A New Look at the Stories of Oakwood Cemetery
	Burning Coal is excited to announce our third collaboration with Historic Oakwood Cemetery: An Oakwood Tapestry. This all-new script by Ian Finley features stories from Oakwood’s illustrious past, including tales of love, laughter, and tragedy. The performance will feature actors from Burning Coal Theatre Company as well as members of the Oakwood community in a celebration of the history of Raleigh and its most famous cemetery. Performances are May 18th – 20th, at 6:30 Friday and Saturday and 4:30 p.m. (CHANGE) Sunday. Tickets for the event are $20 for adults, $10 for students, and may be obtained by calling 919.834.4001 or visiting www.burningcoal.org.
	Interview with Allan Gurganus
by Carol Martell of Burning Coal March 22, 07	This interview was done in preparation for the Burning Coal/Theatre of the American South collaboration on Gurganus' new play Oldest Living Confederate Widow: Her Confession, adapted by Gurganus and Jane Holding from his novel Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All.
Martell	Thank you so much for doing this interview! You have quite the reputation as a really nice person!
Gurganus	It’s so wonderful when your fist book opens up the world to you in the way that book has done for me, and it buys you, in a way, time to do other work and concentrate on other directions, so it’s been a joyful experience. And I think that seeing it now move into the final form for the one woman show is kind of the crowning glory of the whole process. I have great hopes for the script and I’m very excited to see what Quinn comes up with because I think she’s very, very good and powerful.
Martell	Can you give us a brief description of the play?
Gurganus	Yeah, wife of the last surviving soldier of the civil war. He has reenacted the civil war in front of her, and on her. The bible says that the sins of the fathers are visited unto the second and third generation, and I think that anybody who has been in a war, and I was in the Vietnam War, understands that treaties don’t stop wars. They may stop the bullets flying, but the implications and the results of the battle go on, and on, and on. The oldest confederate soldier can’t really get out of his war memories: he ceases to be a civilian. Lucy is both a peacemaker, and a record-keeper, and a natural parent, and a comedienne. She’s survived by being a funny person.
Martell	I wanted to ask you something about that. The title of the book is Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All, and the title of the play is “Oldest Living Confederate Widow: Her Confession.” The moods of the titles are very different. How does that translate in the play?
Gurganus	The task has been to figure out the central stripe, the spine of essentially an 800 pg novel. And what I and my collaborator Jane holding have come up with- the novel has over 40 main characters and it’s very, very immense and complicated. The underlying corridor off which these chambers open is the throughway of the marriage itself and I think that by reducing that huge novel to essentially 30-35 pages of manuscript is made possible by that human transaction; that marriage at the center of the piece. Her confession is very different from telling all. Telling all is a phrase obviously from tabloid journalism, but I wanted it to be more personal. She’s really having a conversation with the audience and with herself, with almost a hundred years in the world, to try to justify her kindnesses and her crimes and honor her dead. By the time the play opens, she has literally outlived her own children and obviously the husband himself. There is something very cathartic, I think, in listening to listening to a woman with that much age and that much experience tell her own story in the form of a confession.
Martell	What was it that made you want to turn the book into a play?
Gurganus	I was waiting for a great playwright to come along and see what a great play it would make! I have a lot of respect for other kinds of writers, I think there are people who are born playwrights; Tennessee Williams is one. And there are people who write in screenwriting terms, and who only write screenplays. For me narrative prose, novels and short stories seem to be my natural métier. What eventually happened is I was approached by a producer who had made a script out of the book and he got together the funding and had it produced on Broadway with Ellen Burston. This is some three or four years ago. I didn’t have much to do with the production; he just paid me for the rights to the book. But I watched how he made the adaptation, and as I was watching this production I thought how I would do it differently, and when that production ended, and it ended (it was not the long run we had hoped for). And of course Ellen Burston is a genius and her performance was very beautiful, but I think he tried to do too much; he essentially tried to make the cliff notes for the entire book. It was impossible to cover as many characters as he did. Ellen Burston was playing the Captain, nine children, and the whole community! I think by narrowing the play to a much more intimate story of Lucy and her husband of 50 years, I’ve somehow, along with Jane Holding, come up with a way of unifying the material and making a very complete ninety-minute representation that is not the novel. It pays tribute to the novel, and it comes out of the novel, but it doesn’t attempt to retell the entire story.
Martell	Was it difficult for you to cut down your story like that? Or was it fun?
