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NYS Writers Institute - December 1, 1997
8:00 p.m. Reading | Recital Hall, PAC, Uptown Campus

Authors Theatre
A staged reading of Shopping Cart Soldiers
by John Mulligan

December 3, 1997
8:00 p.m. Studio Theatre, Performing Arts Center, Uptown Campus

This staged reading with movement, dance, and music of the dramatic adaptation of John Mulligan's novel is developed from a workshop conducted by University at Albany Theatre Department faculty and students. Shopping Cart Soldiers makes use of expressionist, surreal, and fabulist theatre conventions. The play is concurrently be developed by the San Jose Stage Company.

John Mulligan is the author of his first autobiographical novel, Shopping Cart Soldiers (1997,Curbstone Press). As a young Scotsman, his family, seeking economic opportunity, emigrates to the U.S. Mulligan was drafted and within weeks of turning 18, and while still a British citizen, he was on his way to Vietnam. Shattered by his experiences in the war he suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and ended up an alcoholic and homeless for 10 years in the streets of San Francisco. After a spiritual journey of healing, he reintegrates his personality and comes to terms with himself and his history. Shopping Cart Soldiers was conceived in a writing workshop for veterans led by celebrated author Maxine Hong Kingston. Mulligan finds inspiration in Celtic and Asian mythology to chronicle his suffering and subsequent recovery.

". . .illuminates the struggle of a Vietnam veteran whose world has split into two parts." - The San Francisco Chronicle

"This book is unprecedented in conveying the mythic truth of war." - Maxine Hong Kingston

For additional information, contact the Writers Institute at 518-442-5620 or online at https://www.albany.edu/writers-inst.