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O'Hare Cemetery Move Subject Of New Play

CHICAGO (CBS)-- An experimental theater company has made a play out of removing bodies from a cemetery in the path of O'Hare airport expansion.

Waltzing Mechanics Theater Company Artistic Director Thomas Murray says "Over my Dead Body" isn't a grim story about moving bodies from one place to another. He says there's some humor and humanity involved in deciding where long buried bodies should be moved.

"Over My Dead Body" shows how relatives of the deceased fought plans to pave over Saint Johannes Cemetery in Bensenville and then decided where and how to rebury their loved ones when the city won the battle to close the cemetery.

Murray says he interviewed families or the deceased, church and city officials and a mortician putting together "Over My Dead Body"

"One of the rich things about listening to the stories about Saint Johannes is that it allowed these families to talk about the memories that they have of their ancestors often times back to the days when O'Hare was remote farmland," said Murray.

Murray says the "Waltzing Mechanics" theater company has specialized in documentary plays with actors playing real people who've been interviewed about real situations in which they've been involved.

The play runs at Greenhouse Theater on Lincoln from Sunday, December 2nd through Sunday January 6th.

LISTEN: WBBM Newsradio's John Cody reports

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