Gurganus	Pretty exciting thing, I’ve always loved the theater. I’ve been involved in plays as long as I could get up and walk onto a stage. I think all novelists are frustrated actors. Burning Coal has a rehearsal space way out in North Raleigh at the end of a warehouse, kind of deserted shopping center. I can’t tell you how exciting it is: the three of us and sometimes Jane Holding sitting in that space with the script in front of us and Quinn performing passages of it, cutting out unnecessary words. Even now I’m rearranging lines for more dramatic impact. Every time it’s performed I have more of a chance of making it work like a hymn or like a song. It really should be funny and dark and erratic because the events that it chronicles are extreme, and also very human. One really ends up caring immensely for this old woman and I feel that the script is now as just as close as I can possibly get it to… I mean there’s nothing perfect in this life, but I’d like to eventually send out the script and have it published and performed by other actresses once Quinn has put her stamp on it. Because I think it will find its way into the world, so I’m extremely grateful to Jerry and Burning Coal for helping to perfect this.
Martell	So the workshop experience has been fun and exciting for you?
Gurganus	Typically what I’ve done is when they’re rehearsing in Raleigh I just come and live in a Bed & Breakfast like a tourist and just show up for these performances. I’m the audience of one! Every night it’s different and I add new lines and see how they sound. It really is a workshop: its building something and I think that we’re very, very close to having a beautiful script. I feel very heartened by it.
Martell	From the title, the play seems to have a darker tone than the book. Can you talk about that?
Gurganus	That’s where the Confession comes in. I mean, look where we are as a country in terms of civil right now. We’re not only fighting our civil war, but we’re in the middle of somebody else’s so it seems to me the play is more relevant than ever. These young kids going over into a situation not of their choosing and being sacrificed for reasons they don’t quite understand. It’s kind of amazing how topical the whole thing has become again- unfortunately. The thing about war is it implicates us all. It’s oddly marital. It’s too facile to say that all marriages are civil wars, but I think there are struggles and battles and white flags of surrender, and it certainly makes for a riveting hour and a half of theater!
Martell	How did you hook up with Burning Coal and Quinn?
Gurganus	I’m a huge fan of Quinn’s. I’ve seen her work for years, and she’s performed one of Lee Smith’s novels as a one-woman show. I’ve seen her in “The Glass Menagerie,” and “Pentecost” most recently over there, and she’s extremely able. She’s both a very charming and magnetic person but she’s also willing to go into the darker corners of the psyche and bring back some more disturbing news, so I think she’s a very good choice. I’ve been a ticket buyer over there, and I think it was Jerry who contacted me first. I think they had a grant to develop a play and he wrote and asked if I would be interested in writing, or re-writing a version for Burning Coal, and it seemed like an incredible opportunity. The offers that I’ve gotten before are in California or out of the country and I liked the idea of living in my house and driving over to see what’s happening, and having it be a local product before it goes national or international. That makes me feel… It’s homemade which is what I would prefer.
Martell	Now you said this is all fun and exciting for you: does this mean that you would like to turn any of your other works in to plays?
Gurganus	I think I’d like to write an original play. My home town is Rocky Mount and it was underwater. I mean a quarter of the town was destroyed in that horrible hurricane Floyd flood. I think it’s a great, great subject and its one that I’ve been writing about. I’ve been writing stories and novellas around that, but I think it could be extremely powerful for an original play, so that’s something to look forward to from me. And now I’m reading plays like eating pretzels! Jean Cocteau called the love of the theater “the red and gold disease” for the curtain color. I think I’ve got a terrible- a very bad case of it. Everything about it; the rituals, the backstage, the getting to the theater early; the grease paint kind of aspect of it fascinates me. I think it also leads people back to the novel. If people really like the character, then there’s PLENTY more in the book.
	Musical Theatre Audition Workshop
	Broadway veteran Lori Mahl will conduct a Musical Theatre Audition Workshop on Saturday, April 14th from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Kennedy Space Center, 3056 Barrow Drive in North Raleigh. Workshop fee is $40. Enrollment is limited. Please call today to book your place in this special workshop - 919.834.4001. Lori Mahl, who hails from Wimington, NC and graduated from East Carolina University, spent the past 22 years in New York before relocating back to her roots spring of 2006. Her professional acting credits include Broadway, off-Broadway, national tours, regional theatre, television commercials, voiceovers, and cartoons. Favorite role - “Minnie Fay” in “Hello, Dolly!” starring the legendary Carol Channing, a role she also had the pleasure of playing with the late Madeline Kahn. Other favorite experiences – Broadway debut as “Agnes” in the Tony-award winning production of “Gypsy” starring Tyne Daly and directed by Arthur Laurents; and the Lincoln Center’s Director’s lab production of “Kidstuff”. Lori studied acting in NYC with William Esper, Tim Phillips, and at the Sande Shurin Acting Studio-where she also taught for 3 years. “My goal is to bring my experiences full circle by offering the knowledge I have gained to current and future actors and performers.”
