FUNERAL OF GOD to Make World Premiere With TLC Star Hunter Thore

The full company for the world premiere of Funeral of god, a new play by Brian S. Brijbag, Esq. and directed by Noa Brenner, has been announced. Leading the five-person ensemble is Hunter Thore, familiar to millions from TLC's long-running series My Big Fat Fabulous Life, as Marvin. The production plays a strictly limited run of four performances, July 30 to August 2, at AMT Theater, 354 W. 45th St.

THE COMPANY

Funeral of god features Alyssa Silver as the Director, forever trying to keep the ceremony (and her cast) on track; Regina Palian as Helen, the company's believer, who insists the ritual be done with dignity; Hunter Thore as Marvin, its unrepentant cynic; Cal Wright as Jax, the irrepressible clown; and Emma Anne Johnson as the Stagehand, its silent witness. Shilpa Raju understudies Helen and the Director, and Mike McNulty understudies Marvin, Jax, and the Stagehand.

ABOUT THE ACTORS

Hunter Thore (Marvin) is known to television audiences worldwide as a star of TLC's My Big Fat Fabulous Life, on which he has appeared since 2015. His screen work also includes CBS's Blue Bloods, and he is an accomplished musician.

Regina Palian (Helen) is an actor and singer-songwriter whose screen credits include CBS's CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and ABC's Boston Legal, with a stage career spanning classical and contemporary roles on New York stages.

Alyssa Silver (the Director) is a New York-based actor and vocalist whose credits include the title role in The Little Mermaid at the Hangar Theatre, A Christmas Carol at Indiana Repertory Theatre, and the national tour of The Magic School Bus: Lost in the Solar System. She trained at NYU Tisch.

Cal Wright (Jax) is a New York-based actor and singer pursuing a BFA in Musical Theatre at Pace University.

Emma Anne Johnson (the Stagehand) is a Brooklyn-based interdisciplinary artist and musician whose path to the stage began, fittingly, behind it, as a stagehand and a lighting and sound engineer.

CREATIVE & PRODUCTION TEAM

Funeral of god is written and produced by Brian S. Brijbag, Esq. and directed by Noa Brenner. The design and production team includes Brianna Golden (production stage manager, casting director, and scenic design), Maya McQueen (assistant stage manager and props), Nicholas Ferrari (sound design), Cece Collier (lighting design), and John Golden (assistant scenic design).

In the play, a theatre company attempts the impossible: rehearsing the funeral of god. As arguments over staging, ritual, and meaning spiral into increasingly absurd theatrical chaos, rehearsal and reality begin to collapse into one another. Beneath the comedy lies a deeply human reckoning with belief, grief, memory, and the stories we tell to avoid what hurts most. Equal parts absurdist comedy and existential inquiry, Funeral of god evokes the theatrical lineage of Samuel Beckett, Tom Stoppard, and Luigi Pirandello while finding a distinctly contemporary voice.

Funeral of god is one of ten new plays and two musicals receiving their world premieres at this year's Broadway Bound Theatre Festival, which celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2026 and was named one of the Top Ten Festivals in NYC by Time Out New York.

“This is a play that lives or dies on its company, and this one plays every note, the absurd and the aching, often in the same breath,” said playwright and producer Brian S. Brijbag, Esq. “With Hunter Thore anchoring a fearless ensemble, audiences are going to meet a Funeral of god that is as funny as it is unexpectedly moving.”

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