Dennis Foy falls asleep every night reciting his script for “Bury the Dead,” this year’s fall production for Penn’s Theatre Arts Program. The rookie actor is nervous, to say the least.

Foy, who is finishing up his master’s degree in organizational dynamics, will play a general officer in the performances, slated for Nov. 18 through 21 at the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts. Foy, an accomplished chef and painter, is also a veteran—he served in the Vietnam War.

Perhaps that helped pique his interest when he saw the play’s advertisement on campus. The first-time actor practiced for weeks during the summer, shouting lines into the waves while visiting Asbury Park, N.J. He threw on a red beret with three stars, dressed in his combat boots, and passionately auditioned. A couple days later, he learned from Theatre Arts Program’s James Schlatter that he got the part.

“I was elated, then scared to death, all in the same minute,” Foy says with a laugh.

Schlatter, director of Theatre Arts’ rendition of “Bury the Dead,” says the play “epitomizes the kind of work that we do.”

“It’s a play of great power and it’s very provocative,” he says. “It’s about doing stuff that will have meaning to the Penn community.”

“Bury the Dead,” written by Irwin Shaw in 1936, is set in an unnamed battlefield that also serves as the gravesite for six dead American soldiers who refuse to be buried. An emotional experience, the play is not about the death of the young soldiers, but about the life they thought they’d return to.

“This is a very uncomfortable time to do this play,” admits Schlatter, “but I also thought that is the reason it should be done.”

The Theatre Arts Program, which offers the opportunity for anyone in the Penn community to get involved in production work, is giving two complimentary tickets to any performance of “Bury the Dead” to all veterans with identification. Interested veterans should visit the Annenberg Center for Performing Arts Box Office, 3680 Walnut St.

A special veterans night post-show panel event will be held on Thursday, Nov. 19, featuring Lt. Col. John A. Nagl, a veteran of the Iraq War and the Persian Gulf War and the author of several books, including “Knife Fights: A Memoir of Modern War in Theory and Practice.”

All performances will be in the Bruce Montgomery Theatre and start at 7 p.m. Tickets are $5 for PennCard holders and $7 for general admission.