THE HERETIC, THE JESUS FUND and More Set for Burning Coal Theatre's 2013-14 Season

Burning Coal Theatre Company of Raleigh, NC announces its 2013/2014 season of plays. In its 17th season, the theatre, which is housed in the historic Murphey School auditorium at 224 Polk Street, Raleigh, NC, will present the American premiere of The Heretic by Richard Bean, directed by Jerome Davis (September 12 - 26, 2013), William Shakespeare's (Three Man) Tempest, adapted and directed by Randolph Curtis Rand (December 5 - 22, 2013), the world premiere of Terry Milner's The Jesus Fund, directed by Beth Gardiner (January 30 - February 16, 2014) and Goodrich and Hackett's modern classic The Diary of Anne Frank, directed by Abdelfattah Abusrour (April 3 - 20, 2014).

Individual or season ticket subscriptions may be obtained by calling 919.834.4001 or by visiting us at www.burningcoal.org. Burning Coal's Second Stage series, Wait Til You See This, will be announced at a later date.

ABOUT THE HERETIC
Richard Bean's The Heretic won the Evening Standard Award in 2011 as "Best New Play of the Year" in London. Bean's other play, One Man, Two Guv'nors was a huge hit at The National Theatre and on the West End, but it was his compact comedy, The Heretic, which surprised everyone when it took top honors. Burning Coal Theatre Company is proud to present its U.S. premiere. Burning Coal's Artistic Director, Jerome Davis, will direct.

Professor Diane Cassel is a firm believer in science and the rigorous pursuit of the facts. But when her university is up for a big grant, it begins to apply pressure to Diane in an effort to keep her from publishing her most recent set of facts. At home, her teenage daughter Phoebe, despite Diane's liberal parenting, has taken to hurting herself and hanging out with an underachieving undergraduate. Can Diane hold to her beliefs or, like a modern day Galileo, will she recant both her faith in Science and her trust in Phoebe.

ABOUT (THREE MAN) TEMPEST
The Tempest was long held to be Shakespeare's final play. There are now others vying for that position, but The Tempest is certainly the best loved and most produced of his final plays. (Three Man) Tempest will be directed by Randolph Curtis Rand, who will also play Prospero. For Burning Coal, he has directed Uncle Tom's Cabin, The Historie of King Henrie the Fifth, St. Nicholas (twice), To Kill a Mockingbird and performed with Burning Coal in Love's Labours Lost, Pentecost and Man of La Mancha. Randy is a member of the NYC-based collaborative Elevator Repair Service. He has worked with Pig Iron Ensemble, the Wooster Group, The Public Theatre, The Drama Dept. and, for most of the last decade, the title role in Actors' Theatre of Louisville's annual Dracula.

(Three Man) Tempest tells the tale of Prospero, a once powerful ruler who was exiled from his kingdom by his unscrupulous brother. Left for dead on a desert island, Prospero raises his young daughter, Miranda and conquers the local spirits, both high (Ariel) and low (Caliban). Then a shipwreck sends Prospero's brother and his co-conspirators against Prospero crashing onto the very shores upon which Prospero was vanquished. Now, Prospero, in his element, holds the upper hand. But against his own brother, will he use it?

ABOUT THE JESUS FUND
Terry Milner's new play The Jesus Fund will receive its world premiere production at Burning Coal Theatre. Milner, a member of the company, now lives in Portland, Oregon. He lived in Chapel Hill, NC for years and served as Executive Director for the North Carolina Theatre Conference in Raleigh in the early 2000s. At Burning Coal, he appeared in Watership Down and The Man Who Tried to Save the World. He received his MFA from the University of Alabama where he studied and performed with the Alabama Shakespeare Festival. He also performed in Raleigh with Raleigh Ensemble Players.

The Jesus Fund deals with an historic theological seminary in a remote corner of Manhattan Island that is struggling to remain open due to declining fundraising efforts. When one of their past students, the son of a hugely popular televangelist and a man who has made his name as "the corporate raider for Christ", arrives on the scene with an offer to help, the seminary must make a decision: to remain open and continue doing the good work they do, or close their doors forever in order to avoid incurring a debt to one who they consider to be of dubious moral principles. Beth Gardiner, a graduate of Duke University and an MFA from Cal-Irvine, will direct. Beth has assistant directed at Utah Shakespeare, Milwaukee Shakespeare, Milwaukee Rep and South Coast Rep.

ABOUT THE DIARY OF Anne Frank
Based on the classic The Diary of a Young Girl, the play appeared on Broadway in 1955. A year later, it opened simultaneously in seven German cities. The play has been adapted for into a movie, as well. The stage version is regularly performed all over the world. Abdelfattah Abusrour of Bethlehem will direct. Mr. Abusrour founded and runs the Alrowwad Cultural and Theatre Training Center, a Youth Theatre in Bethlehem that is devoted to bringing young Palestinians off the streets and providing them the chance to express themselves through creative rather than violent means. The theatre has toured throughout the world. He holds a Ph.D. in Biological and Medical Engineering from France and has worked at London's Royal Court Theatre and in Paris.

Anne Frank's diary described a Jewish family that went into hiding in the Netherlands in 1942 as the Nazi war machine marched through Europe. It details the maturing of an otherwise ordinary young girl as she and her family and a few others hide in a secret annex in the midst of the Nazi occupation. There they stayed for over two years.

For further information about the 2013/2014 season at Burning Coal Theatre Company, contact Managing Director Simmie Kastner at 919.834.4001 or visit www.burningcoal.org.

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.

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