College News

PITTSBORO --When your Thanksgiving guests startrndriving you crazy, take them to this ambitious stage production of thernaward-winning Ken Kesey novel/Dale Wasserman drama. And be thankfulrnthat you are not locked up together on a mental ward with NursernRatched.

Director Ellen Bland, StagernManager Drew Lasater and others from the award-winning “Millworker”rncast return to Pittsboro’s historic Chatham Mills for a dark and rowdyrntale. It’s a perfect setting for what happens when an irrepressiblern1960’s rebel, Randall Patrick McMurphy, ends up in a state mentalrnhospital.

“We’ve taken out the profanityrnwhile honoring a serious drama that raises important questions aboutrnwhat constitutes mental illness when society has gone mad,” saidrndirector Bland, who drew her ‘Cuckoo’ cast from her acting students atrnCentral Carolina Community College and a few community stalwarts.

Thernstory will be familiar to anyone who has read Kesey’s best-sellingrnnovel, or seen Wasserman’s play (which ran most recently on Broadway inrn2001 with Gary Sinise) or Milos Forman’s academy-award-winning 1975rnfilm starring Jack Nicholson and Louise Fletcher.

ThernPittsboro production features Regina Gallagher (seen in Millworker,rnVagina Monologue and Temple Theater stage) and Emily York (CCCCrnproductions) alternately playing the wretched Ratched. Other practicedrnMillworker performers include Siler City family doctor Jim Schwankl asrnhead shrink Dr. Spivey and Matthew Eggers as Ratched’s aide. And TracyrnHackney brings professional acting experience from Los Angeles to thernrole of patient Harding

Stage newcomersrnMike Broadley, Lee Blegen, Giovanni Guttierrez and Fernando Granthon --rnall former military men from Lee County now studying acting at CCCC --rnplay patients McMurphy, Chief Bromden, Cheswick and Martinirnrespectively. 

Other cast membersrninclude Chatham County thespians Stephanie Tripp, Blake Howard, MattrnTimmons, Jerrell Swepson, Corky Harris and Rae Bland. Behind-the-scenesrnstaff include stage manager Lasater, set designer and technical effectsrnartist John Amero and costume coordinator Sachi Dennison.

Showsrnbegin at 8p.m. Nov. 24, 25, 30 and Dec. 1-2. $12. Dress warmly; notrnsuitable for children under 14.Chatham Mills, 480 Hillsboro Streetrn(U.S. 15-501) in historic downtown Pittsboro. Tickets ($12) arernavailable at  the door, space permitting, and in advance at CCCC onrnU.S. 64 west in Pittsboro and ChathamArts Gallery, 115 Hillsboro St.,rnPittsboro, 919.542-0394. www.chathamarts.org.