On Guard

One-Acts 20

By: John Tissot
Cast: 9 M, 4 F
Performance Time: Approximately 30 minutes, 27 pgs.

FARCE/SATIRE. This wry, sardonic play offers a humorous and chilling look at war. A lonely, bored young soldier stands guard at a military hospital. There, he encounters wounded soldiers coming in from the “boom boom.” One shell-shocked soldier believes he is a dog named Fido, while another delirious soldier thinks the hospital is really a prison. Meanwhile, dimwitted kidnappers set out to free the Vice President’s brother, who is purportedly being held hostage at the hospital. The kidnappers manage to overtake the guard and enter the hospital, but the “hostage” refuses to be freed—he doesn’t want to leave his poker game.

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John Tissot is a playwright, novelist, and former teacher. He taught English in Columbia at La Universidad Industrial de Bucaramanga and has worked as a Spanish teacher in the United States. Mr. Tissot lives in Carpinteria, CA, and is a member of the Santa Barbara Artists Association.