Husband and wife Scott Bakula and Chelsea Field will be gracing the Peterborough Players’ stage next week, as they take on the roles of Cervantes/Quixote and Aldonza in “Man of La Mancha” – a musical that has special meaning to each of them.

The play will feature Bakula as Cervantes, imprisoned by the Spanish Inquisition, who leads his fellow prisoners in an enactment of the manuscript that will eventually become “Don Quixote.” In the play-within-a-play, he plays Quixote, the rather delusional knight errant who is determined to fix the wrongs of the world. Field plays opposite him as Aldonza, a prostitute Quixote casts in the role of his ethereally perfect lady love, whom he dubs Dulcinea.

Bakula is best known for his starring roles in the science fiction series “Quantum Leap” as Sam Beckett, Capt. Jonathan Archer on “Star Trek: Enterprise” and most recently, as special agent Dwayne Cassius “King” Pride on “NCIS: New Orleans,” as well as stints on Broadway.

Field played a recurring role of Rita Devereaux on “NCIS: New Orleans,” and joined the main cast for its final season,. She is also known for her roles in films, including “Masters of the Universe” and “The Last Boy Scout.”

On Tuesday, Bakula said his history with “Man of La Mancha” goes back to his earliest days in the industry.

“I actually did this role when I was 21 years old,” Bakula said. He played the role in an outdoor theater, and said he initially had qualms about playing the elderly Cervantes, but his director assured him that famed Australian actor Keith Michell had pulled off the role in the London West End at 25.

“When you’re young, you say yes to everything, and are kind of stupidly naive,” Bakula admitted. “But it was the time of my life. The experience of doing the show and creating it for the first time was amazing. Back then, all I could think about was ‘How am I going to play this old man?’ And now, I am the old man.”

Bakula has returned to the show a few times in his career. “Quantum Leap,” whose premise include’s Beckett “leaping” into the lives of different people and sorting out their problems each episode, includes an episode where Beckett must perform the play, singing a “Man of La Mancha” medley.

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Bakula and Field have also participated in a reading of the play, with Field as Aldonza, several years ago.

“I’ve always felt a real kinship with Aldonza,” Field said. “I feel I understand where she comes from. She’s a very vulnerable, sensitive person, who life knocks around, to the point she has to armor up, and protect herself, and does that with a lot of anger and spite. Her ice gets thawed by Quixote, and he changes her, and it’s very similar to Scott’s and my story.”

Field said she was a “very armored person” when she and Bakula met on a film together, and that she distrusted men in general.

“Over time, all that changed. I really realized that everything that preceded Scott was not love,” Field said.

Field said she loves the piece, and has been working on Aldonza’s songs for years as a hobby, because she loves them all.

Knowing their affection for the play, Bakula said he was contacted by James Whitmore Jr., whose family has been involved in the Players since its early days. Whitmore’s father, Golden Globe- and Emmy-winning actor James Whitmore, got his start at the Players and met his wife there, and returned many times to participate in Players seasons, as eventually did his son. Bakula said he has been directed by the younger Whitmore many times over the years, and the two had known each other since the 1980s.

“He reached out and said, ‘They’re doing “La Mancha.’ Scotty, you got to go up there!” he said.

At the time, Bakula said, he was in an off-Broadway production of “The Connector,” and said he didn’t know if he even had the bandwidth – and then, when he had the time to think about it, was worried they might have already cast the show. But after inviting Players interim Producing Artistic Director Chuck Morey to New York to see the show he was in and discuss the vision for “Man of La Mancha,” he and Field signed on.

“One of my early jobs, and one of the favorite jobs I ever did in the late ’70s was a summer stock tour,” Bakula said. “It was just the time of our lives. I was young, and I made some really great friends and we had a ball, so I really have a soft spot in my heart for summer stock theater. In my day, it was called the ‘straw hat circuit.’ This part of the country is uniquely rich in these kinds of theaters, and that kind of tradition, but it’s fading from the landscape.”

Bakula said he wants to do what he can to keep the tradition alive.

“You need patrons of the arts. There’s a very strong group here, determined to keep this theater going. We have to slam the door on the COVID years that closed a lot of businesses and a lot of theaters,” Bakula said. “The one thing you can never replace is live theater. You have AI coming strong down the pipe. TV is going different ways, now, as is the film industry. But someone in front of you, performing, there’s nothing like it.”

Field said the theater is also a special experience for actors, and very different from film or television.

“I felt it immediately when I got here,” Field said. “Everybody in this room, they’re all here for this artistic experience, whether it’s the actors, the director, the choreographer, the sound man the set designer, the prop person – everybody is here to create this experience. As an actor – I’ve been in television and film since I was 20 – it just doesn’t feel that way when you’re on a set.”

Field said in television and film, rehearsals and time for scene exploration are “a luxury.” She can recall only one time when there was significant rehearsal time in her career, on the set of the 1989 film “Skin Deep.”

“So, this was yummy for me,” Field said, of getting the week to rehearse.

Almost all performances have been sold out, but a recently added matinee on Wednesday, Aug. 21, still has seats available. For information or to purchase tickets, visit peterboroughplayers.org.

The current Peterborough Players production, “Ben Butler,” continues through Aug. 11, and having gone to opening night, Bakula and Field urge

"We loved the show!  We're going to encourage everyone to come and see it,” they stated. “We're glad people are coming to see ‘La Mancha,’ but please come and see ‘Ben Butler’!"

Ashley Saari can be reached at 603-924-7172, Ext. 244, or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on X @AshleySaariMLT.