Performing Arts

NC Stage Company Presents Burden

Burden. Photo by Nina Swann

North Carolina Stage Company’s 2017/2018 season closes with the world premiere of Burden, a play by Immediate Theatre Project (ITP). Written by ITP director Willie Repoley and frequent collaborating director Ron Bashford, Burden is the first original play produced by ITP. Performances will take place Wednesday, April 25, through May 20.

“I hope we can share with the audience some of the exhilaration of discovery that we experienced while creating the play,” says Repoley. “Though it deals with some darker themes, including abandonment, gentrification and Hurricane Katrina, I believe it feels full of life.”

In 2014, Repoley intended to create an adaptation of Robert Penn Warren’s novel All The King’s Men, but was unable to secure the rights. Bashford challenged Repoley to articulate what drew him to the book, and suggested that they create an original play based on his answer. Because they had no deadline, they were able to take the time they needed to discover the exact story they wanted to tell and how they wanted to tell it. The resulting play, about a journalist’s reckless journey to find himself, breaks many established theatrical norms.

“I hope audiences will find that this investigation into one man’s mind illuminates a lot of questions that we have as contemporary Americans,” says Repoley. “Questions about truth in journalism, about the intersections of personal integrity and social responsibility and about the human capacity to reshape our own destiny, or at least reconsider our own story.”

North Carolina Stage Company is located at 15 Stage Lane, in downtown Asheville. For showtimes, tickets and information, visit ncstage.org or call 828.239.0263. For more information about Immediate Theatre, visit immediatetheatre.org.

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