"Poe" Media Kit

featuresThe Baltimore Sun: 10 Awkward Questions pg 2WYPR (The Signal) pg 3Baltimore Magazine pg 4Style Magazine pg 5City Paper Best of Baltimore: pg 6 Bruce Nelson, Best Actor

MEDIA KIT

By Stephen ThorneDirected by Curt Columbus

Oct 17–Nov 25

reviewsWYPR (Maryland Morning) pg 7 The Baltimore Sun pg 8City Paper pg 10City Paper pg 12MD Theatre Guide pg 13DC Theatre Scene pg 14DC Metro Theater Arts pg 16Broadway World (DC) pg 18Chesapeake Taste pg 20Baltimore Post Examiner pg 21Steve Charing OUTspoken Blog pg 23JHU Newsletter pg 25

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Media Representative: Heather Jackson | [email protected] | 410.986.4016 (direct)

The Completely Fictional—Utterly True—Final Strange Tale of Edgar Allan Poe Media Kit | pg. 2

The Baltimore Sun (Oct 19, 2012)

10 Awkward Questions with Bruce NelsonJordan Bartel

Bruce Nelson, a longtime Baltimore favorite on the stage, goes macabre for his latest role — the title literary giant in The Completely Fictional — Utterly True — Final Strange Tale of Edgar Allan Poe.

We’ll give you a break after reading that. Still with us? The play, running now through Nov. 25 at CENTERSTAGE, focuses on Poe’s weird (of course) final days before his mysterious death (again, of course) in Baltimore. And since he’s playing the rascally Poe, we had some rascally questions of our own. Thankfully, he brought up Poe marrying his teenage cousin on his own.

1. The title of this play is very intriguing and a bit confusing. What words would you add to make it even more intriguing and yet still confusing?The Totally and Completely Fictional — Utterly True — I Mean, Really True — Final Strange Tale of That Guy Who Wrote the Raven — Edgar Allen Poe(t).

2. To what lengths did you go to ignore John Cusack’s performance in “The Raven” to prepare for this role?I built a bunker underground to ignore all people.

3. What part of Poe’s life do you relate to the most? Please make this as creepy as possible.Drinking, passing out, and coming on to 14-year-old girls, then marrying them.

4. You teach improv. How do you explain the longevity and success of Wayne Brady?He has a great editor that can piece together all the good stuff.

5. You once portrayed 35 parts on stage. I’m a bit disappointed that you’re only playing Poe here. You couldn’t fit in at least a black cat or a raven?Late in the third act, I fold my arms behind my back and let out a caw!

6. You were recently again named best actor in Baltimore by the City Paper. Just how bad have you been rubbing that in?It prefaces everything I say these days.

7. When Poe was found in Baltimore before he died, he was wandering around drunk wearing someone else’s clothes. Did you go “method actor” with this part of his life?I once woke up in Akron, Ohio, in garters and a tiara.

8. What did you find to be the perfect way to take care of a Poe mustache, which I think was the source of much of his literary power?Shampoo and condition with Finesse.

9. If Poe wrote a poem about your portrayal, what would he call it?“Something Wicked This Way Comes.”

10. Will this role lead to another for you — as the Poe Toaster? Or are you not allowed to answer that?Uhhhh…can’t talk now, gotta go, bye!

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WYPR The Signal (Oct 26, 2012)

Growing up Afro, Stillpointe’s Arsenic & Old Lace, CENTERSTAGE’s Poe, Tony Tsendeas reads “The Raven,” and Edward Doyle-Gillespie at The Stoop Listen to the mp3 of this interview on this cd.

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Baltimore Magazine (Oct 1, 2012)

Up Front: One-Man PoeJess Blumberg

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Style Magazine (Oct 1, 2012)

Arts and Fall Culture: Bruce Nelson ActorTaylor Colvin

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City Paper (Sep 19, 2012)

Best of Baltimore: Bruce Nelson, Best Actor

9/24/12

1/1

ARTS AND ENTERTAINM ENT

Best Actor

Bruce Nelson

PUBLISHED: SEPTEMBER 19, 2012

Bruce Nelson has play ed so many weirdos in his mind-boggling career as Mary land’s finest actor that the only way

he had left to surprise us was to play someone as utterly conv entional as Ely ot Chase in Private Lives. That’s just what

he did at the Ev ery man Theatre last winter, appearing as the British aristocrat in a white tuxedo in Noel Coward’s

droll farce. It’s hard to breathe new life into a role—or ty pe—as well-worn as this one, but Nelson rev italized the show

by making it clear that Ely ot’s sty lish banter and wav es of the cigarette were the thinnest of ice ov er the dark waters

of panic. In January , Nelson appeared at D.C.’s Shakespeare Theatre in D.C., and in October he will make his Center

Stage debut in The Completely Fictional—Utterly True—Final Strange Tale of Edgar Allan Poe.