	State of Play: the Current State of British Theatre
a seminar by David Edgar	Burning Coal Theatre Company is happy to announce that David Edgar, author of Pentecost and The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, will conduct a seminar on Saturday, February 3 at 1 p.m. (Note change) entitled State of Play: the Current State of British Theatre. Tickets are free on a first come, first served basis. For more information, call 919.834.4001 or by visiting www.burningcoal.org. Location: Quail Ridge Books, 3522 Wade Avenue, Raleigh. David Edgar lives in Birmingham, England. His works include the Tony Award-winning adaptation of Dickens's Nicholas Nickleby along with the original plays Maydays, Ball Boys, Entertaining Strangers, The Shape of the Table, Albert Speer and the recent two-part epic Continental Divide. He has been ‘house writer’ for the Royal Shakespeare Company (where Pentecost premiered) and at London’s National Theatre. Edgar is a professor at the University of Birmingham, where he founded and directed Britain's first postgraduate course in playwriting. He is a regular contributor to BBC television and radio. He wrote the screenplay for the film Lady Jane starring Helena Bonham-Carter and Patrick Stewart and directed by Trevor Nunn. For further information on Burning Coal Theatre Company, please call Simmie Kastner at 919.834.4001.
	Playwriting for Everyone
	Burning Coal Theatre Company is pleased to announce PLAYWRITING FOR EVERYONE, a weekly playwriting workshop taught by Ian Finley (MFA, Dramatic Writing, New York University). The class will lead aspiring writers from an introduction of the tools of a playwright, through the development of an original one-act play or short screenplay. Comprehensive without being intimidating, the class is open to writers, actors, and anyone else who feels they have something to say. Mr. Finley received the prestigious Harry Kondoleon Award while at NYU. He is a published playwright, with productions in New York, Florida, North Carolina and Utah. Eight classes. Monday nights, 6:30 - 9:30, February 5th - March 26th. 3056 Barrow Drive, Raleigh Program Fee: $145 Call 919.834.4001 to enroll. Space is limited.
	'Einstein' bends time with charm
by Roy C. Dicks, Correspondent Dec 06, 2006 music_theater@lycos.com	Albert Einstein's theories might not seem the best choice for popular entertainment. But Alan Lightman's 1993 novella "Einstein's Dreams" was a best-seller and Burning Coal Theatre Company's 1998 stage adaptation was an early hit for the fledgling company. Now, for its 10th anniversary season, Burning Coal brings the piece back for another look. Lightman's charming book centers on 1905, when Einstein was a patent office clerk in Berne, Switzerland. It catalogs his dreams about how time might be interpreted. Could there be moments when time stands still? Does time repeat itself so that all actions return again and again? What if time goes backward so that we remember the future? Lightman suggests that these whimsical imaginings spurred Einstein on to his famous E=MC2 theory. The author's literate vignettes turn stodgy physics into easily understood concepts. The book's vivid language and beautiful imagery have obvious theatrical appeal, already spawning more than 20 adaptations. Burning Coal's version by playwright Kipp Cheng turns the book's orderly progression of dreams into a fantasia of overlapping elements, adding biographical references beyond what the book contains. Rebecca Holderness stages the hour one-act as one long dream filled with sudden, bright images appearing from murky shadows. She arranges the cast of 14 in various groupings, sometimes in tableaux, sometimes as choreographed ensemble, sometimes as individual personalities. Various characters emerge as necessary to become Einstein's friends and family. Clifford Campbell makes a wonderfully distracted, bumbling Einstein, his mind always on theories even while dining with friends or working in the office. He gives Einstein great humor without losing the dignity of his genius. Rosa Wallace garners sympathy as Einstein's wife Mileva, her devotion constantly tested by his focus on science rather than love life. David Coulter gives Einstein's office mate Besso a jolly practicality, the domestic arguments with his strong-willed artistic wife Ana (Gabrieal Griego) adding familiar reality to the heady swirl. The production employs an intriguing device in which Einstein's grown-up sons and abandoned daughter speak to and for him, another bending of time. Stephen LeTrent's quietly sober Hans and John Moletress' mentally unstable Eduard add poignancy to their father's neglect, while Quinn Hawkesworth easily blends daughter Liserl into Einstein's present office typist, another time twist. The physical production is brilliantly executed, from Matthew Adelson's constantly shifting lighting, to Vicki R. Davis' mostly white period costumes and Chris Guse's otherworldly sound design. The script and staging are exhilarating, although both obscure some of the clarity of Lightman's visions, as well as throwing out tantalizing bits that beg for a little more follow-up. And although in dreams anything is possible, some of Holderness' images seem too much at odds with the accompanying text. But it's justification enough if the production induces audiences to read Lightman's book and to pursue more on Einstein's life and theories. A theater of provocation trumps a theater of complacency.
