About the Play:

Oohrah! is a full-length comedic drama by Bekah Brunstetter. Surprised by her husband's early return from a tour in Iraq, Sara is unprepared for the complications of his re-entry into civilian life. Tension simmers around their gun-obsessed teenage daughter, Sara's oddball live-in sister Abby, and Abby's newest infatuation – a sexy, young Marine who's keeping a secret. Oohrah! turns a comic eye to a homecoming gone awry.

Oohrah! (the title refers to a greeting commonly used by marines) raises challenging questions about what it means when the military is woven into the fabric of a family, and service is far more than just a job. In Fayetteville, North Carolina, sits one of the South's largest military bases. Practically everybody's somebody is over there. Ron is back from his third and final tour in Iraq, and his wife Sara is excited to restart their life together in their new home, but he's finding it difficult to settle back into the domestic bliss that is 'home improvement' and 'Rachael Ray's 30-Minute Meals.' Sara's Flight Attendant sister Abby has set herself up for an uneventful life with her thoroughly unmilitary, civilian fiancé who's more interested in PlayStation than the battlefield. But when a hot, mysterious Marine shows up on Abby's red-eye flight, all bets on stability are off. Abby is swept off her feet; Sara's daughter Lacey trades her dresses for combat boots, and Ron gets hungry for real military action. Oohrah! by Bekah Brunstetter, the Emmy Award-winning writer/producer of the hit TV series This is Us, asks how we can remain true to ourselves when the pressures of domestic and military expectation threaten all. hen a hot, mysterious Marine walks into their lives, all bets on stability are off.

Oohrah! premiered in 2009 at the Atlantic Theatre Company off-Broadway in New York City. Since then the play has been staged in regional theatres and performed in college theatres as a showcase of student talent.

What people say:

"The play skillfully depicts how the demands of military service affect an individual family and society as a whole. Brunstetter's people are real and funny. She never condescends to them or treats them as symbols to put a point across...A big hurrah for Oohrah!" — Backstage

"The young scribe's talent and potential are obvious in this Southern-basted dramatic comedy about the war mystique as it plays out on the American home front...." — Variety

"If there's anything that stands out about Oohrah! at the Atlantic Theater Company's Stage II, it's the off-Broadway introduction of playwright Bekah Brunstetter, whose play is a fascinating, original take on something we've come to see rather often nowadays: the war play.... Let's hope we hear her voice uptown again real soon." — nytheatre.com

"There have been plenty of plays about the Iraq War on New York stages in the past several years but few that deal as directly with the viewpoints of military families as Oohrah! ... Bekah Brunstetter makes an impressively smart debut (no one could argue that she doesn't have dramatic chops)." — MusicOMH

About the Playwright:

Bekah Brunstetter is an American playwright and screenwriter. Born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and educated at UNC Chapel Hill (BA) and the New School for Drama (MFA in Dramatic Writing), she currently lives in Los Angeles. Her plays have been performed Off-Broadway in New York and leading regional theatres in the US. As a TV writer and producer, she has written for Switched at Birth, American Gods, This is Us, and Maid.