RALEIGH, N.C.: Burning Coal Theatre has announced its 2015-16 season, which will take audiences to psychiatric hospitals, down the yellow brick road and through powerful moments in history.
To begin the season is Asylum (Oct. 15–Nov. 1), staged in collaboration with Only Child Aerial Theatre of Brooklyn. The piece is set in the 1970s, when mass closings of psychiatric hospitals in the U.S. were occurring. The story and concept is by Only Child cofounders Kendall Rileigh and Nicki Miller. Miller will also direct.
Next is The Wiz (Dec. 3–20) by Charles Smalls and William F. Brown. Randolph Curtis Rand will direct.
Following will be Clare Bayley’s Blue Sky (Jan. 28– Feb. 14, 2016), produced in collaboration with Raleigh’s Contemporary Art Museum. Bayley’s play is a political thriller about justice, journalism and what might be happening in the countryside in the dead of night.
Closing the season will be Spoonface Steinberg (April 7–24, 2016) by Lee Hall. This play centers on faith, love and the difficulty of navigating our current world through the eyes of a young autistic girl. Jerome Davis will direct.
