Under the direction of Joe Calarco, who has also added a brief "curtain-raiser" piece to the production, which begins Oct. 31, the cast will include Jeremy Beck, Fred Berman, Mandell Butler, Champlin (Obie Award winner for Transport Group's The Dark at the Top of the Stairs), Jake Hart, Jeff Pucillo and Matt Sincell.
Opening is Nov. 9 at 220 East 4th Street, between Avenues A and B, in the East Village. Transport Group is winner of a special 2007 Drama Desk Award and a 2007 Obie Award. This is the first major New York revival of Shaw's play. Performances will continue to Nov. 23.
According to Transport Group, "Shaw's harrowing 1936 classic Bury the Dead takes place during 'the second year of the war that is to begin tomorrow night.' While a military burial detail goes about its sad duties, the dead soldiers shockingly begin to rise up, pleading not to be buried. Word of their insurrection spreads rapidly: the dead will not yield so easily. In a series of touching scenes the dead men talk with their loved ones of the days of living, now lost forever."
Champlin will play the drama's female roles. Her Broadway credits include Hollywood Arms and the recent revival of Sweeney Todd.
Calarco told Playbill.com, "In Bury the Dead there are six scenes at the end of the play after the government has gone to the women of the dead men who are refusing to be buried to ask them to go talk to their men to convince them to lie down and be buried. Donna Lynne is playing each of the six women — quite a tour de force. Also, Bury the Dead is a one-act and has often been done with a 'curtain-raiser' short play to start the evening. I am writing a new curtain-raiser for Donna Lynne." Calarco is a Lucille Lortel Award winner for Shakespeare's R & J.
The creative team includes set designer Sandra Goldmark, costume designer Kathryn Rohe, lighting designer R. Lee Kennedy, sound designer Michael Rasbury and production stage manager Wendy Patten.
Bury the Dead plays Thursday through Saturday and Monday at 8 PM, Saturday at 2 PM, and Sunday at 3 PM through Nov. 23.
There is only an evening performance on Saturday, Nov. 1 and there is an added performance on Wednesday, Nov. 5 at 8 PM. The evening performance on Saturday, Nov. 8 is at 7 PM.
Tickets are $38 and are available at www.transportgroup.org or by phoning (212) 352-3101; $10 rush tickets are available to students one hour prior to curtain. For more information about Transport Group and Bury the Dead, visit www.transportgroup.org.
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Founded in 2001, Transport Group, under the leadership of Jack Cummings III, artistic director, and Lori Fineman, executive director, is a not-for-profit theatre company that develops and produces work by American playwrights and composers with the aim of exploring the American consciousness in the 20th and 21st centuries.
