the campus fold of protestors as a pull into that world, rather than a push by her, although her self-awareness provides substance to her choices.
MacKenzie and Lily are Pittsburgh theater artists, with Lily recently appearing as a student in what could be a companion play, Ty Greenwood’s Paradox of Education at Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company. Senske has settled in the area, working with local companies after graduating from the University of Minnesota Duluth.
As Andy, Thomas B. Andrews plays a commuter student from an urban neighborhood that pegs him to some as being from the wrong side of the tracks, and to those New York City student snobs, as a “hick.” But Andy, behind giant-sized aviator glasses, is the most introspective and perhaps, the most determined, of the quartet. He’s not afraid to get involved and speak up for himself — even to Barry.
As the play goes on, the level of engagement can be heard when someone says the name, “Barry,” accompanied by an eye roll, and the audience reacts with a knowing groan or chuckle. That is one example of how well we get to know and empathize with these characters, each living within a whirlwind of change.
If you know your history, you know what’s coming, and can only guess how it will affect each of them.
A video of youthful Phil Ochs, the tragic protest singer, performing “I Ain’t Marching Anymore,” is played in full (see below). It is about young American men being sent off to fight wars by those who can’t or won’t.
Among the most telling verses:
It’s always the old to lead us to the war
It’s always the young to fall
Now look at all we’ve won with the saber and the gun
Tell me is it worth it all?
That era of protest songs, with Pete Seeger as an old hand, mentoring youngsters such as Don McLean, planted the seeds from which Bruce Springsteen sprung, with songs such as “41 Shots” and “Streets of Minneapolis.” The armed ICE invasion of American cities is among the current events brought to mind throughout Sixty-Nine — Seventy.
Andy’s excitement at booking McLean into a coffee-house gig is a thread throughout the show, and a reminder that before “American Pie” topped the Billboard charts, McLean was singing antiwar songs such as “The Grave.”
A video depicting that horror show that was the first nationally televised draft lottery, held on December 1, 1969, drives the point home. Stoic white men reach into a jar and pull out birthdates and post them to a board of 365 days, starting with “September 14” as 001.
Imagine if that were the birthday of a relative or friend, and think about how triggering that might be for those who don’t have to imagine.
It is as chilling as any of the videos used throughout Sixty-Nine — Seventy. It was the day that ignited student activism nationwide, ending in four dead at Kent State, when the National Guard was summoned. Buffalo State had its own moments, too.
The quartet of actors on opening night Thursday was “Cast 69”; the play is double cast, with Sarah Altomari, Naomi Terrell, Cam Webb and Nick Grosso as “Cast 70” on other nights.
Directed and produced by Alex Manalo, with associate director Rob James and TJ Young as dramaturg, the success of Sixty-Nine — Seventy is in the arcs undergone by each of the characters, as they face the prejudice of their peers, attacks on freedom of speech, and the governmental persecution that still exists on some campuses today.
Sixty-Nine — Seventy occurs on a timeline that is knocking on the front door of 2026, in all its rage against war and hate, and hope that future generations will learn from history, and a change is gonna come.
TICKETS AND DETAILS
The independent production Sixty-Nine — Seventy is at City Theatre, 1300 Bingham Street, South Side, May 14-24, 2026. Proceeds benefit the Pitt School of Social Work, MSW COSA (Community, Organiztion and Social Action) Program, which the playwright attended. https://events.ticketleap.com/tickets/sixtynineseventypgh/sixtynine-seventy
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