Gazette theater reviewer Bob Schwarz caught up with the debut of a new Charleston theater troupe, Fragile Works Theater, last week. Here's his review, which will appear in this Thursday's print gazz inside the Charleston Gazette. The show continues this weekend and next.

The Gazette doesn't normally review local theater unless an established group, namely Charleston Stage Company, Kanawha Players or Charleston Light Opera Guild, puts it on. But my wife and I stopped by Saturday night to check out "A Piece of My Heart," the Shirley Lauro drama staged by Glenn Frail's new Fragile Works Theater at 820 Virginia Street, inside the Charleston Ballet studios in the Masonic Temple building.

This powerful piece tells the story of six women who served in Vietnam, their idealism and naivete going in, their constant struggle living and working in a war zone, and then the long and painful attempt to find normality when they return home.

Glenn Frail has acted and worked behind stage professionally and does a very effective job with a cast of six women and one man. The man plays numerous soldier and officer roles as they crop up. The experienced and talented Patty Rosebourgh helps pull a cast of experienced and newer talents along.

This is a tough show to watch, but under Frail's direction, it is well worth seeing. It's a trifle long at 2 1/4 hours, for it is just one slice-of-life and one-slice-of-death scene after another (and if we had a few less slices, that would have been OK, too.) But with the U.S. bogged down in two small wars, and our leaders contemplating armed conflict elsewhere, it's prudent for all us noncombatants to acquaint ourselves with the price our soldiers -- and the nurses who fix them up -- have to pay.

"A Piece of My Heart" continues at 8 p.m. July 21, 22, 28 and 29. For tickets, $12.50, call 546-3479 or e-mail fragileworkstheater@yahoo.com.

~ By Bob Schwarz