Pictured: Rachel Moulton as Jess for Ugly Lies the Bone. Photo courtesy of FST.

On Wednesday, January 17, Florida Studio Theatre will kick off their 2024 Stage III Series with Lindsey Ferrentino’s Ugly Lies the Bone. The play, which is one of three in FST’s Stage III Series–a series dedicated to presented unique and challenging stories to audiences–stars Rachel Moulton as Jess, a combat veteran who returns home to Florida in 2011 following three tours in Afghanistan and a 14-month stay in a VA hospital after surviving an IED attack. Armed with an assortment of emotional and physical scars, Jess turns to computer simulated therapy to escape her pain and try to heal in this new life that she finds herself in.

“We see Jess after this stay in a VA hospital, navigating her homecoming in a town that has undergone a significant amount of change,” says Moulton. “In Afghanistan, she was a part of the Cultural Support Team, a CST, which were these elite, female soldiers that were recruited to support Army Rangers and Green Berets to go along on combat missions and communicate with the women and children in the area. Women weren’t allowed to serve in combat at this time, so she was an incredibly important asset to her team.”

Although the role of Jess is undeniably challenging, both in the character’s emotional journey as well as in the sheer amount of stage time she has, playing a combat veteran wasn’t uncharted territory for Moulton. A frequent performer at FST, Moulton, previously played a female F-16 fighter pilot in FST’s 2017 one-woman show Grounded. “I kind of had a sense of what it was like to take on this type of challenge as an actor, especially because you don’t get roles like this very often,so it’s a great opportunity, but it’s also a big ask,” says Moulton. “There’s the physical challenge of it all: the playwright describes Jess as having 30% of her body covered in third degree burns. She’s experiencing chronic pain, so it’s not just the emotional trauma she is trying to recover from, but everything on her body hurts as well.”

Jess’ complicated, nuanced journey back to civilian life makes for just the kind of story FST is trying to bring to life with their Stage III Series.

Florida Studio Theatre’s Bowne’s Lab, 1265 First Street, Sarasota.

Pictured: Rachel Moulton as Jess for Ugly Lies the Bone. Photo courtesy of FST.

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