Casting Announced for Alexandria Civil War Drama 'Mercy Street'

PHOTOS: Actress Hannah James as Emma Green and Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Mary Phinney from “Mercy Street” scene from Mercy Street Extras Casting Facebook page; second photo of Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Mary Phinney) and Josh Radnor (Jedediah Foster, a civilian contract surgeon)

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PBS recently announced casting in “Mercy Street,” the Civil War drama based on life in Alexandria. The series will begin airing in January 2016.

The main story will center on two volunteer nurses: Emma Green, portrayed by newcomer actress Hannah James and Mary Phinney, played by actress Mary Elizabeth Winstead. The two characters are volunteer nurses on opposing sides of the Civil War, working in a hospital that was formerly a luxury hotel owned by the Green family. Winstead’s credits include “The Returned,” “Smashed” and The Spectacular Now.

“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,” said PBS’ Beth Hoppe.

“Our diverse and colorful cast of characters — Union doctors, female volunteers, contraband laborers and Southern loyalists — will bring to life the chaotic world of Union-occupied Alexandria, Virginia, and the Mansion House Hospital,” said executive producer Lisa Q. Wolfinger.

Actor Josh Radnor (“How I Met Your Mother,” Liberal Arts, Broadway’s Disgraced) will play Jedediah Foster, a civilian contract surgeon who grew up in a privileged Southern slave-owning household, as the son of a wealthy Maryland landowner.

Currently filming on location in Richmond and Petersburg, the six-part series is the first American drama to air on PBS in more than a decade. The series will join a Sunday night drama lineup on PBS in winter 2016, including the final season of “Downton Abbey” on MASTERPIECE.

Know someone who would be perfect as an extra? You can keep up with extras casting on the Mercy Street Extras Casting Facebook page. There is also a Facebook page for the ”Mercy Street” series itself here.

Other actors cast in the series are:

• 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.
• Cherry Jones (“24”), guest star, as Dorothea Dix, known as “Miss Dix,” the formidable superintendent of Union Army nurses.