Lobby Lecture Series

Concurrent with each mainstage production, Burning Coal will present one or more lectures conducted by guest scholars on topics central to the theme of the play being presented. These lectures will be presented at 6:15 pm prior to the play performance and will be free to anyone holding a reservation for any performance of the play (limited seating – availability on first come, first served basis).

 

2011/2012 Lectures:

Henry V and the Battle of Agincourt
Prior to Henry V (on Trapeze)

December 10, 2011
Burning Coal Theatre Company's Lobby Lectures series will present Dr. Philip van Vleck, NCSU History professor, speaking on Henry V and the Battle of Agincourt on Saturday, December 10, 2011 at 6:00 p.m. at the Murphey School, 224 Polk Street, Raleigh, NC. Tickets are $5, or free with any admission to Burning Coal's production of Henry V (on Trapeze), which runs December 1 – 18, 2011. Reservations for the play may be made by calling 919-834-4001 or at www.burningcoal.org. Tickets to the Lobby Lecture with Dr. van Vleck may be obtained at the door only.

DR. PHILIP VAN VLECK
Dr. van Vleck grew up on a farm in Tulsa County, Oklahoma. He received his MFA in Acting/Directing from the University of Oklahoma School of Drama and his Ph.D. from Duke U in Reformation Studies and the History of Early Modern Europe. Dr. van Vleck is currently a Lecturer on Europe in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Europe in the NCSU History Department, where he has taught since 1990. Dr. van Vleck lives in Cary and has three daughters.

THE LOBBY LECTURE TOPIC
The Battle of Agincourt was one of the greatest military victories of all time. The lecture focuses on Henry V's tactical brilliance in the face of a French force that outnumbered his army by about 6 to 1. The English should have lost this battle. Instead, they triumphed, by virtue of their personal courage and the leadership of Henry V.

 

2010/2011 Lectures:

January 22, 2011
KELLY DOYLE
Raleigh playwright Kelly Doyle will talk about the world premiere of her play Blue. Ms. Doyle holds a degree in playwriting from Brown University and an MFA from CalArts. She has had several plays workshopped at Burning Coal, including The Hole, Blue and Dirt. Ms. Doyle will take questions on her writing process, her life as a playwright, how she got into the business, and her thoughts on the production of Blue, among other things Burning Coal Artistic Director Jerome Davis will moderate.

December 11, 2010
THE WARD-INGRAM GOSPEL CHOIR
is a component of the First Baptist Church of Wilmington Street, Raleigh, NC. The choir got its start in 1970. Its mission is to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ through song. It is named for a late pastor, Dr. Charles W. Ward (served as pastor from 1959 to 1988) and Deacon Delmous R. Ingram, both of whom were very instrumental in persuading a very conservative congregation that having a gospel choir would honor God and would strengthen the church family. The accompanist for the evening will be Mrs. Gwendolyn Neale, the regular accompanist for First Baptist Church’s Youth Choir.
DR. LUCINDA McKEITHAN
will speak on Passing Down the Crown: Faith and Fashion in African American South. For southern African Americans, the ring shout dance, the praise songs, and the practice of “adornment” go back beyond slavery times to Africa. Today they continue as worship practices that tell the story of a long, hard past transformed into a triumphant overcoming of adversity.
Dr. Lucinda MacKethan, recently retired from NC State University, has been for forty years a scholar of African American and Southern literature. She has written and lectured extensively on the slave narratives and plantation culture. Her books include Daughters of Time: Creating Woman’s Voice in Southern Living and the co-edited, award winning reference work, The Companion to Southern Literature. Today she writes curricula on the slave narratives for the National Humanities Center and is a “Road Scholar” for the North Carolina Humanities Council.

November 13, 2010
ABOUT DAVID NELSON BRADSHER
David Nelson Bradsher, former tennis pro and current fitness enthusiast, is an accidental tourist into the world of vampire poetry. A stubborn adherent to the art of rhyme and meter, David's latest work is "The Vampire Sonnets," the story of Tristan Grey's seduction by the diabolical succubus, Nina. Six years in the writing, the verse drama unfolds in sequential Shakespearean sonnets. His poetic rhythms have appeared in "Light Quarterly," "Barefoot Muse," "Think Journal," "Seasons," "Tinfoil Dresses," and "Pirene’s Fountain." David is a graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill, with a B.A. in English, and most Saturdays in the autumn will find him in Kenan Stadium, cheering on the Tar Heels. His love for football has also spawned his next project, MVP, set atop Mount Olympus on Super Bowl Sunday, as the gods observe (and interfere) with the annual spectacle known as The Super Bowl.
ABOUT CARLOS ROJAS
Carlos Rojas is Assistant Professor of Chinese Cultural Studies and Women's Studies at Duke University. He is the author of "The Great Wall: A Cultural History" (Harvard University Press, 2010) and "The Naked Gaze: Reflections on Chinese Modernity" (Harvard University Asia Center, 2008), the co-editor of "Rethinking Chinese Popular Culture: Cannibalizations of the Canon" (Routledge: 2009) and "Writing Taiwan: A New Literary History" (Duke University Press, 2007), and is the co-translator of Yu Hua’s novel, "Brothers" (Pantheon, 2009). At Duke, he teaches courses on disease, prostitution, cities, and vampires.

September 8, 2010
Burning Coal Theatre Company presents writer Allan Gurganus speaking on the continuing impact and influence of Harper Lee’s classic southern novel.
ABOUT ALLAN GURGANUS
Allan Gurganus has written many works of fiction including "White People," "Plays Well with Others" and "The Practical Heart." Adaptations of his novels have won four Emmys. A fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, he was a recent Guggenheim Fellow. Gurganus lives in Hillsborough where he is at work on a long novel, "The Erotic History of a Southern Baptist Church." Burning Coal Theatre Company premiered a stage adaptation of Allan’s “Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All” in 2007 in collaboration with Wilson, NC’s Theatre of the American South, starring Quinn Hawkesworth.

 

2009/2010 Lectures:

September 26, 2009
Gerald Freedman, original director of Hair at NYC's Public Theatre.

December 12, 2009
Dr. Maureen Quilligan, Duke University Professor of Theatre, expert in the depiction of women in Renaissance literature. She will be speaking about Beatrice, Katherine, and other strong-willed women in Shakespeare's plays.

Saturday, February 20, 2010
Poker experts David Enoch and Matt Flynn on The Seafarer.

Thursday, March 11, 2010
Playwright Declan Feenan on his play Limbo.

April 17, 2010
Angus MacLachlan on his new play Southeastern Center for Contemporary Arts.

April 24, 2010
12 of the State’s finest quilters on the impact of the Gee’s Bend Quilts on their work.

 

2008/2009 Lectures:

April 11, 2009
Ian Finley of Burning Coal on performing historical events.

April 18, 2009
Dr. Katherine Mellen Charron of NCSU on black women teachers in the Jim Crow South.

April 25, 2009
Dr. Blair Kelley of NCSU on African American protest against the passage of segregation laws at the turn of the twentieth century.