Spencer Davis Milford, Stephen James Anthony & More to Lead IN THE FIELDS WHERE THEY LAY at New Ohio Theatre

Principal casting is near completion for this year's limited run engagement of In Field's Where They Lay, a play with music by Ricardo Pérez González, directed by Brad Raimondo. The play opens at the New Ohio Theatre, December 5-27 (154 Christopher St), and commemorates the 100th anniversary of the Christmas Truce.

Actor Stephen James Anthony, who rose from puppeteer to assume the role of Billy Narracott, in the Tony-winning production of War Horse, has signed on to play Private Thomas Pfeiffer. His character is loosely based on Harry Patch, Britain's last surviving WWI soldier who passed away in 2009 at the ripe old age of 111. Spencer Davis Milford, who played Ronnie Winslow in the critically acclaimed Roundabout Theater revival of the Old Vic Production of The Winslow Boy, opposite Elizabeth Mastrantonio and Michael Rees, takes on one of the principal roles - Private Theodore "Teddy" Jones, a 16-year-old who enlists for battle by falsifying his age.

Also joining the cast are actors Nicholas Carter (Private Giles Andersen), Jeff Gonzales (Private Harold Dietrich), Zack Calhoon, one of the original ensemble members from the 2009 production (Sergeant James Woodward), Joe Kolbow (Lieutenant Reginald Jeffries), and Equiano Mosieri (Philip Osbourne).

Director Brad Raimondo had a very specific vision going into casting, "In Fields Where They Lay has always been a very tricky play to cast because it's an epic story told on a very human scale. So we need an ensemble that can bring the intimacy and immediacy, while capturing a sense of the period and the grandeur of this incredible moment in time," he says. "That's why I'm so pleased that we've assembled a cast with so much Shakespearean experience -- veterans of Shakespeare and Company (Equiano Mosieri), Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival (Jeff Gonzalez), Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey (Jeff Gonzalez), and Alabama Shakespeare (Joe Kolbow). Because although this play is very contemporary, it also asks a lot of the same things of an actor that Shakespeare does."

Casting continues, with final members of the ensemble to be announced prior to the start of rehearsals, which begin this month.

The Christmas Truce, according to those who witnessed it, began with a spontaneous outbreak of Christmas Carols across "No Man's Land", five months into the War to End All Wars, on Christmas Eve 1914. Playwright Ricardo Pérez González has beautifully captured this singular moment in time, when the sounds of war were silenced.

In Fields Where They Lay will be presented as part of New Ohio Hosts, New Ohio Theatre's curated rental program, which provides subsidized theatre space to innovative, not-for-profit theatre companies and independent theatre artists.

Tickets for In Fields Where They Lay are now on sale at www.dreamscapetheatre.org

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