SOMERSET CASTS THREE CHARACTERS FOR JULY 16 DEBUT

(SONBC) -- Another three actors have been announced for the July 16 premiere of "Somerset", a new SONBC serial that will be blogged five days a week.

Heading the cast announcements is the addition of DAN GAUTHIER, who previously played Kevin Buchanan on ABC's "One Life To Live". Gauthier has been signed as Michael Wagner, a reporter for The Somerset Register, the city's longtime newspaper. Wagner is a reporter in the vein of journalists like Greg Mercer and Steve Slade, a metro writer who longs for the big investigative story to come along that launches his career into the stratosphere.

KRISTI McDANIEL, formerly Aremid resident Sarah on "Days of our Lives", returns to daytime screens following a long absence in the role of nurse Alana Singleton, who works as a registered nurse on the fourth floor of Somerset Hospital. Alana, who used to date Nick Barclay, has lied low in the relationship department since her friendly breakup with Nick a couple years back, but she has the eye of a Somerset resident. Alana works closely on the fourth floor with Dr. Patrick Kurtz and other doctors and nurses.

Finally, former "Another World" star MATT CRANE has been lured back to daytime as the aforementioned Dr. Kurtz. The son of Stanley Kurtz (Michael Lipton) and Teri Martin (Gloria Hoye), Patrick was conceived following the couple's move to Arizona in the mid-1970s. Patrick has since moved back to Somerset and is struggling to live up to the legacy his father left behind.

These three join the previously announced casting of STACY EDWARDS (Susannah Lucas), LANE DAVIES (Jack Martin) and DON JEFFCOAT (Nick Barclay) for the premiere of Somerset... coming July 16 to SONBC. Final casting announcements will come later in June, along with a teaser from headwriter and creator Steve Ungrey on what to expect from Somerset.