	Einstein's Dreams by Kipp Cheng Intertwines The Genius' Mind with His Heart and Soul
by Alan R. Hall	Alan Lightman wrote his novella, Einstein's Dreams, by placing himself inside the physicist who stunned the world with his masterful thesis on Time and Relativity. But Lightman did not attempt to simply enter Einstein's head; he also entered the genius' heart and soul as well. By creating what he saw as happening, not just in Einstein's research, but in his life and dreams, Lightman entered a world that he was probably unprepared for; but he translated it into a work of such momentous proportions that perhaps even the subject himself would be impressed. Kipp Cheng adapted this work into a stage play, sculpting it into a production scarcely an hour or so long; but he takes the essence of Lightman's impressionistic style and turns it into movement, shifting back and forth between Einstein's reality, his research, and his dreams, in such a way as to create a staging that is not so much a drama as it is a dance. All three segments of his life move forward simultaneously, as theory after theory is produced, presented, and then incorporated into the final, exquisite equation that earned Albert Einstein the Nobel Prize in Physics: E = mc2. Burning Coal Theatre presented Einstein's Dreams in its second season, after exploding onto the Raleigh theater scene with staggering and compelling works like Rat in the Skull and Pentecost. Einstein’s Dreams was just as intense. Burning Coal has brought the play back to the stage as a part of its current 10th season, playing this performance in the Leggett Theatre on the campus of Peace College. Burning Coal artistic director Jerome Davis, writing in the program as notes for this production, wonders if the show still plays as compellingly as it did then. The answer is a resounding "YES!" Burning Coal has asked the play's original director, Rebecca Holderness, to return for this production. Holderness has directed a total of seven, with this show eight, plays for the company. She has kept the basic premise of the original staging; and a scant set consisting of a desk, a chalk-board, and several stick chairs has been repeated, along with the analytical arrangement of 20 clear, hand-blown light bulbs suspended overhead, each with its own pull chain. These lights are manually switched on and off throughout the show, one light, one idea, flashing on and then off again, being replaced with the spark of another. She has reduced the cast from 16 to 14, perhaps in acquiescence to the smaller stage, but other than that this show remains as effervescent, as sparkling as it did ten years ago, even to the viewer who has seen them both. For this production, Cliff Campbell, an actor and playwright from New York City, plays Einstein. Interestingly, while he is the title role, Einstein is not, necessarily, the lead of this production. That role goes to Liserl (Quinn Hawkesworth), the name of both Einstein's typist, and also—in Einstein's dreams—the daughter he never knew. Liserl is, as much as anyone in the ensemble, the narrator of this work. The father of two boys, Einstein supposedly had a daughter by his wife, Mileva (Rosa Wallace); but the child was "lost," perhaps placed in an orphanage, as the two were not married at the time. His boys, Hans (Stephen LeTrent) and Eduard (John Moletress), are both fully grown in this show, though in reality Eduard is not yet born. Through Einstein's three ongoing lives we learn eight different theories as Einstein might have presented them. We, as those who might hear Einstein as he presents these theories to the scientific community, are asked to imagine Time—Einstein's obsession—as having different characteristics. Because we learn each theory through his dreams, we see "images," expertly described and defined, as Einstein himself sees them, never really knowing whether he sees them in his dreaming, or his waking, state. These images form Einstein's life, both real and imagined. His best friend, Eduard Besso (David Coulter), with whom the 26-year-old Einstein works at a patent office, will later commit suicide. His wife, Ana (Gabrieal Griego), by that time has left him. All of these images, like the eight distinct theories he sees, connect, collide, intermix, fuse, and re-form. From this blank set, these seven characters, and an expertly choreographed ensemble of seven more, literally dance about the stage, telling and retelling these dreams as young Einstein sees them. In bringing together a stellar ensemble, Burning Coal has selected both company members and diverse Triangle talent. Noelle Barnard (company) lives in Raleigh; Randi Winter will graduate the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill next year. Jeffrey Dillard (UNC-G) next plays Manbites Dog; George Jack (company) just closed Burning Coal's 1776. Danjila Lazarevic is a new talent, Jim Sullivan has a long