10/28/2026
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact:
Jane Bond, Producer
Makeshift Theater, Inc.
[email protected]
MAKESHIFT THEATER STAGES "LOVE IN RESERVE,"
IRAQ WAR VETERAN ERIC MANSFIELD'S DRAMA
ABOUT THE FAMILIES WHO WAIT
Six performances, Nov. 6–15, during Veterans Day week at Makeshift Theater
Makeshift Theater will stage Love in Reserve, an award-winning military drama by Akron
playwright and Iraq War veteran Eric Mansfield, for six performances, Nov. 6–15, at Makeshift
Theater, 732 W. Exchange Street, Akron.
The production arrives at a timely moment. American service members remain deployed in the
Middle East, and the recent homecoming of the USS Abraham Lincoln after a record-setting
tour at sea has many Americans thinking about what long deployments ask of military families,
especially spouses.
"Veterans Day asks us to honor those who served, and this play reminds us that no one serves
alone," said Jane Bond, Makeshift Theater's Producer. "With so many American families waiting
right now for a loved one to come home, we can't think of a more meaningful way to mark the
week than telling the story of the people who wait."
The play is set at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, in 2003. Kate and Ray are high school
sweethearts from Akron who married quickly on the eve of Ray's deployment to Iraq. Nine
months later, just days before he is due home on leave, Kate learns that his base camp has
come under deadly attack. With no word on whether Ray is dead or alive, Kate endures the
longest night of her life as she is visited by visions of the man and soldier she loves. Filled with
suspense, sharp emotion, and surprising humor, Love in Reserve is a love story about the
waiting and worry that military families endure every day.
Mansfield is a retired U.S. Army officer who deployed to Iraq and Kuwait in 2003 during a
20-year career with the Ohio Army National Guard, and he drew Kate and Ray's story from the
experiences of real military couples separated during the Iraq War.
"For military families, the minutes feel like hours feel like days when you're waiting to learn the
fate of someone you love," Mansfield said. "Kate's night isn't fiction to the families who've lived
it. I hope audiences leave thinking about the spouses and children holding the line at home."
An Akron native and three-time Emmy Award-winning former journalist, Mansfield is a member
of the Dramatist Guild and received the Kennedy Center's 2023 Jean Kennedy Smith
Playwriting Award for Baron of Brown Street. His plays have been produced across Ohio and in
New York and Los Angeles.
Dane Leasure directs Love In Reserve, returning to the play he directed at its 2021 world
premiere at Rubber City Theatre. Anna Popa plays Kate, and Zach Manthey plays Ray.
Veterans Day falls on Wednesday, Nov. 11, between the production's two weekends, and
Makeshift invites veterans and military families to make the play part of their observance.
Performance Details
● What: Love in Reserve by Eric Mansfield
● Where: Makeshift Theater, 732 W. Exchange St., Akron, OH 44302
● When: Fridays and Saturdays, Nov. 6, 7, 13 and 14, at 7 p.m.; Sundays, Nov. 8 and 15, at
2 p.m.
● Tickets: $25, available at makeshift.booktix.com/dept/main/e/LIR
● More information: makeshiftakron.org
