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New PBS American Drama MERCY STREET
to Star Josh Radnor, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Gary Cole,
Peter Gerety and Norbert Leo Butz
– Also Features Shalita Grant, Jack Falahee, McKinley Belcher III, AnnaSophia
Robb, Donna Murphy, Cameron Monaghan, Hannah James, Among Others;
With Special Guest Star Cherry Jones –
– PBS Announces Acclaimed Directors Roxann Dawson and Jeremy Webb for Scott Free
Executive Produced Series –
– Award-Winning Creative Team Includes Ridley Scott, David Zabel, Lisa Quijano
Wolfinger and David W. Zucker –
– Electric Entertainment currently selling international rights to MERCY STREET –
ARLINGTON, VA; April 29, 2015 – Today, PBS
announced that an award-winning cast and acclaimed
television directors Roxann Dawson and Jeremy
Webb will join its new Civil War-based drama,
officially named MERCY STREET. The series is
executive produced by Ridley Scott (Gladiator and
Thelma & Louise) and David W. Zucker (“The Good
Wife”) of Scott Free, and Lisa Q. Wolfinger
(“Desperate Crossing, The untold story of the
Mayflower”) and David Zabel (“ER”). Filmed on
location in Virginia, the six-part series is the first
American drama to air on PBS in more than a decade.
Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Nurse Mary Phinney and
The series will join a robust Sunday night drama
Josh Radnor as Jedediah Foster.
lineup on PBS in winter 2016, including the final
Courtesy of Antony Platt/PBS
season of “Downton Abbey” on MASTERPIECE.
Dean Devlin’s Electric Entertainment secured all foreign rights to the series early in the process, and will
continue to sell international territories.
MERCY STREET cast in leading roles includes:
• Mary Elizabeth Winstead (“The Returned,” “Smashed,” The Spectacular Now) as Nurse Mary
Phinney, a feisty New Englander and widow who is a newcomer at Mansion House Hospital.
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Josh Radnor (“How I Met Your Mother,” Liberal Arts, Broadway’s Disgraced) as Jedediah
Foster, the civilian contract surgeon who grew up in a privileged Southern slave-owning household
as the son of a wealthy Maryland landowner.
Gary Cole (“Veep,” “The Good Wife,” “Entourage”) as James Green, Sr., patriarch of the Green
family, struggling to maintain his family business while living in an occupied city.
Peter Gerety (Syriana, Charlie Wilson’s War, Flight, God’s Pocket, “The Wire,” “Prime
Suspect”) as Dr. Alfred Summers, chief surgeon at Mansion House, who has risen to the rank of
major by virtue of his age, not skill.
Norbert Leo Butz (“Bloodline”) as Dr. Byron Hale, an old-school army surgeon who lives life by
the book. While Hale has an eye for the nurses, he has an ongoing relationship with Nurse Anne
Reading.
McKinley Belcher III (“Power,” “Madam Secretary,” “Chicago PD,” “Show Me A Hero”) as
Samuel Diggs, a black laborer harboring a secret knowledge and ability in medicine, which he
learned as a boy servant.
Shalita Grant (“NCIS: New Orleans,” “Bones”) as Aurelia Johnson, a beautiful,
stoical ‘contraband’ working as a laundress at the hospital, and trying to bury her past.
Newcomer Hannah James as Emma Green, an entitled Southern young woman who volunteers as
a nurse at Mansion House Hospital, the facility established on the site of her family’s luxury hotel.
Cherry Jones (“24”), guest star, as Dorothea Dix, known as “Miss Dix,” the formidable
superintendent of Union Army nurses.
Also starring in MERCY STREET are Jack Falahee (“How to Get Away With Murder”) as Frank
Stringfellow; AnnaSophia Robb (“The Carrie Diaries,” The Way, Way Back, Bridge to Terabithia) as
Alice Green; Cameron Monaghan (“Shameless”) as Tom Fairfax; Donna Murphy (“Resurrection,”
“Hindsight,” Broadway’s Passion, The King and I) as Jane Green; Tara Summers (“Stalker,” “Rake,”
“Boston Legal”) as Anne Hastings; L. Scott Caldwell (“Southland,” “Lost,” “ER,” The Fugitive) as
Belinda; Suzanne Bertish (“Rome”) as Matron Brannan; Wade Williams (“Prison Break,” Draft Day) as
Silas Bullen; Luke Macfarlane (“Brothers and Sisters,” “Over There”) as Chaplain Hopkins; and up-andcoming actor Brad Koed as James Green, Jr.
Acclaimed television director Roxann Dawson’s recent work includes directing episodes of “Stalker,”
“Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D,” “Lost,” “Heroes,” “The Mentalist” and “Treme.” She is also known for
portraying B’Elanna Torres on the series “Star Trek: Voyager.”
Jeremy Webb has recently directed episodes of “Masters of Sex,” “Turn,” “The Red Road” and “Downton
Abbey” for MASTERPIECE on PBS, for which he received a 2013 Primetime Emmy nomination for
Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series. The extensive body of his television work in the UK includes
episodes of “Doctor Who” and “Merlin” for BBC1 and Shine, respectively.
“It’s an honor to be able to tell the exciting stories of real experiences and struggles of the war,” said Beth
Hoppe, Chief Programming Executive and General Manager, General Audience Programming, PBS. “I
know this talented and diverse cast and crew will be able to bring MERCY STREET to life on screen. We
will tell the story of what it was like in Alexandria, Virginia — the crossroads of the Civil War — by
delving into the multifaceted lives of those in the hospital wards.”
