Photos by Kyle Green | The Roanoke Times

Steve Franco directs a cast of adults and Glenvar High School students during a rehearsal of his play, "My Father's War." Franco's father, Paul, a retired Army master sergeant, is hospitalized at the VA Medical Center in Salem.

For most of his 74 years, Paul Franco was a stout, muscular man who commanded respect.

After 21 years in the U.S. Army and two tours of duty in Korea, he retired as an Army master sergeant. He eventually worked at the VA Medical Center in Salem, where he sometimes invited the patients to pray.

Now the man remembered by his son as "a really powerful soldier" weighs about 100 pounds and has trouble walking. Franco has dementia and is a patient in the VA hospital's Alzheimer's ward, known as Ward 7.

He will never know that his son has written a play in his honor.

Paul Franco's fight with dementia was the inspiration for "My Father's War," by Steve Franco. It will be performed by Theater Glenvar High and the Roanoke County School for the Performing Arts at Glenvar High School over three evenings this week. Proceeds from the play will be donated to the Central and Western Virginia Chapter of the Alzheimer's Association.

Glenvar student Tyler Morrison (left) rehearses a scene with Aubrey Lester.

There is no Paul Franco in the play, but his personality and experiences have been woven into other characters and the text. In one scene, a man gathers his fellow Ward 7 patients for prayer, as Franco sometimes still does. And like Franco, the character asks for a paycheck even though he's no longer employed by the hospital. Other characters and scenes also are based on patients of the real Ward 7.

Writing "My Father's War" was a way "to give back to the community and give back to my dad," said Steve Franco, 39, who is theater director at Glenvar High School. One of his goals in writing the play was to inform about Alzheimer's disease, which is the most common form of dementia. It is progressive, degenerative, irreversible and incurable. It attacks the brain's nerve cells and hinders mental function.

By 2050, when most of the play's cast will be in their 60s or 70s, the number of Americans with Alzheimer's is estimated to triple to 16 million.

Steve Franco checked the play's accuracy with Dr. Kye Kim, director of the Dementia Unit and Memory Disorders Clinic at the VA hospital. He also invited members of local Alzheimer's groups, caretakers and an Alzheimer's patient to talk to the cast about the disease. Some of the actors toured Ward 7.

Most of the actors are students, but there are a few adults, including Steve Franco's father-in-law, in the cast. The actors wear vintage military uniforms in the play.

For some of them -- those who know someone who has Alzheimer's or dementia -- acting in the play is painfully cathartic.

"It's probably going to open a lot of wounds," said Judy Pierce, whose grandfather died of Alzheimer's. Pierce, who acted in New York before moving to Roanoke, plays a character named Mrs. Huff. The character's husband has Alzheimer's and no longer recognizes his wife or his surroundings.

Asked whether she could handle the emotional role, Pierce answered, "Oh yes. I'm not the one to run away from my fears."

One of the last scenes of the play shows Huff, his conditioning worsening, sitting in his wheelchair and sobbing as his wife tries unsuccessfully to console him.

For Steve Franco, the scene is painful to watch because of "the impending sense that one day, my dad will be in that situation and he will not know my name.

"One day, I'll have to see that final chapter."

Liz Reece, 16, plays a character whose father is an Alzheimer's patient. Reece said the play "makes me think of my grandmother," who has dementia.

"It's helped me have a whole lot of respect for her and not be so short with her if she asks me the same question," the young actress said, her voice breaking.

Like the disease, the play's story has no clear beginning, middle and end. It intentionally concludes on a note of uncertainty with a character named Mr. Hensley giving a college commencement speech in which he talks about being diagnosed with Alzheimer's.

"Cling tightly to the memories that you now hold so dear," Hensley advises the audience.

The lights dim as he speaks and slowly other characters -- doctors, nurses, families -- walk onstage. They represent not only the 4.5 million Americans believed to have some form of Alzheimer's disease or dementia, but also those indirectly affected by it. Then they sing:

I will remember you

Will you remember me?

Don't let your life pass you

by

Weep not for the memories.

Interested in going?

“My Father’s War” will be performed Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Tickets are $5 for general admission and are on sale in the Glenvar High School front office. Seating is limited to 660 per show.

The school auditorium will open at 6:30 p.m. each night for seating. For more information call the school at (540) 387-6536.