Burning Coal Theatre Company is committed to developing new plays and theatre practices by artists connected to the Tar Heel State.* In producing new and innovative theatre, The Coal Mines development process focuses on five objectives:

-To promote and celebrate playwriting throughout North Carolina
-To include Southern voices within the national, cultural conversation
-To represent Raleigh as an inferno for the incubation and development of new work
-To encourage equity in the theatre field by welcoming underrepresented artists and encouraging both artists and audiences of all backgrounds
-To introduce local audiences to emerging plays and playwrights

Burning Coal Theatre Company is recognized for bringing innovative theatre home to Raleigh-Durham, as well as to other cities such as New York City and London. Burning Coal is committed to the exchange between regional and global performance communities.

Since 2000, Burning Coal has produced staged readings or fully mounted productions of new plays by writers connected to the Tar Heel State such as Samm-Art Williams, Angus MacLachlan and Alex Finlayson.   The Coal Mines laboratory offers playwrights the opportunity to hear how new writing sounds when spoken by professional level actors–and gives audiences a peek at the new ideas and forms being developed by tomorrow’s writers.

*The Coal Mines accepts unsolicited scripts from writers with a substantial connection to North Carolina.