and varied theatrical career, and Julianne Rowan hails from Wake Forest but graduated the prestigious East 15 acting school in London. This show's 1998 production was a smash hit for Burning Coal; every indication is that it will far outdo its previous incarnation. A tremendously robust and dynamic ensemble brings this play to the stage at a magnificent level, and beautifully presents a work at the same time nebulous, poetic, and entirely concrete. E = mc2 is universally known; but these theories, each of which may have contributed to the final outcome, are brilliantly new. It is a play that will captivate you, if you are wise enough to be sure to see it. Burning Coal Theatre Company, in collaboration with the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, presents Einstein's Dreams Wednesday-Saturday, Dec. 6-9 and 13-16, at 7:30 p.m.; and Sunday, Dec. 10 and 17, at 2 p.m. in the Leggett Theatre on the second floor of the Main Building, Peace College, 15 East Peace St., Raleigh, North Carolina. $16 ($14 students, seniors 65+, and active-duty military personnel), except $10 Wednesdays and $10 for groups of 10 or more. 919/834-4001 or etix through the presenters website.
	"One for My Baby: songs from the 1930s"
	Burning Coal Theatre Company, a small professional, Equity theatre based in Raleigh, North Carolina announces one for my baby: songs from the 1930s, a cabaret act featuring nationally acclaimed song-stylist John Moletress, Friday and Saturday, December 15 and 16th at 9 p.m. at Peace College’s Leggett Theatre, 15 E. Peace Street, Raleigh. Admission is $5, or $3 with paid ticket for Burning Coal’s production of Einstein’s Dreams. No reservations necessary. Information: www.burningcoal.org. ABOUT ‘ONE FOR MY BABY.’ This is an intimate evening of music by some of the greatest songwriters and lyricists of the 1930s, including Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, and Howard Arlen, and the memorable songs "These Foolish Things", "I'll Be Seeing You", and "Mood Indigo". Julie Florin will serve as musical director and pianist for the evening, along with Peter Kimosh on bass and Emily Draughon on drums. ABOUT JOHN MOLETRESS. A MAC cabaret performer, John Moletress performed his most recent cabaret "Duet" with friend Jennie Eisenhower to sold-out houses at Danny's Skylight Room in NYC. He has opened for Tony-Award Winner Judy Kaye's concert "Judy Kaye... Solo" as well as performed in venues in NYC, Philadelphia, and London. Most recently, he appeared as Jefferson in Burning Coal's production of "1776", and is currently performing at in Burning Coal’s "Einstein's Dreams". In addition, John has performed in many concerts featuring music of the 1930s and 1940s, Kurt Weill, Andrew Lloyd Webber, and Frank Wildhorn. John has also appeared in the workshops of the new musicals "I'll Be Seeing You" at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia and "Savage Light" at the York Theatre in NYC. Other credits include appearances on "Sex and the City", "Into Character" for AMC, and the film "Blackwater". ABOUT JULIE FLORIN (Music Director). Julie A. Florin is Director of Music and Arts at Grace Community Church of Raleigh. She received her Master of Music in Church Music from East Carolina University, Certificate of Church Music from Shenandoah University, Bachelor of Science in Music Education from Penn State University and Bachelor’s in Theatre Arts from North Carolina Central University. Musical Director work includes EbzB Productions (Songs and Letters of WWII, In One Era and Out The Other), Raleigh Little Theatre (Carousel, Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living In Paris), University Theatre at North Carolina State University (A Little Night Music, Cabaret, Follies, Grease, The Apple Tree, Sweet Charity), Burning Coal Theatre Company (Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Company, Juno and the Paycock, Travesties, Lipstick Traces, Accidental Death of An Anarchist), and Meredith College (Nine). Other musical involvement includes NCT (keyboard - Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat), HSNKT (keyboard – Songs For A New World), Colossal Nerve, The Caroling Party, and JFG Trio. ABOUT EMILY DRAUGHON (Drummer). Emily Draughon is a NC State graduate, having been a part of the drumline there. Percussionist in Raleigh Civic Symphony, 1996-1998. Percussionist for Durham Public Schools Choral Shows and Musicals, including West Side Story and the King and I. For NCSU University Theatre: Grease, Apple Tree, and Sweet Charity. For NCKT Wizard of OZ, Seussical. ABOUT PETER KIMOSH (Bass). Peter Kimosh is a bass player, producer, and sound engineer from Chapel Hill. While deeply rooted in jazz, his projects range from reggae to afro-cuban to space music. As he is still recovering from a battle with the ground after falling out of an airplane, he is glad to be entering the world again!
