Ever since the war in Iraq began, Kasi Campbell has made it a point to look at all the photos and obituaries of the deceased soldiers running in the daily newspaper. So it was probably inevitable that this longtime Rep Stage Company director chose to stage a play about how war and foreign policy impacts on everyday citizens.

The result of her search, Naomi Wallace's "In the Heart of America," is now getting its regional premiere by Rep Stage, in residence at Howard Community College.

This surrealistic 1994 drama is divided between the Gulf War of 1991 and the Vietnam War in 1968, and tells of a Palestinian woman, Fairouz Saboura, who is searching for her brother, Remzi by looking to an American soldier in the Gulf War. The soldier, named Craver, attempts to help but finds he's haunted by the war's events - some of which involve Remzi and himself.

Meanwhile, Craver's commanding officer, Lieutenant Boxler, starts to morph into an earlier military figure, Lieutenant Calley, who participated in the My Lai massacre of innocent villagers during the Vietnam War, and was eventually court-marshaled for his involvement. Both wars begin to converge on each other, as dream sequences are interspersed with helpings of on-stage realism.

"A friend of mine recommended this play to me, because she knows I like plays that are not strict realism, but have elements that are highly theatrical," Campbell maintains. "This play has a non-linear, dream-like quality to it. It's a very unusual approach to take in a play that deals with war and people's lives. But when I read it, I was very moved by it."

Wallace, a Kentucky native, is known for her socially conscious writings. She has received the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, the Kesselring Prize and an Obie Award. She is also a recipient of a MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship. She's probably best known for her 2004 play "Things of Dry Hours."

Campbell says Wallace's approach to characterization is quite original, with the characters themselves sometimes representing "ideology or a larger concept.

"Sometimes they represent very human, personal, one-to-one relationships," she explains. "We have two characters that are time-travelers from the Vietnam era who weave their way through the play and interact with the soldiers who are in the Iraq war."

Campbell, herself a Helen Hayes Award-winning director, has assembled a cast of both Rep stage veterans and newcomers. Featured will be Dacyl Acevedo, Tim Getman, Brandon McCoy, Thi Pham Tuyet and Alexander Strain.

Tuyet brings a personal perspective to the material, Campbell notes, since she was a child from Vietnam who relocated to the United States after the war.

"She lost brothers in that war and she was just a child when she was relocated to Nebraska," Campbell says. "She says she's never really dealt with her Vietnamese heritage coming out of the war. She's very tied to the culture, but she's never dealt with how she got to this country through the aspects of the war. So it's been an interesting journey for her -- especially since she's playing a war victim who died in Vietnam."

Campbell says that although the play is critical of war and foreign policy, it should not be construed as an anti-soldier tract.

"I think sometimes you see a play advertised as anti-war, and we might assume it is in some way negative to the military," she says. "I don't consider this piece that at all. It really deals with five very imperfect people trying to navigate the sands of Iraq and the metaphorical sands of the United States."

The Rep Stage Company concludes its 15th season with "In the Heart of America," Wednesday-Thursday 7:30 p.m., Friday-Saturday 8 p.m., and Saturday-Sunday 2:30 p.m., May 29-June 29, in the Studio Theatre at Howard Community College. The June 6 and June 13 performances include post-show talkback, moderated by dramaturg Lisa A. Wilde; the June 7 staging includes a free, 1 p.m. pre-show lecture in the Monteabaro Recital Hall. Tickets run $17-$25 depending on the performance date. All tickets for students with identification are $12. Call 410-772-4900 or go to www.repstage.org.

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