It’s the week regional theater takes a turn to the biographical—sometimes even performed by the original cast.

At UNC-Chapel Hill, the SOLO TAKES ON festival returns for its second season of striking autobiographical solo shows, before a Duke Human Rights Center contingent in cooperation with the award-winning regional theater troupe Hidden Voices unearth one of the most famous and influential Durhamites in recent history—and the one you’ve most likely never heard of—in TO BUY THE SUN: THE CHALLENGE OF PAULI MURRAY.

We’re particularly interested in seeing Jeffery Blair Cornell’s take on the historically unrepentant—and closeted until death—conservative ideologue Roy Cohn, now that Playmakers Rep is finally getting around to staging Tony Kushner’s epic ANGELS IN AMERICA. And in their midst, emerging playwright Monica Byrne rips the lid off the passions of a late-night college bio lab in Manbites Dog’s dark comedy, NIGHTWORK.

(Wait—that last one? Not so biographical. At least, let’s hope. Make plans to see it anyway.)

More shows, after the jump.

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