Full Cast Assembled for Second Stage's A Soldier's Play

The full (all-male) cast for the upcoming production of A Soldier's Play at Second Stage (307 West 43rd Street, off Eighth Avenue) has been assembled.

Joaquin Perez Campbell, Mike Colter, Nelsan Ellis, James McDaniel Joe Forbrich, and Royce Johnson have joined the previously-announced Taye Diggs (Rent, The Wild Party), Anthony Mackie (McReele, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom), Steven Pasquale (Fat Pig, A Man of No Importance), Teagle F. Bougere (A Raisin in the Sun), Michael Genet (Hamlet, A Few Good Men) and Dorian Missick ("Freedomland") in the Charles Fuller (Zooman and the Sign) play, which will begin its run on September 20th for an October 17th opening.  A Soldier's Play will be directed by Jo Bonney (Living Out, On the Mountain, Fat Pig).

Campbell recently appeared in the remake of The Manchurian Candidate and Speilberg's The War of The Worlds, while Colter played Big Willie Little in Million Dollar Baby and Ellis appears regularly on the TV series "The Inside."  McDaniel, who played Lt. Arthur Fancy on "NYPD Blue," also appeared on Broadway in Someone Who'll Watch Over Me.  Forbich appeared off-Broadway in Rose Rage, while Johnson acted off-Broadway in Light Raise the Roof as well as in productions of Fences, A Lesson Before Dying, Lobby Hero and Native Son. 

In the play, which is set during World War II on an army base in Louisiana, a black officer and lawyer (Diggs) investigates the murder of self-loathing black sergeant (McDaniel) while a prejudiced white commander (Pasquale) stands in the way.  A Soldier's Play originally ran at the Lucille Lortel Theatre from November 10th, 1981 to January, 2nd 1983.  Produced by the Negro Ensemble Company and with Samuel L. Jackson and Denzel Washington in its cast, it garnered the 1982 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.  A 1984 film version was directed by Norman Jewison

Second Stage's 2005-06 season will also include the world premiere of Douglas Carter Beane's The Little Dog Laughed (directed by Scott Ellis), a world premiere by Paul Weitz (Roulette) and the New York premiere of Theresa Rebeck's The Water's Edge (directed by Will Frears and starring Kate Burton and Tony Goldwyn).

Visit the Second Stage box office, call (212) 246-4422 or toll-free (800) 766-6048 or visit www.SecondStageTheatre.com for single and subcription tickets.