	Target Partners with Burning Coal!
	Burning Coal Theatre Company has received a grant from area Target Stores' Community Giving Program in support of its Shakespeare in the Schools Tour scheduled for the spring of 2007. The $3,000 grant will support Burning Coal's effort to tour its production of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream to schools in the area. Current bookings include schools in Raleigh, Durham and Fayetteville. Burning Coal still has room on its tour - if you are interested in brining A Midsummer Night's Dream to your school, please contact us at 919.834.4001. The tour is scheduled for March 19 - 30, 2007, immediately following Burning Coal's mainstage presentation of the play at Peace College March 1 - 18th.
	'1776' holds these truths
Orla Swift, Staff Writer News & Observer September 23, 2006	RALEIGH - Don't be fooled by the actors' rosy cheeks. Burning Coal Theatre Company's "1776" is more than a sunny celebration of a momentous day in U.S. history. It's a reminder of the complex and sometimes ignoble forces that almost prevented Independence Day from happening. With his heavily theatricalized production - rouged cheeks, powdered faces, exaggerated costumes, presentational acting and stylized choreography - director Matthew Earnest underscores the difference between what happened in 1776 and what centuries of nips and tucks have made it seem. In elementary school history books, the Declaration of Independence comes together simply. The Colonies want freedom from Great Britain's rule. Thomas Jefferson drafts a document stating so. Representatives from each state sign it. In "1776," a 1969 Tony Award-winning hit, Peter Stone and Sherman Edwards show a different picture - personality clashes, pro-slavery stances, greed, fatigue at a protracted Congressional session, yearning for spouses back home. All these factors add suspense to a tale that cannot have a surprise ending. Burning Coal isn't known for musicals. In its decade here, the Raleigh company has mostly staged classic and contemporary drama, leaning toward intellectually challenging fare. Its only true musical was Stephen Sondheim's "Company," which was critically maligned. With "1776," Burning Coal redeems itself. Earnest's cast has the musical chops that the Sondheim players lacked. Earnest also incorporates some of the quirky elements that made his 2005 production of "Lipstick Traces" so intriguing, and he uses artifice to underscore emotional and historical truth, not to obscure it. Thursday's opening had its flaws. The pacing was sluggish at times, the accompanying quartet (keyboards, violin, trumpet and percussion) was hesitant in spots, and some soloists failed to project or sang off key. But the lead roles - John Adams (David Henderson), Thomas Jefferson (John Moletress), Abigail Adams (Carolyn McKenna), Benjamin Franklin (George Jack) and the contentious John Dickinson (Robert Mark Kaufman) - were dramatically and vocally superb. "Momma Look Sharp," a ballad to fallen soldiers, was particularly poignant. Ian Finley sang it with a heart-piercing simplicity, and musical director Nancy Whelan augmented her quartet with dulcimer and cello, played onstage by McKenna and Becca Johnson, who also sang. Other expressive and inventive numbers included Henderson's anguished "Is Anybody There?" and the ensemble songs "The Egg" and "But Mr. Adams." Chris Bernier's set design - with sterile white desks and quill pens, suspended ceiling moldings and other suggestive elements - underscored our tendency to sketch history in broad strokes, and to whitewash details. The historic auditorium at St. Mary's School's made an evocative setting, and Earnest used the space well, with actors milling down the aisles and others performing from the balcony. Burning Coal's "1776" is a timely offering as we scrutinize our current lawmaking system. The play rouses us to celebrate our patriotism, but it also urges to never stop questioning it.
