RECALL: Act Two

In February 1961, the boys of Miami Military Academy are still marching, joking, fighting, shaving, bleeding, stealing, and pretending the world outside the gates is someone else’s problem. But the world is already inside the school. It is in the news from Cuba. It is in the old munitions bunkers by the bay. It is in the secrets the adults keep, the wounds they drink through, and the wars they keep handing down to children.

Written by Academy Award nominee Bruce Davison, and once optioned and held by the great Al Pacino, RECALL is a funny, savage, deeply human coming-of-age drama about abandoned boys, broken fathers, old soldiers, Cuban exiles, secret weapons, and the machinery that turns fear into patriotism.

Act Two begins as Stephen Lishinsky tries to survive the strange education of “A” Company. His head has been butchered. His pride has been beaten. His idea of honor has already taken a few direct hits. When he tries to run, Commander Patterson finds him at the bus stop and gives him the kind of broken advice only a broken soldier can give: if you are in a storm, sometimes the only move is to sit tight and let the morning come.

But morning at Miami Military Academy is never clean.

Coombs is missing. The Razor Fiend is back. Bear is bleeding into the sink. Lindquist, the feral boy from the mango trees, is pulled into uniform and passed off as a cadet because, at this school, identity is just another piece of equipment someone misplaced. Sally Barnes drifts through the place like a lit match, furious at her father, suspicious of Patterson, and impossible for Lishinsky to ignore. Patterson tries to protect her, but the past between him, Colonel Barnes, and Sally’s mother is its own battlefield.

Meanwhile, Slouch and Bebop stop pretending their war is imaginary. The key to Bunker 3 becomes guns, ammunition, and contraband dragged through the machinery of a school that is already falling apart. Patterson lectures boys on amphibious landings while the real invasion waits in the shadows. Bebop is pulled closer to the Cuban exile cause. Slouch, half romantic and half criminal, follows him into the Everglades, into blindfolds, pistols, secret rooms, and men who do not look like teachers.

There is comedy everywhere because boys make comedy out of terror. There is coconut rum, marching songs, bad haircuts, chocolate cokes, contraband, dirty jokes, and the Dade County Fair waiting like a reward for good behavior nobody intends to have. But underneath the noise, the rifles are getting heavier. The lies are getting harder to carry. And the adults are running out of time.

RECALL is about boyhood at the exact moment history stops being a lesson and starts becoming a weapon. It is about fathers who failed, sons who improvise, countries that ask for sacrifice before they explain the cost, and boys who are still laughing because they do not yet understand what the world is loading.

Starring Alan Rosenberg, Carson Bolde, Stone Garcia, Wesley Kimmel, Dan Lauria, Kensington Tallman, Roxton Garcia, Bruce Davison, Luca Diaz, Amari O’Neil, Amir O’Neil, David Errigo Jr., Zeke Alton, Gian Franco Rodriguez, Miki Yamashita, Nemil Mudvari, Sofia D’Marco, and Ashley Ciarra.

A portion of proceeds from RECALL will benefit the National Veterans Foundation and the Lifeline for Vets. To support NVF or speak with a Veteran who understands, visit https://nvf.org or call 888-777-4443.

Produced by Table Read Podcast and Manifest Media Productions, LLC.

Executive Produced by Jack Levy, Shaan Sharma, and Mark Knell.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

RECALL: Act One

In February 1961, while America watches Cuba on television and tells itself the next war will belong to someone else, a dying military academy in Miami is still teaching boys how to stand straight, take orders, and become men.

Written by Academy Award nominee Bruce Davison, and once optioned and held by the great Al Pacino, RECALL is a funny, savage, deeply human coming-of-age drama about abandoned boys, broken fathers, old soldiers, Cuban exiles, secret weapons, and the first terrible lesson of history: nations do not only go to war with armies. Sometimes they go to war with children who still think they are playing.

