AKRON, Ohio — Eric Mansfield, a U.S. Army veteran, has created a play filled with experiences that he knows all too well.

What You Need To Know

  • In Akron, a love story that highlights the struggles and painful realities that many military families face has taken center stage

  • A local playwright used his own experiences to tell this powerful story

  • “Love in Reserve” is showing at the Rubber City Theatre until Nov. 20

The play, Love In Reserve now showing at the Rubber City Theatre in Akron, is one that he wrote after deciding to shine a light on the struggles military spouses and families face. 

“Having gone there in ’03 for the first year of the invasion, I just a lot of stories had stayed with me with military couples that I knew,” Mansfield said. “Some of the guys that came back lost their marriages. Some of the guys lost their jobs, some lost both, and others came back and went through a transition period like I did to try to put it all back together."

Mansfield is also a career storyteller and journalist. He said this story may be the best one he’s shared. 

“The idea is to illustrate what military couples have been through because there's not a lot of shows out there about them, but to do it in such a way that also is a love story,” Mansfield said. 

This love story is centered around Army wife Kate Strong who is counting down the final days until her husband, Ray, returns home from the Iraq war.

“Ray is deployed. She's here counting down the days. We've got her calendar. In the window, there's the blue star flag which is indicative, even today, of someone in your family being deployed,” Mansfield said. 

Kate learns of a deadly attack at Ray's base camp, Camp Freedom, and is unable to get information about whether Ray survived. Mansfield said situations like this one are reality for military members and their families.

“This happened just two months ago in September. We had the deadly attack in Afghanistan. We knew that 13 service members were dead. There were 5,000 U.S. troops on that airbase and that meant for the next 12 to 24 hours, 5,000 families held their breath.”

Mansfield said he hopes the play isn’t only entertaining but also gives the audience meaningful takeaways. 

“I want them to walk out of here with a new appreciation for what military couples have to go through. But to also ask themselves that question, 'Could I have done that?'” he said. 

Love in Reserve will be showing at the Rubber City Theatre until Nov. 20.

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