Brehm Center

Miguel de Cervantes's seventeenth-century masterpiece Don Quixote recounts the story of the pseudo-knight and his faithful and dim-witted sidekick Sancho Panza. Quixote, a fifty-something country gentleman enamored with the idea of knighthood, sets out in pursuit of adventure-undaunted by his age or the centuries-old death of chivalry. It is Quixote's unquenchable spirit that polishes a tarnished world to an unexpected sheen, inspiring peers (and audiences) to their higher selves. Among the world's most influential works of literature, Don Quixote has been reinterpreted over the centuries in bronze, poetry, film, and song-notably in the 1965 Tony-award-winning musical theater production Man of La Mancha.

So endearing is the story of the mad idealist fighting a cynical age that Man of La Mancha, too, has become an enduring work in the canon of musical theater, with songs such as "Man of La Mancha," "Dulcinea," and "The Impossible Dream" inspiring renditions by artists as disparate as Placido Domingo, Elvis Presley, and anyone with a karaoke machine. The ubiquity of this production is one of the things that makes director and Fuller student Valerie Mayhew's interpretation so remarkable. The original Man of La Mancha is a play within a play, performed by Cervantes and his fellow prisoners as he awaits the Spanish Inquisition. Mayhew's version, inspired by studying Dante's Divine Comedy with Professor of Theology and Culture William Dyrness, is reimagined in Purgatory-an unexpected yet seamless translation that allows new takes on costume, set design, and textual nuances. So it is that Mayhew, an accomplished playwright and director, is able to give fresh interpretation to the classic work.

A collaboration with La Canada Presbyterian Church's performing arts space, the Brehm Center's thorough support made the production shine like Quixote's ideals, as the Church-gathered in the church-were moved and emboldened by the fine performances of leads Christopher Carothers as Quixote and Rachae Thomas as his Dulcinea. Spontaneous applause, ready tears, standing ovation, and impassioned lobby conversations evidenced audience transformation, "providing a bright spot in a dark season" according to Brehm Center Executive Director Fred Davison. "This is a great new beginning for the Brehm Center's dramatic institute," he says, echoing hopes of audience and cast members whose urgent "what's next?" is music to any director's ears. Kudos to the Brehm Center for empowering a talented director and cast in a story of redemption that reaches beyond Quixote to the audiences he continues to inspire.

Lauralee Farrer, president of film company Burning Heart Productions, is also an award-winning theater director and producer.

*Man of La Mancha production photos (c) 2009 Suse Sternkopf; all rights reserved.

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