Act One begins with Stephen Lishinsky arriving at Miami Military Academy, a bright Pennsylvania kid who volunteered for the brochure version of honor and discipline. What he finds is a parade field, a dying commandant, a school already being swallowed by the future, and two cadets handcuffed to a howitzer before morning formation.

Inside “A” Company, Lishinsky meets the boys who will become his education. Slouch is a Brooklyn-bred survivor with a cigarette in his mouth, a wound behind every joke, and a talent for turning trouble into currency. Bebop is a Cuban refugee carrying the murder of his father and the dream of taking his country back. Wheeler is an eleven-year-old officer with a sword too large for his body and a hunger for command. Sally Barnes is the commandant’s daughter, back from wherever she ran, driving straight through the gates with all the fury of someone returning to a home that has already become a ghost.

And then there is Commander Patterson, a decorated Navy veteran, drunk, wounded, funny, dangerous, and still trying, in his broken way, to protect boys the world has already thrown away.

The academy is collapsing. The boys know it. The adults know more than they are saying. Castro is on the news. Cuban exiles are moving in the shadows. The old munitions bunkers are not empty. And when Slouch pockets a key marked Bunker 3, military school stops being a game and starts becoming the first draft of a war story.

RECALL is about loyalty, damage, sacrifice, performance, class, country, boyhood, and the machinery that turns fear into patriotism. It is about the lie adults tell boys when they call obedience honor, and the moment those boys discover the rifles are real.

Starring Alan Rosenberg, Carson Bolde, Stone Garcia, Wesley Kimmel, Dan Lauria, Kensington Tallman, Roxton Garcia, Bruce Davison, Luca Diaz, Amari O’Neil, Amir O’Neil, David Errigo Jr., Zeke Alton, Gian Franco Rodriguez, Miki Yamashita, Nemil Mudvari, Sofia D’Marco, and Ashley Ciarra.

A portion of proceeds from RECALL will benefit the National Veterans Foundation and the Lifeline for Vets. To support NVF or speak with a Veteran who understands, visit https://nvf.org or call 888-777-4443.

Produced by Table Read Podcast and Manifest Media Productions, LLC.

Executive Produced by Jack Levy, Shaan Sharma, and Mark Knell.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

RECALL trailer

A dying military academy.

A country drifting toward war.

A group of boys told to stand straight, swallow fear, and call it honor.

Set in 1961 Miami, RECALL follows Stephen Lishinsky, a bright-eyed new cadet who volunteers for military school and walks into something far more dangerous than discipline.

Inside Miami Military Academy, abandoned boys become soldiers before they understand what war costs. A Brooklyn hustler steals weapons for Cuban exiles. A Cuban refugee carries the murder of his father and the dream of taking his country back. A decorated Navy hero drinks through old wounds while trying to protect boys the world has already thrown away.

Then Cuba moves closer.

The Bay of Pigs moves closer.

The rifles are not pretend anymore.

Written by Academy Award nominee Bruce Davison, and once optioned and held by the great Al Pacino, RECALL is funny, brutal, beautiful, and dangerous. A coming-of-age story about loyalty, sacrifice, broken institutions, and the moment boys playing soldier discover the adults have been playing something much worse.

Starring Alan Rosenberg, Carson Bolde, Stone Garcia, Wesley Kimmel, Dan Lauria, Kensington Tallman, Roxton Garcia, Bruce Davison, Luca Diaz, Amari O’Neil, Amir O’Neil, David Errigo Jr., Zeke Alton, Gian Franco Rodriguez, Miki Yamashita, Nemil Mudvari, Sofia D’Marco, and Ashley Ciarra.

A portion of proceeds from RECALL will benefit the National Veterans Foundation and the Lifeline for Vets. To donate or get help, visit https://nvf.org or call 888-777-4443.

Because every story has oxygen.

And sometimes the best thing you can do with attention is point it toward someone who needs it more.

RECALL arrives Tuesday, June 16 on Table Read Podcast.

Listen to the trailer now.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.