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WYPR Maryland Morning (Oct 29, 2012)

The Completely Fictional–Utterly True–Final Strange Tale of Edgar Allan PoeJ. Wynn Rousuck

Maryland Morning theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck reviews CENTERSTAGE’s production of The Completely Fictional-Utterly True-Final Strange Tale of Edgar Allan Poe. The play is centered on the death of Poe, who called Baltimore home at several peri-ods during his life and whom J. Wynn Rousuck refers to as “The dying master of the macabre.”

Listen to the mp3 of this interview on this cd.

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The Baltimore Sun (Nov 1, 2012)

CENTERSTAGE presents Final Strange Tale of Edgar Allan PoeTim Smith

CENTERSTAGE opened its 50th anniversary season last month with An Enemy of the People, a heavy-handed, often dull play that an uneven cast could not quite enrich.

That has now been followed by The Completely Fictional — Utterly True — Final Strange Tale of Edgar Allan Poe, a heavy-handed, often dull play that a dynamic, well-matched cast cannot quite enrich.

It’s really a little too soon to worry about where CENTERSTAGE is headed, but artistic director Kwame Kwei-Armah’s first two choices for the 2012-2013 lineup give one pause.

There was, of course, an obvious reason to consider Enemy, Arthur Miller’s Ibsen-inspired examination of politics and ethics, during an election season.

Likewise, it’s understandable to focus on Poe, given the master of the macabre’s strong ties to Baltimore. But The Final Strange Tale seems ...

like a work in progress, still awaiting an editor’s dry-eyed surgery.

Premiered last year at the Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, R.I., the play was written by Stephen Thorne, a resident actor in that troupe. He takes as his starting point Poe’s final hours in October 1849.

How Poe ended up in Baltimore, much the worse for wear after a week that started in Philadelphia, has long been a subject of speculation. Thorne does not attempt so much to settle the matter as to peer into the poet’s state of mind at the end.

He gives us a confused, but defiant, Poe on his bed at Washington College Hospital, consumed by memories and hallucinations, determined to escape the embrace of death. There is plenty of theatrical potential here, and, at his best, the playwright imaginatively mixes history, fantasy and Poe’s own writings to create “a dream within a dream.”

Thorne can write lines that sing, startle and amuse. (Not since a quizzical Anne Francis delivered the line “Baltimore?” in the film version of “Funny Girl” has a script offered a character the chance to shine just by uttering our city’s name.)

But, too often, the vivid moments are followed by laborious bits of Freudian analysis. And several passages that have “final scene” written all over them turn out to introduce still more material. In the end, the play’s two-hour running time feels much longer.

The production from Trinity Rep, designed by Eugene Lee, gets effective mileage out of a wooden platform in a theater-in-the-round set-up. The center of that platform can be lowered deeply at will, perfect for conjuring up images of the grave.

Director Curt Columbus piles on some haunted house shtick, where just a touch would be more telling. But some of the spooky stuff does have a terrific visual payoff, especially in a scene that references Poe’s tale of mesmerism, “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar.”

Bruce Randolph Nelson is the death-facing Poe. When it comes to chewing scenery, this actor is quite the gourmand, and he indulges his appetite fully here. The play-to-the-balcony emphasizing can get wearying, but the fire in the performance often hits home.

The other performers take on multiple roles — doctors, Poe family members, etc. — and do so with admirable flair.




Charlie Thurston is a particularly dynamic presence as Young Edgar — scenes between the two Poes, arguing over inspiration and life choices, are the play’s most intriguing and incisive. Jimmy Kieffer’s portrayal of Charles Dickens, seemingly the most unlikely figure to pop into Poe’s head, is delectably colorful.

But, for all the sparks from the cast, The Final Strange Tale doesn’t really end up shedding much light on the subject matter. Not does it grab hold and refuse to let go, the way any story about Poe should.

The Baltimore Sun Cont.

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City Paper (Oct 29, 2012)

Nevermore, A brilliant performance wasted on a stagnant scriptGeoffrey Himes

As you’re waiting for The Completely Fictional—Utterly True—Final Strange Tale of Edgar Allan Poe to begin at CENTERSTAGE’s second-floor theater, you may flip through your program and chance upon the bio of playwright Stephen Thorne. Having learned that he is primarily an actor, you may groan, as I did to the woman on my left, “Oh, no! This is going to be one of those actor-written shows with great scenes for performers but no thematic unity or narrative coherence.” And, unfortunately, you would be right.

The advance publicity stoked expectations for this production. Baltimore’s most famous writer would be portrayed by Baltimore’s finest actor, Bruce Randolph Nelson. But the play turns out to be such a trifle that it does justice to neither Poe nor Nelson. As might be expected, Thorne’s script provides some showy scenes for the actors—and Nelson as well as Charlie Thurston and Caroline Kaplan take full advantage of them—but those scenes are so disconnected from the other scenes that the show never gathers any momentum.

