Quixote coming to Bethlehem: Outdoor play to promote literacy, ethnic diversity.

Four hundred years after he first crisscrossed Spain, Don Quixote de la Mancha will zigzag around south Bethlehem, where the only windmills he'll find look suspiciously like church steeples and blast furnaces.

On July 9-10, literature's knight errant will star in a mobile outdoor version of Miguel de Cervantes' novel 'Don Quixote,' the first part of which was published in Madrid in January 1605. 'Don Quixote of Bethlehem' will be performed by more than 130 actors, dancers, musicians and puppeteers, one of whom will operate a 14-foot-tall Quixote. They will travel, along with spectators, for about 150 minutes and two miles.

Quixote will die of wounds and a broken heart in a bed on a flatbed truck at the corner of Fourth and Hayes streets. He will be buried in St. Michael's Cemetery, overlooking the Bethlehem Steel plant. The outdoor play/pageant was announced Wednesday during a news conference at Bethlehem City Hall, where Mayor John Callahan and representatives of Touchstone Theatre, the Bethlehem Area Public Library and other producers presented a plan to turn the Lehigh Valley into Quixote country for the next five months.

Students are reading Cervantes' novel, which has been named Bethlehem's Book of 2005. Adults are discussing it in reading circles. It will be read in English and Spanish during an April 22-23 marathon at four locations in Allentown and Bethlehem. The 24-hour session will conclude on the anniversary day of Cervantes' birth and death.

An interactive exhibition, chronicling the history of 'Don Quixote' from Spain to Broadway to Bethlehem, will be held from May 6 through July 25 in the gallery at Lehigh University's Zoellner Arts Center. The site will be the starting point for 'Don Quixote of Bethlehem,' which is scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m. The events conclude a three-year project using Cervantes' novel to promote literacy, ethnic diversity and community building.

The project is sponsored by nine community partners, including Muhlenberg College and Holy Infancy Church, with Touchstone. 'Don Quixote' was chosen for reasons that have made it the second most-translated book, after the Bible. It's a comic tragedy, a spiritual adventure, a profound portrait of paradoxes. Quixote's appeal was described by Jennie Gilrain, a Touchstone ensemble member and director of the street-theater piece. 'What better icon,' she said, 'what better hero, what better madman, what better knight errant to lead us through our own city and help us discover who we are and where we need to go?'

To join 'Quixote' reading circles or the 'Quixote' reading marathon, contact Javier Toro at 610-865-2791 or Erika Sutherland at 484-664-3518 or emsuther@muhlenberg.edu. Open auditions for performing in 'Don Quixote of Bethlehem' will be held 6-8 p.m. Monday at Liberty High School, 6-8 p.m. Tuesday at Broughal Middle School, 6-8 p.m. next Thursday at the Council of Spanish Speaking Organizations of the Lehigh Valley and noon-4 p.m. March 5 at Touchstone. Contact Touchstone at 610-867-1689 or lisa@touchstone.org.

The public is invited to help shape 'Don Quixote of Bethlehem' during a staged reading at 6 p.m. April 11 at Touchstone.