Executive producer Lisa Q. Wolfinger said, “I’m delighted to be working with such a talented cast and
crew on MERCY STREET, a remarkable story that portrays perhaps the most challenging time in our
nation’s history. Our diverse and colorful cast of characters — Union doctors, female volunteers,
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contraband laborers and Southern loyalists — will bring to life the chaotic world of Union-occupied
Alexandria, Virginia, and the Mansion House Hospital.”
David W. Zucker, executive producer, added, “We’re thrilled to welcome these amazingly talented
directors and actors to the set of MERCY STREET, which tells the story of one of America’s most
tumultuous times … . In their capable hands, this multi-layered story will be brought to life in a completely
fresh and engaging series, including introducing two up-and-coming young cast members.”
MERCY STREET follows the lives of two volunteer nurses on opposing sides of the Civil War — New
England abolitionist Mary Phinney and Confederate supporter Emma Green. The Green family’s luxury
hotel in Alexandria, Virginia, has been transformed into Mansion House, a Union Army hospital tending
to the war’s wounded. Inspired by memoirs and letters from real doctors and nurse volunteers at Mansion
House Hospital, this new drama reveals the stories of those struggling to save lives while managing their
own hardships.
The series, which commenced production this month, is shot in the Richmond and Petersburg, Virginia,
areas.
Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe said, “We are proud to be hosting this series because it is a Virginia
story and an American story of people who struggled to endure and prevail during one of the most divisive
eras our nation has ever known. I enthusiastically welcome PBS and everyone involved in this important
series to the Commonwealth. This new project from PBS will be an important contributor to the new
Virginia economy.”
To depict a realistic and accurate account of this era, the writers and producers collaborated with historians
and medical experts, including James M. McPherson (Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era), Dr.
Stanley Burns (medical advisor to the HBO/Cinemax series, “The Knick”), Shauna Devine (Learning
From the Wounded, the Civil War and the Rise of Medical Science), Jane Schultz (Women at the Front:
Hospital Workers in Civil War America), George Wunderlich, director of the National Museum of Civil
War Medicine, Audrey Davis, director of the Alexandria Black History Museum, and Anya Jabour
(Scarlett’s Sisters, Young Women in the Old South).
Funding for the series has been provided by the Anne Ray Charitable Trust and the Sloan Foundation.
Additional support is provided by a grant from the Virginia Motion Picture Opportunity Fund, with
additional funding by Electric Entertainment and public television viewers.
MERCY STREET is a production of Sawbone Films and Scott Free Productions. Executive producers:
Ridley Scott, David W. Zucker and co-creator Lisa Q. Wolfinger; co-creator and writer David Zabel; coexecutive producer Clayton Krueger; and producer David Rosemont.
About Sawbone Films
A subsidiary of Lone Wolf Media, Sawbone Films specializes in scripted drama. President and owner Lisa
Q. Wolfinger created the new PBS American drama concept in collaboration with David Zabel,
showrunner and lead writer on NBC’s hit series “ER.” MERCY STREET was inspired by the
sesquicentennial of the Civil War and their shared passion for history.
About Scott Free
Scott Free Productions is the film and television production company of acclaimed film director Ridley
Scott. In the 20 years since Scott Free was formed, the company has earned more than 70 Emmy
nominations with 20 wins, and 20 Golden Globe nominations for its highly acclaimed television projects,
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which include the Peabody Award-winning “The Good Wife,” now in its sixth season for CBS, a drama
series adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s classic “The Man in the High Castle,” now in production for Amazon,
and “Killing Jesus,” the third in the acclaimed “Killing” telefilms (previously “Killing Kennedy” and
“Killing Lincoln”) for National Geographic, each of which premiered to record numbers for the channel.
Notable limited series broadcasts are “Klondike” for Discovery, “The Pillars of the Earth” for Starz,
“World Without End” for Reelz, “Into the Storm” and “The Gathering Storm” for HBO, “The Andromeda
Strain” and “Coma” for A&E and “The Company” at TNT. Non-fiction programs are highlighted by the
Emmy-winning documentary special “Gettysburg” for History Channel and “Crimes of the Century” for
CNN. Projects currently on the development slate include “Strange Angel” for AMC, “Brain Dead” for
CBS and “3001:The Final Odyssey” for Syfy. With offices in Los Angeles and London, Scott Free works
closely with RSA Films, one of the world’s largest and most successful commercial production houses in
the world.
About Electric Entertainment
Founded by Dean Devlin, the company recently wrapped production on the Warner Bros. film Geostorm,
Devlin’s feature directorial debut, which he is producing with Skydance Pictures’ David Ellison and Dana
Goldberg and his Electric Entertainment team of Marc Roskin and Rachel Olschan. Devlin’s sales outfit,
Electric Distribution, recently sold international rights to The Librarians to Universal International
Television. In addition, the company co-financed and produced the film Go With Me starring Anthony
Hopkins, Ray Liotta and Julia Stiles. Electric Distribution recently acquired international sales rights to
award-winning SXSW titles Kelly & Cal, as well as the SXSW Audience Award winner Before I
Disappear and the Terrence Malick-produced film The Better Angels. They are also selling the Sundance
favorite God’s Pocket, a recent IFC Films release, which was the directing debut of “Mad Men”’s John
Slattery and stars the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, John Turturro and Christina Hendricks, and the
Tribeca Film Festival premiere The Wannabe, which is executive produced by Martin Scorsese, Dean
Devlin and Traction Media and stars Academy Award® winner Patricia Arquette, Vincent Piazza and
Michael Imperioli.
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