But as Burning Coal Theatre prepares to mount Finley's fourth Oakwood script, "Elegies: an Oakwood Cemetery Performance," he has proved himself wrong.

One person buried there died by falling into an active volcano, the Raleigh playwright says excitedly. Another plummeted down Niagara Falls.

"Elegies" -- performed on site near the subjects' gravestones -- looks at their deaths and how they reflect their lives.

For instance, Elizabeth Bellamy Peele, the granddaughter of railroad engineer Albert Johnson, was killed when a train on the Seaboard line ran into her car 70 years after Johnson established the line.

"They were both very progressive. He brought in the railroad and she was a teacher and an advocate for women's suffrage," says Finley, who gathered his material with assistance from his genealogist mother and cemetery tour guide Bruce Miller. "So there's this idea of progress through the ages."

Shows are at 6:30 p.m. May 30 and 31; 2 p.m. June 1, at 701 Oakwood Ave. in downtown Raleigh. Tickets are $20; $10 for students. 834-4001, www.burningcoal.org.

Teens win honors

Wake County theater pups had their prelude to the Tony Awards on Monday with the Capital Awards at Memorial Auditorium. The awards honored the top musicals and artists from 20 public and private schools.

The teens wore suits and gowns. Winners thanked their teachers, friends and family in breathless, Tony-like speeches. And the audience got to see highlights from the best musical and lead actor nominees.

North Raleigh Christian Academy swept the awards for its production of Disney's "Beauty and the Beast." It won best musical and earned trophies for lighting design, musical direction, stage crew and technical execution. Stephen Eckert was named outstanding featured performer for his portrayal of Cogsworth, while Zachary Cox, Edward Sanderlin and Cynthia Albury earned top honors as Lumiere, the Beast and Belle.

Other winners were: Green Hope High School (scenery); Enloe High School (sound; direction); Garner Magnet High School (orchestra); Fuquay-Varina High School (costumes); Knightdale High School (ensemble); Wakefield High School (choreography); and Enloe's Allison Bonner (supporting actress).

Students of comedy

Forget about GPAs, when it comes to CPAs -- comedic point averages -- Triangle university students apparently excel.

Two of the four stand-up comedy finalists in RooftopComedy's first College Comedy Competition hail from schools here: Duke University sociology major Tim Ball of Dallas and UNC-Chapel Hill English major Mary Sasson of Pittsburgh.

Amos Vernon of Chapel Hill, a peace and conflict studies major at UC Berkeley, is among four finalists in the short film competition for "The Breakup."

The finalists -- whittled from more than 600 through campus competitions and online voting -- will compete in a live Internet broadcast from the Aspen RooftopComedy Festival in Colorado May 31. Go to www.RooftopComedy.com for details.