Monk’s meditation on WWII and recurring cycles of intolerance, fascism, and cruelty in history originated in 1976 as a live stage work utilizing elements of music, images, movement, dialogue, film, sound, and light. This film version, shot on 16mm in the Lepercq Space at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 1977, was created in partnership with the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts as part of their initiative to document ground-breaking live performance for future restaging. QUARRY centers on a sick American child (played by Monk herself) whose world darkens as her illness progresses, this darkening including the rise of a dictator. A unique document of this innovative, boundary-blurring production, and a work of art on its own terms, replete with a film-within-a-film directed by Monk in 1975.
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
 Meredith MonkChild | Child |
 Ping ChongThe Dictator | The Dictator |
| SSteve ClorfeineDictator's Aide | Dictator's Aide |
| TTone BlevinsOld Testament woman / Dictator | Old Testament woman / Dictator |
| DDaniel Ira SverdlikOld Testament man / Dictator | Old Testament man / Dictator |
| LLanny HarrisonRadio Singer / Announcer / Woman in a flowered dress / Dictator | Radio Singer / Announcer / Woman in a flowered dress / Dictator |
| MMonica MoseleyWoman at a table / Dictator | Woman at a table / Dictator |
| PPablo VelaMan with grey hair / Dictator | Man with grey hair / Dictator |
| LLee NagrinWoman with Gray Hair | Woman with Gray Hair |
 Mary ShultzWoman at Table | Woman at Table |
| GGail TurnerWoman at a table | Woman at a table |
| AAnne GentryVisitor at the table | Visitor at the table |
| CCoco PekelisMaid | Maid |
| AAndrea GoodmanOrganist | Organist |
| SSteve LockwoodOrganist | Organist |