The Unburied

An Ongoing International Performance Project

The Unburied is an ongoing international performance project initiated in 2024 at the suggestion of American actor and director Juliana Francis Kelly as a long-term collaboration between Tehran and New York.

The project’s first public presentation took place in March 2026 through the Theater of War Productions platform, following an invitation from Bryan Doerries. Conceived as an evolving work rather than a fixed production, The Unburied investigates performance as a living process that changes through each encounter, collaboration, and location.

Its second stage was developed through a four-day laboratory at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting in New York, where members of Saye Theatre Group worked alongside the Studio’s acting students. The laboratory focused on testing the project’s dramaturgical, performative, and choreographic possibilities, concluding the second chapter of the work’s development.

With these two stages completed, The Unburied now enters its next phase. The project continues to evolve through future collaborations, research laboratories, and public presentations in different cities, allowing each iteration to reshape the work while remaining part of the same ongoing artistic process.

Credits

Created by The Saye Theatre Group

Project Director & Original Text: Sara Rasoulinejad

Project Advisor: Mehdi Mashhour

Co-Creator, Performer & Artistic Collaborator: Juliana Francis Kelly

Artistic Director, Collaborator & Performer: Shadi Ghaheri

Documentation Video: Erfan Fallah Akbari

Technology-Based Video: Amirhossein Sharifi

Documentation Manager: Kasra Karimi Asl

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