Feb 28, 2003 3 min read

BROWNSVILLE – The Brownsville Area High School Musical and Theatre Department will present the classical musical “Man of La Mancha” Friday through Sunday, March 7-9. The presentations for Friday and Saturday, March 7-8, will be at 7:30 p.m. and the Sunday show, March 9, will be a matinee beginning at 2:30 p.m. All shows will be presented in the high school auditorium. Tickets can be purchased by calling 724-785-8200.

Tricia Rohlf will direct the musical.

Paul Wyatt will play the part of Miguel de Cervantes, an aging playwright who is awaiting his trial by the Inquisition on the charge of an offense against the church.

The court, made up of fellow prisoners, seizes hold of Cervantes’s meager possessions, including an unfinished manuscript of his novel “Don Quixote.” Cervantes wants to keep his manuscript and decides that he will defend himself and win the jury over by presenting a defense in the form of entertainment.

The “court” complies and Cervantes and his manservant, played by Andrew Basile, transform themselves into Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. They proceed to play out the story with the participation of the prisoners and other characters.

Quixote and Sancho take to the road on “horses,” portrayed by Diane Williams and Erika Taylor. The famous encounter with the windmills follows, but Quixote ascribes his defeat to the machinations of his enemy, the dark Enchanter, whom one day he will meet in mortal combat. Paula Sally plays Aldonza, the inn’s serving girl. Quixote sees Aldonza as the dream ideal. He sings the ballad “Dulcinea” to her, but she is upset that he refuses to see her as she really is.

Vincent Basile, who portrays the Padre, and Ryan Barnhart, who assumes the role of Dr. Carrasco, arrive at the inn to question Quixote. Paul Vlosich, who plays the Barber and sings “The Barber’s Song”, interrupts them. Later, Aldonza encounters Quixote at the courtyard where he is holding vigil and preparing to be dubbed a knight by the Austin Savona, who plays the Innkeeper. She questions him on his irrational ways, and Quixote answers her in the form of the magical song “The Impossible Dream.”

Quixote and Sancho set out on the road again, only to be approached by the Moors who rob them of all their possessions in “The Moorish Dance.” They must return to the inn, and there they again meet up with Aldonza. She denounces the Quixotic dream in the dramatic “Aldonza.” A fantastic figure, the Enchanter disguised as the Knight of the Mirrors, enters and challenges Quixote to a fight. Quixote is defeated and is forced to see himself as a pathetic clown.

At home again, the man who once called himself Don Quixote is dying. Aldonza has followed him and forces her way into the room and pleads with him in the beautiful “Dulcinea” to restore the vision of glory that he made her see ever so briefly. Quixote rises from his bed to reaffirm the stirring “Man of La Mancha,” but collapses and dies. Aldonza, however, refuses to acknowledge his death.

Tickets can be purchased at Brownsville High School from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Monday and Tuesday.