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Man of La Mancha

2004 · Sophie Leschin Theatre, Jacksonville Developmental Center, Jacksonville, Illinois

In the summer of 2004 the Jacksonville Theatre Guild mounted Man of La Mancha, Dale Wasserman, Mitch Leigh, and Joe Darion's musical retelling of Cervantes and his knight errant Don Quixote. Cervantes, thrown into a Spanish Inquisition prison, must win over his fellow inmates by enacting the story of the deluded old gentleman who imagines himself a knight, names a tavern wench his lady Dulcinea, and tilts at windmills he takes for giants. The Guild staged it for eight performances on the slightly raked boards of the Sophie Leschin Theatre on the grounds of the Jacksonville Developmental Center — a former funeral home, as one of Ken's mock reviews delighted in noting, with "no bodies present."

For Ken Bradbury, who directed and played the manservant Sancho Panza, the show carried a long history. As he wrote in his director's note, he and his brother Keith had first played Sancho and Quixote some twenty-seven years earlier in Jon Robb's pioneering Pittsfield Theatre Guild production — "one of our favorite shows." Now Keith, by then president of Franklin Bank, returned as Cervantes and Don Quixote opposite Teresa Goetten's Aldonza. Ken chose the show knowing its difficulty: "It's male-heavy, the rhythms drive you crazy, the set requires a master hand like Harvey Mack's, and it's a difficult piece to do well." His note paid tribute to three local theatre lights — Eugene Laurent, Jon Robb, and Rob Shaffer — who had all passed since their own La Mancha years: "Perhaps that's why we're using a raked stage… they've got a great view."

What survives in Ken's papers is an unusually full record of the production: a director's journal kept from the chilly first days of May through the May 29-30 auditions, daily performance notes, and a run of cast newsletters titled The Quest. The casting, drawn entirely from local talent, came together so quickly that Ken wrote, "We could close auditions today and cast the play." The cast left a deep mark on him; his final letter describes walking up out of a post-show party to hear Blake, Drew, Grant, and others singing songs of praise at the piano, and reading a gift book of memories in which performer after performer confessed they felt unworthy to share the stage with the others. Radio host Gary Scott praised the show on WLDS, and a County Market manager reported that "everyone coming in the store is talking about that show."

Musical Numbers

Cast

Production Notes