This article shares an excerpt from the research-based theatre production Contact!Unload. The play, developed with military veterans using community theatre approaches, explores experiences of veterans transitioning from active service and living with trauma-related stress injuries. The excerpt included in this article provides a theatricalized example of therapeutic enactment (TE), a central intervention of the Veterans’ Transition Project (VTP). After contextualizing both TE and VTP, the script provides a visceral example of one veteran’s experiences both in service and in a TE. This article provides an example of using TE with veterans living with traumatic stress injuries and, in doing so, demonstrates the potential of research-based theatre as a methodology for engaging in and sharing psychological research.

Blending academic and theatrical worlds in research-based theater (RbT) requires balancing academic demands of institutionalized research and aesthetic demands of theater. This duality becomes particularly significant regarding ethics. With so much possibility, it becomes imperative for practitioners to share, and learn from, vulnerable and challenging ethical experiences. This creates landscapes of ethical possibilities for RbT and guideposts for navigating them, established by the field, highlighting well-worn paths, pointing out pitfalls, and noting where few have yet to trod. Contributing to this cartography, we consider ethical questions encountered during development and production of three RbT projects involving family members who have passed: Homa Bay Memories, Brothers, and Unload. In doing so, we question which stories might be best left untold and the evolution of relationships throughout the research. Exploring these together helps to develop a landscape of ethical possibilities and establish guideposts to help illuminate challenges for future RbT projects.