Photo Flash: First Look at Burning Coal's MAN OF LA MANCHA

Burning Coal Theatre Company continues its 15th season with Man of La Mancha by Darion, Leigh and Wasserman. The production will run February 2 - 19, 2012 at the Murphey School, 224 Polk Street, Raleigh, NC. Performances are Thursdays through Saturdays at 7:30 pm (February 2 – 4, 9 – 11, 16 - 18, 2012) and Sundays at 2 pm (February 5, 12, 19, 2012). Sunday, February 5 at 2 pm is our 'Pay What You Can' Day. That performance will also be Audio Described. Check out production photos below.

Tickets are $20 or $15 for students, seniors and active military. All tickets are $10 on Thursday evenings. For reservations and information, please call 919-834-4001 or visit www.burningcoal.org. (and while you're at it, check out our brand new website, which just went live today!)

Drawn from the Spanish novelist Cervantes' great book Don Quixote, Man of La Mancha is a musical retelling of the story of a troubled man, Alonso Quixana, who believes he is in fact a knight named Don Quixote (Randolph Curtis Rand). He enlists a simple man to support his 'quest', Sancho Panza (David Henderson), and sets off to right the ills that he perceives in the world. On his travels, he meets the strumpet Aldonza, who he imagines to be the lady Dulcinea (Yolanda Rabun). In the musical retelling of this tale, playwright Dale Wasserman (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest), along with lyricist Joe Darion and composer Mitch Leigh imagined that the writer himself, Miguel de Cervantes, has been imprisoned for crimes against the church and state. Cast into a prison amidst a bunch of low-life criminals, Cervantes finds that he was create a beautiful story in order to convince them that he, as an artist, deserves to live. He spins the story of the "madman", Alonso Quixana and his fictional persona, Don Quixote.

Tea Alagic is originally from Bosnia. Recent work includes: Lidless by Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig, Soho Rep( NYC), Waking Up by Cori Thomas (Ensemble Studio Theatre, NYC); Anonymous by Naomi Iizuka (Hispanic Cultural Center, Albuquerque); The Marriage Of Maria Braun by Rainer Werner Fassbinder (ZKM, Croatia); Binibon by Jack Womack and Elliot Sharp (The Kitchen, NYC); Events with Life's Leftovers by Alberto Villarreal Diaz (Dramafest, Mexico City); and Aliens With Extraordinary Skills by Saviana Stanescu (Women's Project, NYC). She directed the world premiere of The Brothers Size by Tarell McCraney at The Public Theater, NYC and later productions at The Studio Theatre in Washington, DC, and The Abbey Theatre in Dublin. Her original devised work includes The Filament Cycle, which performed at La Mama ETC, NYC, the 4+4 Festival in Prague, BAC London, Philadelphia, Colorado, and Potsdam; and Zero Hour, about the Balkan War. Other directing work from this period includes Man Have Called Me Mad, One Day in Moscow, Cerebral Events and Sam Perspective. She was Associate Artistic Director of The Ensemble Company for the Performing Arts in New Haven, where she directed Woyzek by George Buchner, Self–Accusation by Peter Handke, Preparadise Sorry Now by Rainer Werner Fassbiner, Baal by Bertolt Brecht and Zero Hour. Alagic holds a BFA in acting from The Charles University in Prague and an MFA in directing from Yale School of Drama.

Randolph Curtis Rand of Brooklyn, NY [(The Seafarer (actor), To Kill A Mockingbird (director)] will play Quixana/Quixote. Aldonza/Dulcinea will be played by Yolanda Rabun of Raleigh (Crowns, Gee's Bend). Sancho Panza will be played by Raleigh's David Henderson (Rat in the Skull, Inherit the Wind). The cast also includes Jeff Aguiar of Greensboro, Raleigh's James Anderson, Jeff Cheek, Fred Corlett, Ian Finley, Ashley Lorenz, Morgan Parpan, and Jeff Vizcaino, Durham's Jade Arnold and Wilmington's Debra Gillingham. The understudy is Edward H. Cooke of Raleigh.

For further information visit www.burningcoal.org.

Photo Credit: Right Image Photography, Inc.