This preview has been provided by Burning Coal Theatre Company.

Burning Coal Theatre Company continues its second stage series, Wait Til You See This!, with the Southeastern Premiere of Mary’s Wedding by Stephen Massicotte.  Directed by Josh Benjamin (Limbo), the play will run January 12 – 22, 2012 at the Murphey School, located at 224 Polk Street, Raleigh, NC.  Performances are Thursdays through Saturdays at 7:30 pm and Sundays at 2 pm.  All tickets are $10 apiece and may be obtained by calling 919-538-1742 or online at www.burningcoal.org.

ABOUT THE PLAY

Mary and Charlie meet as they take shelter in a barn from a gathering thunderstorm.  As their relationship begins to blossom, World War I interferes and Charlie heads off to war with the Canadian Cavalry Division.  While Charlie’s dream of glorious warfare is shattered by the reality of day-to-day life in the trenches, Mary is left to hang on to the bits of information she gets from Charlie’s letters.  She dreams of the day he makes it home from war and they can be married.  As the war drags on, Mary hopes that her dreams will be enough to keep Charlie alive in her heart until their wedding day.

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR

Joshua Benjamin is a freelance director from Mebane, N.C. and a Burning Coal Theatre Company Member.  For Burning Coal: Mary’s Wedding, Limbo, Way to Heaven (AD).  Area credits: Love Drunk (J&J Productions), Right Place Right Time (Stillwater Theatre), Art, Our Town, The Libation Bearers.  Other credits: Antigone, Lux in Tenebris, The Elephant Calf, The Beggar, The Lady Aoi, The Little Match Girl.

ABOUT THE CAST            

Caitlin Davis plays Mary in the production.  This is her first Burning Coal show.  Her credits include an off-broadway production of Stop the Virgens at the Creator’s Project, directed by Adam Rapp, Tartuffe at Triad Stage, The Ugly Duckling at Bright Star Theatre. Film: Karen O – Stop the Virgens, Zero Sum Game, The 14th Burning, Somewhere over Arkansas, The Importance of Being Honest, Break a Home a House. She graduated from UNC-Greensboro in 2011.

Matthew Hager plays Charlie.  Mary’s Wedding is Matthew’s first full production with Burning Coal.  Other credits include Lysander in Midsummer at the Koka Booth Amphitheatre, Finch in The Collective for UNC’s LAB! Theatre and Babbs in Charley’s Aunt at Theatre in the Park (TIP).  Matthew has trained at UNC-Chapel Hill (BA Dramatic Arts, 2011), DePaul University, Shakespeare & Co. and NC School of the Arts.

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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.