Portales, NM – April 15, 2024- ENMU's Department of Theatre and Digital Filmmaking is proud to present a theatre performance of Dearly Departed by David Bottrell and Jessie Jones, a hilarious comedy about a funeral in the South.

Dearly Departed is about a dysfunctional country family that comes together to plan a funeral in this character-driven ensemble comedy. When the Turpin family patriarch Bud suddenly dies of a stroke, his sons Ray-Bud and Junior, sister Marguerite, and widow Raynelle do their best to ensure a dignified memorial, but familial squabbles quickly get in the way. Junior's wife Suzanne (correctly) accuses him of infidelity, a resentful Ray-Bud drinks to deal with his resentment over footing the bill for a service being handled by the funeral home of his arch-rival, and Raynelle seems more concerned with ensuring that Bud's legacy as "mean and surly" is quite literally carved in stone. Dearly Departed is a side-splitting ensemble comedy that's a parody of and a love letter to life in the Deep South.

"This play is an all-out enjoyable comedy," says Leonard Madrid, director of the performance and Associate Professor of Theatre. "Not only is it important for our students to learn the difficult skill of performing comedy, but it is also important to have plays that are just fun to watch without a lesson."

Dearly Departed will host live performances in ENMU's Studio Theatre at the University Theatre Center (UTC) from Thursday, April 18 to Saturday, April 20, at 7:00 p.m. A matinee performance will be on Sunday, April 21, 2:00 p.m.  General admission tickets are only $10 per ticket, while senior citizens and active duty military tickets are only $7.  Tickets can be purchased in advance at enmu.edu/TheatreLive.

Contact the ENMU Department of Theatre and Digital Filmmaking at enmu.edu/TheatreLive for more information.