Welcome Guest Blogger, Don Holland!

Don Holland is a former newspaper editor, policy advisor, and now in retirement is researching and writing the only biography on Capt. Joseph McConnell, Jr., the highest-scoring jet fighter pilot in American history.

‘Now, I Get It’ — A Vietnam Veteran Turns Decades of Silence Into an Uplifting Night of Theater

More than half a century after the Vietnam War, three Marine, combat veterans, and their wives get together for a reunion.

There is the easy camaraderie of men who once wore the same uniform and shared an experience few others can fully understand.

And then something unexpected happens.

They start talking about the war.

Not the polished war stories veterans sometimes tell at reunions. Not the funny anecdotes they have repeated for years. They talk about the things they never talked about — especially with their wives.

Then one of the wives begins talking about her war… The war at home.

Suddenly, everyone begins to understand something they couldn’t understand decades earlier.

Suddenly… Now, they get it.

That simple but powerful idea is at the heart of “Now, I Get It,” a funny, moving and remarkably personal, true story that evolved into a stage production, written and directed by Vietnam War veteran Loren Marsters.

Marsters is quick to mention, “It isn’t a conventional musical. It’s a play with music.”

He explains further.  “The music grows directly out of the dialogue. Characters move from speaking to singing and back again as the story unfolds.”

In other words, the music and lyrics serve the story rather than interrupt it.

Marsters built a remarkably varied career that included work as a teacher and football coach before spending some 30 years in advertising and eventually becoming a playwright and screenwriter. His Dramatists Guild biography says his Marine Corps experience helped make him a keen observer of human behavior — an ability that is very much on display in “Now, I Get It.” (Dramatists Guild⁠)

The production’s strength?

It asks what happened after the veterans came home.                                            What happened inside marriages?                                                                                            What happened to the wives who knew something had changed but didn’t always know what?                                                                                                                                                    And what happens when, 50 years later, they finally do?                                                          That could make for a relentlessly grim evening.

“Now, I Get It” is anything but.

Marsters uses something generations of veterans have relied upon to get through difficult times: humor.

Audiences laugh. They cry. Sometimes they do both at the same time.

One audience member described it as a “poignant and funny look into the war and the war at home.” Another said the production offered fascinating insight not only into the experiences of the three veterans, but also into the effects of their military service on their wives and families.

One reaction may capture Marsters’ purpose better than any formal theater review.

A former cast member whose stepfather served in Vietnam said that while growing up she never understood why he behaved the way he did.

After experiencing the play, she finally did.

“Now, I get it.”

That is precisely the bridge Marsters builds between veterans and civilians, and veterans and the people who have loved them for decades.

The production also carries some impressive musical credentials.

Composer A. Patrick Rose is an Emmy-nominated television and film composer whose credits include “SEAL Team,” “Nashville” and “Under the Dome.” His Primetime Emmy nomination came for his work with composer W.G. “Snuffy” Walden on CBS’s “SEAL Team.” (World Soundtrack Awards⁠)

Together, Rose’s music, Marsters’ lyrics and dialog, and “Now I Get It’s excellent Musical Director, Las Vegas resident, Ryan Gourley; help turn intensely personal conversations into something audiences can experience emotionally rather than simply observe.

And audiences are responding.                                                                                                     Marsters’ official production site reports standing ovations at its Las Vegas performances and says the show went through table reads and workshops before a six-show run sponsored by the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District. Audience response was strong enough that the Library District brought the production back for encore performances at the Summerlin Library Theatre in May 2026. (Loren Marsters⁠)

The Library District itself described the production simply and appropriately as “an uplifting story about surviving war and what comes after.” (The Library District Events⁠)

That last part — what comes after — may be the key to understanding the play.                               America has produced countless movies, books and plays about going o war.

“Now, I Get It” is interested in another question

What happens when the war comes home with you?

And he expands that question beyond the veteran.

What happens to the wife?

The children?

The marriage?

The family?

One audience member said the play reminded her of her son returning from his first deployment to Afghanistan. Another said its message would resonate with virtually any family that has sent a son or daughter to war.

Above all… “Now I Get It” has heart.

It isn’t just a story about three old Marine, Vietnam vets and their wives.

“Now I Get it” is about people, the husbands and wives, friends and families who have survived not just the Vietnam war, but every war this nation has ever fought, since Vietnam.

And after an evening of laughter, music, memories and a few tears, audiences may find themselves saying exactly what Marsters hoped they would:

“Now, I get it.”

 *Always nice when you're work makes an impact on other people. Such an impact that they wanted to let other people know the impact it had on them.

Thank you, Don!

I thank all of you for reading my blog!

Loren Marsters