What happens to people's lives during times of battle and strife? From the American Revolution to the ongoing war in Iraq, the subject of this collection is how people cope with the dramatic shifts that come with war. Before Independence, a slave fights for freedom by taking up arms for the British; in WWI, a mother goes to the front lines to see her son; and in our time, a teenager in Oregon waits for e-mail from his father in the Middle East.

Robert Olen Butler's "Mother in the Trenches" performed by Kathleen Chalfant, Tom Bissell's "War Wounds" performed by Oskar Eustis, Charles Johnson's "A Soldier for the Crown" performed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried" performed by Dylan Baker, Maile Meloy's "Red" performed by Keith Szarabajka, Benjamin Percy's "Refresh, Refresh" performed by Ted Marcoux

Presented by Selected Shorts