This preview has been provided by Burning Coal Theatre Company.
Burning Coal Theatre Company of Raleigh, NC will conclude its 2010/2011 ‘Wait Til You See This!’ Second Stage Season with Alan Rickman and Katharine Viner’s My Name Is Rachel Corrie, adapted from the diary of the young American activist. The production is directed by Tea Alagic. This production runs May 19 – 22, 2011 at the Murphey School, 224 Polk Street, Raleigh, NC.
All performances are Thursday through Saturday at 7:30 pm and Sunday at 2 pm. All tickets are $10. For further information, please contact Burning Coal Theatre Company 919.834.4001 or visit us online at www.burningcoal.org..
ABOUT MY NAME IS RACHEL CORRIE
My Name is Rachel Corrie is adapted from the diary of a young American woman who was killed in the Gaza Strip trying to prevent an Israeli bulldozer from demolishing the home of a Palestinian family. It premiered at the Royal Court Theatre in London in 2005 and was subsequently transferred to London’s West End. When the New York Theatre Workshop, scheduled to present the play in its American premiere, suddenly announced cancellation of the production following significant protests, film actor Alan Rickman, co-author of the work, presented it himself for a limited off-Broadway run. The play has met with significant protest at many of the cities in which it has been presented. It details the early life of a young American woman from the northwestern United States who elected early on to spend her life working in politically charged situations. It asks the question, what ought a person to do in the face of seemingly insurmountable injustice.
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
Tea Alagic is an internationally acclaimed theatre artist with experience working in Croatian, Czech, and English. She holds a BFA in acting from Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic, and an MFA in directing from the Yale School of Drama where she received the Julian Milton Kaufman Prize in Directing.
Her Off-Broadway directing work includes the upcoming Lidless by Frances Ya-Chu Cowhigat Soho Rep, Aliens With Extraordinary Skills by Saviana Stanescu (Woman’s Project, NYC), The Brothers Size by Tarell McCraney (Under the Radar Festival, and the world premiere with seventy-three shows at The Public Theater in NYC, The Studio Theater in Washington DC, and The Abbey Theater in Dublin), and Binibon, by Jack Womack with music by Elliot Sharp (The Kitchen, NYC).
Tea’s regional credits include Zero Hour, which Tea wrote and directed in a personal exploration of the impact of the Balkan war (Yale University Theater, CT), Speaking Our Mind by eight young playwrights (part of the Carlotta Festival at Yale’s New Theater, CT), The Donny Hathaway Story by Kenneth Robinson (Yale Cabaret, CT), Marcus Brutus by Tea Alagic, an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar,and Chiang Kai Chek by Charles Mee (Yale Cabaret, CT). She directed Woyzek by George Buchner, Self–Accusation by Peter Handke, Preparadise Sorry Now by Rainer Werner Fassbiner, and Baal by Bertold Brecht while she was Associate Artistic Director of the Ensemble Company for the Performing Arts (ECPA.)
Her directing work at New York City universities includes: Laughing Pictures: A Hollywood Odyssey by Matthew Maguire and Daniel Levy (Fordham University, NYC), St. Joan by Bernard Shaw (Main Stage, NYU), The Babbel Project (written as well as directed; NYU, Experimental Theatre Workshop) for which she received a Denham Fellowship, and Safeword by Molly Rice (Graduate Acting Program, Tisch School of the Arts, NYU)
International directing work includes The Marriage of Maria Braunby Rainer Werner Fassbinder (ZKM, Croatia), Events with Life’s Leftovers by Alberto Villarreal Diaz (Mexico City,Dramafest), and The Filament Cycle, which she wrote and directed (BAC London, Potsdam Festival, 4+4 Festival in Movement, Prague, Philadelphia Fringe Festival).
Tea, a native of Bosnia and Herzegovina, lives in NYC.
ABOUT THE CAST & CREW. The role of Rachel Corrie will be played by Alice Rose Turner. Alice recently graduated from Elon University, where she appeared in Metamorphoses, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Psycho Beach Party, The Commedia Project, andMarisol. Alice studied Acting at Elon University. She is currently an administrative intern at Burning Coal, and is excited to have her first acting role with the company.
The design team includes: Joe Tilford (Set Designer), who is the head of scene design at the NC School of the Arts, Megan Thrift (Lighting Designer), who recently lit the Wait Til You See This production of Pornography by Simon Stephens, Paul Kilpatrick (Technical Director) & Aharon Segal (Sound Designer). Joan Wilkerson (Production Stage Manager), who will be attending Columbia University’s MFA program for stage managers in the fall, and Samantha Corey (Costumes), a recent graduate of Appalachian State University.
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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 one of Raleigh’s small, professional theatres. 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.
