This Preview has been provided by the Burning Coal Theatre Company.
Burning Coal Theatre Company, a small professional theatre based in Raleigh, North Carolina announces its upcoming production of the world premiere of Blue, by Raleigh playwright Kelly Doyle, directed by Mark Sutch. The production will run January 13 – 30, 2011 at the Murphey School, 224 Polk Street, Raleigh. Performances are Thursdays through Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m.
Tickets are $20 or $15 for students, seniors and active military. Thursday night tickets are $10 apiece. Student rush tickets are available at every performance for $5 apiece, availability pending.
Sunday, January 16th at 2 p.m. is our “Pay What You Can” performance, and it will be audio described for the visually impaired.
On Saturday, January 22nd at 6:00 pm, our ongoing ” Lobby Lecture” series will feature an informal discussion with the playwright, Kelly Doyle. Tickets to this lecture/performance will be $5 available only at the door. The event will be free to those holding a valid ticket to any performance of the run of Blue.
For tickets and information, please call 919.834.4001 or visit our website at www.burningcoal.org.
About Blue
Something old … something new … something borrowed … something… Blue is a whimsical “dramady” about a young woman, Louise, who married her sweetheart, Adagio, when both were quite young. Now, as she discovers that some of the charm of their youthful passion is wearing off, she sets out in search for a new passion, an adult passion that can feed her adult needs. She winds up at a circus, and enthrall to William, a blue worm who is also a circus performer. The play asks us to consider the choice between relationships that are built on years of consistency and grace, versus those that are arrived at through the first blush of romantic longing.
About the Playwright
Kelly Doyle is a writer, performer, and director who works in theatre, film, and television. Other plays include THE HOLE, DIRT (both seen in Burning Coal’s New Works play reading series in recent years), TEENY WEENY TEENA, and THE UNDEATH OF MAJOR BIFF. Her collaborative playwriting projects include NAKED PLAYS with Split Britches Company, FIRE FROM HEAVEN with the Five Lesbian Brothers. She was a recent finalist in the Actor’s Theatre of Louisville Ten Minute Play Festival and received a 2010 artist development grant from the United Arts Council of Raleigh, NC. She is an alumna of Brown University’s Playwriting program and has an MFA from California Institute of the Arts
About the Cast
The cast of Blue includes Clemson University drama teacher Kerrie Seymour as Louise, Durham-based John Allore as William and Raleigh-based actor John Jimerson as Adagio. This is the first time since our inaugural production of Rat in the Skull fourteen years ago that Burning Coal has worked with a group of actors completely new to our mainstage.
About the Director
Mark Sutch is an Assistant Professor of Theatre at Davidson College, where he teaches acting, directing, voice/movement, and play analysis. Mark joined the faculty of Davidson in 2006 after serving for five years as Artistic Associate and Casting Director for Rhode Island’s Trinity Repertory Company. In 2009, Mark directed Hair for Burning Coal. At Trinity Rep he directed productions of A Christmas Carol and Suddenly Last Summer, and appeared in productions of Peter Pan, The Henriad, and A Christmas Carol. At the same time, he was Artistic Producer for the Trinity Summer Shakespeare Project, which toured throughout the Northeast and for which he directed Macbeth, The Comedy of Errors, and Two Gentlemen of Verona. At Davidson, he has directed Dark Ride, Women Beware Women, Hamlet, and Leading Ladies. Mark is a member of Actors’ Equity Association and the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers.
For further information, please contact Burning Coal’s managing director, Simmie Kastner, at 919.834.4001 or visit our website at www.burningcoal.org.
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Burning Coal Theatre Company is Raleigh’s small, professional theatre. Burning Coal is an incorporated, non-profit [501 (c) (3)] organization. Burning Coal’s mission is to produce literate, visceral, affecting theatre that is experienced, not simply seen. Burning Coal produces explosive reexaminations of overlooked classic and modern plays, as well as new plays, whose themes and issues are of immediate concern to our audience, using the best local, national and international artists available. We work toward a theatre of high-energy performances and minimalist production values. The emphasis is on literate works that are felt and experienced viscerally, unlike more traditional linear plays, at which audiences are most often asked to observe without participating. Race and gender non-specific casting is an integral component of our perspective, as well as an international viewpoint.
