The Unburied
A traveling Performance
An evolving theatrical experience by The Saye Theatre Group, created through international collaborations. A living play that carries memories, voices, and human traces beyond borders.
If our bodies cannot cross borders, can theatre?
The Unburied began in 2025 as an evolving performance project and a living theatrical text by The Saye Theatre Group, shaped through collaborations with artists across cities after the group’s absence from international stages.Exploring distance, memory, and theatre’s ability to carry what must not be forgotten, the project does not seek to represent or possess another person’s lived experience. Instead, it carries names, voices, memories, and gestures that resist disappearance, moving from one city to another.Each performance becomes a new chapter of this living play, shaped by the presence of each city and woven into a moving archive of human memories
Across Borders, Station by Station
The Unburied Project unfolds from station to station as a transnational theatrical dialogue. Each chapter is developed in a different country/ city/ place through collaboration with a local theatre company, artistic collective, or performance group.The project travels as a living structure—a text, a question, and a shared space of memory reactivated through each new encounter. Every station leaves traces in the next, allowing the work to grow through exchanges between artists, audiences, and cultural contexts.Through this process, the project is not a series of performances, it is an expanding international discourse and a live archive of memory, absence, borders, and the capacity of theatre to carry what should not disappear
Station 1
Theater of War Productions (NYC)
| Performers | Venue | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Juliana Francis Kelly & Shadi Ghaheri | Theater of War Productions | March 18, 2026 |
The first presentation took place on March 18, 2026, during the unfolding war in Iran, when the artists of The Saye Theatre Group were unable to access the internet and could not join the performance remotely. Originally titled We’re Here, Fully Here, the work was conceived as a rehearsal in search of Antigone and as a simultaneous encounter between Iran and the United States. Instead, the performance unfolded through absence, distance, and asynchronous presence.
Station 2
Stella Adler Center for the Arts (NYC)
| Performers | Venue | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Juliana Francis Kelly & Shadi Ghaheri; Stella Adler students; Saye Theatre Group (Remote) | Stella Adler Center for the Arts | July 28–31, 2026 |
Four months later, the project continued as a four-day residency and workshop at the Stella Adler Center for the Arts. This time, members of The Saye Theatre Group were able to join live from Iran, transforming the process into a sustained dialogue with students and participants. Through rehearsals, discussions, and collaborative investigation, the project developed beyond its initial presentation and into a shared space of artistic exchange.
Become the Next Station
The Unburied Project continues to develop through new collaborations, cities, and theatrical communities. We are open to artists, theatre companies, and cultural organizations interested in hosting, developing, or presenting a new station of the project.If you are interested in becoming the next station, tell us about your organization, your city, your artistic context, and how you imagine the project taking shape in your community.
Official website of The Saye Theatre Group
Other Projects by The Saye Theatre Group
Stella Adler students after the performance — NYC
Juliana Francis Kelly performing The Unburied Project at Theater of War Productions, NYC.
A section of the set — Theater of War Productions, NYC
Contact us
For inquiries, collaborations, or more information about The Saye Theatre Group and The Unburied Project, please get in touch with us. We’d be happy to hear from you and explore possible ways to connect.