"Dearly Departed" is Colorful, Dysfunctional Fun

Next week, the Upper School Theatre Department will present David Bottrell and Jessie Jones' Southern-inspired comedy Dearly Departed. 

When the patriarch of the Turpin family keels over dead, the struggle to get him buried involves the whole family, including the not-so-grieving widow. Amid the chaos, the Turpin family turns for comfort from their friends and neighbors, an eccentric community of misfits who manage to pull together and help each other through their hours of need. The New York Post commented, “Not since Steel Magnolias has a more colorful and dysfunctional group of Southern eccentrics gathered below the Mason-Dixon line.”

The production features 13 actors, including four Intermediate School performing and technical students, as part of the new Potomac Upper School Theatre Bridge Program. This co-divisional program was started by theatre arts faculty member and director Mia Fisher-Phillips. Performances will take place in the Langstaff Auditorium on Friday, November 4, at 6:30 pm, and Saturday, November 5, at 2:00 pm and 7:00 pm. Admission is free. (Poster artwork by junior Sofya Donets)