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THE MAN IN THE DESERT, award-winning Los Angeles- and Toronto-based playwright and screenwriter Peter Colley's new biographical drama about Lawrence after Arabia, will make its world premiere Feb. 16-18 and 22-24 at Theatre in the Park in Raleigh, NC. Prize-winning director Michael Lilly, a North Carolina native who recently relocated his Occasional Theatre to Asheville after 27 years in Los Angeles, will serve as guest director for the show, which is based on real incidents and set in the early 1930s in the airmen's mess at Royal Air Force base in Basrah, Iraq.

The inaugural production of THE MAN IN THE DESERT stars TIP founder and executive director Ira David Wood III as Aircraftman Second Class Ned Shaw, a.k.a. British Army Lieutenant Colonel T.E. Lawrence, CB, DSO; a.k.a. Lawrence of Arabia, the British liaison officer who helped lead the Arab Revolt of 1916-18 and subsequently sought anonymity by enlisting in the RAF under a pseudonym and seeking obscure postings in far-off lands.

"My father [RAF Squadron Leader Thomas Colley] knew T.E. Lawrence [1888-1935]," says dramatist Peter Colley, "when Lawrence was an aircraftman working for the Royal Air Force. There were crazy stories about Lawrence changing his name, working at the lowest rank, and hiding in sort of dusty little air bases in some far-flung corner of the British Empire."

Colley says, "It never made much sense to me why one of the most famous men in the world would go to such lengths to slough off his old persona.

"But the stories that I heard growing up always intrigued me," Colley says, "so when everything blew up again in the Arabian peninsula … [in 2001, I thought] this would be a way to examine our relationship with that part of the world. [THE MAN IN THE DESERT] seemed like a perfect story for these times, because I think we in the west have a sort of mythological view of Arabia"

In addition to David Wood, TIP's all-star cast includes Adam Twiss as American writer and broadcaster Lowell Thomas (1892-1981), who best-selling stage show "With Lawrence in Arabia" made Lawrence a household name on both sides of the Atlantic, and the fictional veteran Corporal "Crasher" Dunstone, who hates Lawrence; Christine Rogers as Charlotte Shaw (1859-1943); Andrea Schulz Twiss as British author Clare Sydney Smith, who later wrote THE GOLDEN REIGN: THE STORY OF MY FRIENDSHIP WITH "LAWRENCE OF ARABIA" (1940); Tim Overcash as Arab Revolt leader Prince Feisal (1885-1933), who is seen in flashbacks; and Shawn Rhodes as the fictional eager new recruit Leading Aircraftman "Tam" Walden, who is fascinated with Lawrence, after he finds out who he is.

Playwright Peter Colley says, "I wish I'd paid more attention to my father's stories when he was alive. Luckily, he kept journals; and he took many, many photographs that we are using in the play. They have come in very handy for the props and the set.

"Because our [set, lighting, and props] designer [Stephen J. Larson] has been to Iraq [during the Gulf War] and has many photos of his own, I think we'll have a very authentic look to this piece," claims Colley.

He adds, "The other primary sources are the letters of T.E. Lawrence," plus Clare Sydney Smith's book and the letters of British playwright and political activist George Bernard Shaw's wife, Charlotte.

Director Michael Lilly says he is reading Lawrence's magnum opus SEVEN PILLARS OF WISDOM (1926) for research. "George Bernard Shaw said it is twice as long as THE BIBLE," quips Lilly, "but that book gives Lawrence's perspective of what really happened" during the Arab Revolt.

Lilly, who knew Colley in Los Angeles, says, "peter called me up one day and said, 'I'm writing this play and would like to get some feedback…. I love to read new plays.

At the time," Lilly says, "[THE MAN IN THE DESERT] had two characters in it -- Lawrence and a character based on Peter's dad. Now, there are seven characters in it."

When he thought about actors who might play Lawrence, Lilly says, he immediately remembered David Wood's resemblance to Peter O'Toole, who played Lawrence in director David Lean's epic 1962 motion picture.