	Burning Coal Takes a New, Unconventional Look at the Revolutionary War Musical 1776
By Alan R. Hall Triangle Theater Review	If you want the quintessential way to make American History not only enjoyable, but absolutely fascinating, you can do no better than the current Burning Coal Theatre Company presentation of the Revolutionary War musical 1776, playing Sept. 27-Oct. 1 and Oct. 6-8, in Pittman Auditorium at Saint Mary’s School in Raleigh, NC. A not-quite musical comedy, this slice of composer Sherman Edwards’ take on the events surrounding the signing of the Declaration of Independence is not so much a musical as it is a play accentuated by music. While the American Revolution takes place in the background, narrated by desperate Continental Army commander-in-chief George Washington, a handful of men we now know as the Founding Fathers are hammering out the details of the birth of a nation. Edwards’ concept, enhanced by the book by Peter Stone, centers on those 13 men, not at all of one mind but willing to face the judgment of history in striking out on their own—a new, allied country of separate states, apart from the “tyrannical” Great Britain, in the person of King George III and his tax-happy Parliament. When it chose 1776 as the opening show of its 10th anniversary season, Burning Coal took a different approach to the tried and true when staging this musical interpretation of the historical event. Focusing on the show’s musical numbers, Burning Coal steps up the costumes and make-up and steps down the historical trappings of what was at the time the political center of the Colonies, Philadelphia. Director Matthew Earnest, in his third Burning Coal production, paints the faces of our forefathers—our foremothers—with the humor of musical comedy. He then reduces the stage to a crown molding, a window, and rolling tables. Kat Henwood’s costumes are pretty much Colonial but each comes with a comical twist--for example, the high fishing boots of Thomas Jefferson. McLeod Skinner’s wigs are, of course, in order; but not all are technically of the period, either, and not all of our ancestors wore one. Director Matthew Earnest reduces the cast to 14, aided by a quartet of piano, violin, trumpet, and percussion led by Nancy Whelan. This quartet is augmented by a cello and dulcimer in the one gut-wrenching song of the evening, “Momma Look Sharp,” sung quietly by the Courier (Ian Finley), who brings those missives from the front. History is tampered with a bit; and the result is a most unconventional revolution, by no means historically correct, but more interesting by a long shot—and toe-tapping, one might add. The musical centers on the leaders of the Revolutionaries: Adams (David Henderson), Dr. Ben Franklin (George Jack), a rather unwilling Thomas Jefferson (John Moletress), and Congressional President John Hancock (Robin Dorff). They engage in battle with those who would not depart from England: Edward Rutledge (Adam Twiss) and the Tories, led vocally and with passion by John Dickinson (Robert Kaufman). Aiding and abetting the Whigs (those against the King) are Abigail Adams (Carolyn McKenna) and Martha Jefferson (Becca Johnson), whose emergency visit to Philadelphia when her husband Thomas can no longer put two words together results in the written Declaration itself, as well as the song and dance “He Plays the Violin” (Martha, Adams, Franklin). The quintet of delegates who were assigned the role of writing the noble document were Adams, Franklin, Jefferson, Roger Sherman (Al Singer), and Robert Livingston (Tim Wiest), who immediately left town for New York to escape the assignment (“But, Mr. Adams”). The cast is rounded out by Rhode Island’s Stephen Hopkins (Jason Spinos), Pennsylvania’s James Wilson (Jeffrey Dillard), and Georgia’s Dr. Lyman Hall (Del Flack). Having thus bent to a wide degree the solemnity of the occasion, director Matthew Earnest then proceeds to stick very close to the original intent of the play, pointing out—with some humor to make the history go down—the trials, frustrations, petty squabbles, and amazing compromises that led to our departure from Britain, including the fact that the move for independence was very nearly defeated, single-handedly, by Pennsylvania’s John Livingston, over the very vehement objections of Ben Franklin, who led the Pennsylvania delegation. This very impassioned and admirable musical is, thus, reinterpreted while still retaining the dignity of the original, when this approach might very well have degenerated into a rampaging commedia del arte. The result is a most enjoyable evening, with musical high points already mentioned and including a single appearance by Richard Henry Lee (Dorff) before he goes off to Virginia to bring back a Resolution for Independence (“The Lees of Old Virginia”) and a shivering experience as South Carolina Rep. Edward Rutledge describes very acutely for us the slave auctions that take place in Boston (“Molasses to Rum to Slaves”). The music is impressively interpreted with both skill and passion, and makes Burning Coal’s season premiere a brilliant start to the company’s 10th anniversary.
	Is Anybody There? Does Anybody Care?
