Millersville University's BURY THE DEAD Invited to Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival's Region II Conference

Millersville University Theatre's spring 2015 production of Irwin Shaw's 1936 classic anti-war play BURY THE DEAD has been invited to be presented for three performances at the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (KCACTF) Region II Conference at West Chester University, January 12-16, 2016. Of the hundreds of college theatre productions staged each year in the mid-Atlantic region, only 8 productions from the region are invited to be presented at the conference.

"We were very proud of our production of BURY THE DEAD, and we are excited that the play, the cast, and the production are being recognized with this invitation," commented Associate Professor Tony Elliot, director of the MU Theatre program and of BURY THE DEAD. "This opportunity is a huge challenge for Millersville's theatre program and will make Millersville University proud. We are up to the challenge."

"We are honored and thrilled to have been chosen for this experience" says Elliot. "This invitation comes at the end of a year-long competitive process. Performing the play at the festival involves, rehearsing the cast, restoring the sets, costumes, props, lighting design and sound for a play that had its performances last April. In the case of BURY THE DEAD, this involves 26 student actors, some of whom have graduated, and a technical crew of 10 more students. The fast-paced restoration must be accomplished in less than four weeks (over winter semester break)."

The Millersville University Theatre production, in addition to the large talented cast, features student designers in the areas of set (Maria "Izzy" Kainz, senior), lighting (David Hassler, recent graduate), and sound (Ryan Silver, junior) so this appearance at the KCACTF conference will be a major showcase for Millersville students and for their theatre program. Ms. Kainz also serves as Production Stage Manager. Total, MU will be taking 50 students, 2 faculty, and 3 staff members to the conference.

BURY THE DEAD was written by Irwin Shaw in 1936, between World War I and II. In the play, the time is "the second year of the war that is to begin tomorrow night," and a military burial detail goes about its sad duties. The chaplains arrive to say prayers for the dead-but the dead soldiers refuse to be buried and forgotten. The loved ones are summoned to console each dead soldier. This moving and thought-provoking anti-war play challenges us all to think about the choices we make and the choices we allow others to make for us.

The Kennedy Center American College Theater (KCACTF), started in 1969 by Roger L. Stevens, founding chairman, is a national theater program involving 18,000 students from colleges and universities nationwide which has served as a catalyst in improving the quality of College Theater in the United States. The KCACTF has grown into a network of more than 600 academic institutions throughout the country, where theater departments and student artists showcase their work and receive outside assessment by KCACTF respondents.

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