Lilly says, "The reason that I thought of David is that he's a classically trained actor…. Also, on stage, he is very, very human. Lilly says Wood brings the best qualities of British actor Sir Laurence Olivier and American actor Marlon Brando to the role -- and, in rehearsals, Wood makes Lawrence "achingly real."

Peter Colley adds, "I think David is going to be spectacular. He's already moving me to tears at times, which is amazing."

"The role of Lawrence has clearly been a huge challenge," admits David Wood. "Creating a character [in a world premiere] is as close as a man can come to giving birth -- and at this stage of the final rehearsal process, I'm fully dilated. By opening night, I hope to deliver -- birth pains and all."

Wood adds, "During the second reading of the script, I found myself becoming emotionally attached to the role -- which I consider a very good sign. As you know, I resisted doing the role for a number of reasons. I was exhausted after A CHRISTMAS CAROL and A CHRISTMAS MEMORY. Thankfully, my old friend Michael Lilly was gentle but persistent -- and it IS, after all, a bloody fine role.

"Though it's involved a great deal of intensive work during the rehearsal process," says Wood, "I'm quite happy to be doing it. Peter Colley … was able to give me quite a bit of background on the real T. E. Lawrence. (He has malaria and scars on his back that become infected easily -- so you've got any number of physical conditions that help to shape the character.) I've additionally been able to see more than a few ********aries on the subject -- thanks to the excellent research done by [TIP technical director and production designer] Steve Larson …. There are certain important things that history provides; but when all is said and done, it's still that emotional attachment -- and commitment to the role -- that makes any character ring true to the actor and audience."

Peter Colley says, "When [THE MAN IN THE DESERT] begins, we see this man called Aircraftman Shaw. He's an older man, but he's the very lowest rank. He's arrived in Arabia on his way to the Far East. We discover this man is Lawrence of Arabia, who for reasons we don't understand has changed his name, gone into the lowest ranks, and doesn't want to be reminded of his glory days 'Lawrence,' who is a character that he's grown to despise.

'Then two British women travelers arrive at the base," says Colley. "It turns out that these women are friends of Lawrence's, and they have heard that he's coming through this air base. Both of them have their private agendas about what they want Lawrence to do."

Colley says, "One of the women is Charlotte Shaw [Christine Rogers]. She's the wife of George Bernard Shaw, who was in reality a very, very close friend and confidant of … 'Aircraftman Shaw' -- a name [Lawrence] took from George Bernard Shaw. Charlotte wants Lawrence to come back to England with her, go back to being the Lawrence of legend, and help her with some of the progressive causes that she holds very dear. She believes that he should use his fame to do some good in the world; but he doesn't want to, because he despises this Lawrence of Arabia character that he once was.

"So," Colley says, "Charlotte sets out to find out WHY he has such a hatred of his old persona. WHAT did he do out there in the desert that destroyed him so much." Peter Colley says the play then becomes an attempt to discover what happened and why.

The dramatist adds, "Clare Sydney Smith [Andrea Schulz Twiss], who is traveling with Charlotte Shaw, is another friend of Lawrence's. She is madly in love with him, and she has certain romantic dreams that she'd like to pursue."

Besides dramatist Peter Colley and director Michael Lilly, the TIP creative team includes set and lighting designer and properties master Steve Larson and his wife, costume designer Shawn Stewart-Larson, plus stage manager Erin West. Michael Lilly and Steve Larson also combined forces to create the show's sound design and video.

Peter Colley says, "There's a point in the play that Lawrence says all histories are lies. The victor just gets to choose which lies.

"By deconstructing Lawrence," the playwright explains, "we get to deconstruct our myths about the East, particularly Arabia. I think this play will help us understand why the people over here think what they think, because they have a much stronger memory of their history than we do.

"Modern Arabia was created by the British and the French," says Colley, " and the main purpose was to help the British and the French and not to be particularly nice to the locals. We are sort of living with the legacy of that."