Susan Farrington The Sanford Herald Thursday, September 28, 2006	RALEIGH - Draw back history's curtain. Experience those crucial days when America's founding fathers hammered out the principles on which this nation was built. It's welcome to "1776" time, Burning Coal's musical delight - a civics lesson every member of the family will enjoy. With the rolling rum-tum-tum of the drum, this wonderfully perky show opens as the cast led by John Adams (David Henderson) streams onstage. In his booming voice, Adams challenges other member of the "do-nothing-Congress", convened in Philadelphia in 1787 to revise the ailing Articles of Confederation, to stop stonewalling. As many times as this exhortation has been heard, as many times as one has listened to the stentorian tones of "Sit Down John" followed by Adams' pleading prayer for God's intervention in all this "piddle twiddle," there's a tingle of excitement about watching history in the making. And Henderson's portrayal throughout is nothing short of superb. Director Matthew Earnest, working with musical director Nancy Whelan, leads a matchless cast through this 1969 Tony Award-winning hit with measured precision, adding surprising suspense to a tale whose ending everyone already knows. Despite personality clashes, yearning for home and seemingly insurmountable differences over slavery and other issues of the day, a sense of inevitability fills the stage. Others in leading roles give brilliant performances, including Benjamin Franklin (George Jack), Abigail Adams (Carolyn McKenna), Thomas Jefferson (John Moletress), John Dickinson (Robert Kaufman), Edward Rutledge (Adam Twiss) and dual portrayals by Robin Dorff as the "popinjay" (Adams' description) Richard Henry Lee and John Hancock, chairman and first signer of the Declaration of Independence. One highlight of the production is the fascinating correspondence between John and Abigail Adams, frequently dwelling on their running argument over pins for ladies' sewing and saltpeter for the troops, each time flowing into the unforgettable medleys of "Till Then" and "Yours, Yours, Yours." Memorable numbers also include the charming "He Plays the Violin," sung by Martha Jefferson (Becca Johnson), Franklin and John Adams and their subsequent dance; the oppositional "Cool, Cool, Considerate Men" by Dickinson and the Conservative representatives; and Rutledge's stirring Triangle Trade protest: "Molasses to Rum to Slaves." "Momma Look Sharp," the haunting ballad to fallen combatants, affords a deeply affecting interlude. The baleful rendition by Courier (Ian Finley), accompanied by dulcimer and cello, brings tears to one's eyes. As does John Adams' repetition of George Washington's agonized cry: "Is anybody there? Does anybody care?" In addition to offering a joyous bit of entertainment, Burning Coal brings a vital message to audiences of today. As we watch the debacle unfolding in Iraq and Afghanistan, as citizens it is our God-given duty to question those in power - just as it was the duty of those colonists who refused to knuckle under to English tyranny. May the spirit of 1776 remain with us always.
	LOOSEN UP! An Intro to Physical Theatre
	As actors, our body is our instrument. Join Burning Coal for an acting class focused on getting comfortable with our bodies and using them onstage. Areas covered include Viewpoints movement technique, Linklater and Boal exercises leading to the class's exploration of text through our bodies. Suitable for beginning to intermediate students. Class Instructor: Ian Finley. Eight classes. Monday nights, 6:30 – 9:30, October 23rd – December 11th. 3056 Barrow Drive, Raleigh Program Fee: $175 Call to register: 919.834.4001 or email burning_coal@ipass.net
	Carved in Stone: The Stories of Oakwood Cemetery
	Historic Oakwood Cemetery is one of the state’s greatest treasures, overflowing with history. On Friday and Saturday, October 13 and 14 at 6:30pm and Sunday, October 15 at 2 p.m.,, Burning Coal Theatre Company, Raleigh’s small professional theatre, will be bringing that history to life with Carved in Stone: The Stories of Oakwood Cemetery. The performances will take guests on a tour of the gorgeous cemetery, enacting some of its amazing stories and characters. The performance will feature members of the Burning Coal company (including veteran performers David Henderson, Lynda Clark and George Jack) and the Oakwood community in a celebration of the history of Raleigh and its most illustrious cemetery. Tickets for the event are $20 and may be obtained by calling 919.834.4001 or purchased at the door. Event Location: 701 Oakwood Avenue (click here for directions). All proceeds from the event are tax deductible will go directly to support Burning Coal Theatre Company's education programming. Burning Coal will soon break ground on renovation and restoration of the historic Murphey School on Polk St. Murphey School was Raleigh’s first integrated school, but its beautiful auditorium has sat unused for almost 30 years. That’s all about to change, as the restoration project will transform the auditorium into Raleigh’s premier small theatre space, and Burning Coal Theatre Company’s permanent home.