While Naomi Wallace's adaptation of William Wharton's Birdy takes its pre-Broadway flight at Durham, North Carolina's Duke University, the theatre is also readying a workshop presentation of Nilo Cruz's new play, Hortensia and the Museum of Dreams Faculty member Jody McAuliffe will direct the staging, April 20-22.

According to Anna Upchurch, marketing manager for Theatre Previews at Duke, the show is in the process of casting and will likely include a mix of students and professional actors. The piece tells of a young woman journalist, Luciana, returning to her native Cuba. A drama with comic moments, the show also contains "dreamlike and surreal elements," according to Upchurch.

Theatre Previews at Duke generally presents one mainstage and one workshop production each spring. Last season's mainstage offering was the musical Eleanor: An American Love Story, co-produced with Ford's Theatre in Washington DC. The show went on to a three-month run at Ford's and has also released an original cast recording. The workshop was of Jose Rivera's References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot.

This season's mainstage offering, Birdy, runs March 7-26 and will likely come to Broadway in the fall (a delay from Broadway plans this spring). Grant Show stars in the drama.

-- By David Lefkowitz