The play begins with mumbles and lanterns coming through the white sheets that wrap around the theater space, Christo-style. Before long Poe, with his dark mustache and unruly mop of dark hair, is standing on his bed at Baltimore’s Washington University Hospital on Oct. 7, 1849, declaiming about life as a kind of theater. Three nurses in blue-gray nun habits and two doctors in white coats rush into the room to calm him down. Once again the physicians ask the writer where he had been the week before he landed at the hospital, on death’s doorstep, but that week is as much a mystery to Poe as it would be to his countless biographers.

Poe, who set so many of his poems and stories in the no man’s land between life and death, between sanity and madness, seems to have taken up permanent residence in that zone. As he stares at one nurse, she sheds her habit and becomes Madame Valdemar (Libya Pugh), a gender-switched character from his short story “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar.” Simultaneously, Poe sheds his white hospital gown and dons a stylish black jacket and finds himself at a New York City salon some years earlier, flirting with Valdemar, a hypnotist assisting a physician.

As their friendship blossoms, Valdemar eventually shares her darkest secret with Poe: She hypnotized a patient as he was dying and, eight months after his death, the seemingly dead body has neither decomposed nor reawakened. This sets up director Curt Columbus’ most spectacular scene—one involving a living corpse and a fountain of bodily fluids. After a desultory beginning, the show has finally grabbed the audience’s attention. But what to do with that grasp?

Alas, neither Columbus nor Thorne can answer that question. There are connections to be made between Poe as creator of the scene and Poe as surprised witness to it, or between Poe and the stranger, who are both living corpses; but neither the playwright nor the director make those connections in anything but a perfunctory manner. It’s as if Thorne—an actor trained to always “be in the moment”—is incapable of stepping outside each moment to see how it might fit together with the others in a pattern.

There are other stirring moments in the show: the deaths of Poe’s mother, Eliza (Naomi Jacobson), and his cousin/wife, Virginia (Caroline Kaplan); an argument about writing between Poe and Charles Dickens (Jimmy Kieffer); and an extended argument between the dying Poe and his younger self (Charlie Thurston), who is to blame for the writer’s failures. But they are all actors’ scenes—chances for the performers to show off their chops. They never become playwrights’ scenes—stepping stones that might lead the audience from point A to point B. Columbus doesn’t help matters by giving Valdemar, Dickens, and the salon’s young blonde (Kaplan) cartoonish accents and loading up the production with campy, horror-film sound effects.

Nelson, of course, is terrific as Poe. Even his appearance—a dashing haircut, stylish jacket, and expensive cravat that are never quite in place—suggests a man trying to maintain control and not quite succeeding. The actor manages to suggest a man who defies death on one level but who is terrified on another. It’s not easy to convey such contradictory emotions, but Nelson allows just enough cracks in his brave façade to offer glimpses of the coward within.




It’s all for naught, however, as the show drags on and on, long after the audience has abandoned hope that there might be any purpose to it all. There are one, two, three, four false endings, and one begins to feel like Valdemar’s hypnotized patient, who croaks, please, please, please, just let it end.

City Paper Cont.

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City Paper (Oct 29, 2012)

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MD Theatre Guide (Oct 27, 2012)

Theatre Review: The Completely Fictional–Utterly True–Final Strange Tale of Edgar Allan Poe at CENTERSTAGEJames Miller

For the well-read theatregoer in search of a haunting experience this Halloween season, look no further than CENTERSTAGE’S The Completely Fictional—Utterly True—Final Strange Tale of Edgar Allan Poe.

As the extended title boasts, this production pays tribute to the American icon and Baltimore legend’s final days, lying on his deathbed in Washington Hospital. With no memory of how he got there, the dying author (portrayed beautifully by Bruce Nelson, a Baltimore legend in his own right) hurtles through a world of memory and hallucination, in wild resistance of his own mortality. The play is as diverse as Poe’s body of work, delving into everything from the romantic to the occult—swinging between poles of morbidity and humor.

This is just the second production of the play, having premiered in Providence, RI at Trinity Rep in 2011, also under the direction of Curt Columbus. Having had the privilege of seeing both productions, I can attest that this revival lives up to the script’s full potential and, in some cases, improves upon the original staging. The transitions, in particular, are executed with almost magical efficiency, and, watching the show in the round—a key difference from the Trinity production—the audience is thrown head first into the whirlwind of Poe’s life and delusions.

Nelson is extremely compelling as Poe. While at the start he does not appear particularly sick; this only heightens the effect of his physical deterioration and madness. Accompanying him on this madcap journey is a supporting cast of doctors, nurses, and literary figures, including the memorable appearances of Charles Dickens (Jimmy Kieffer) and Poe’s younger self (Charlie Thurston). The ensemble is uniformly strong; Caroline Kaplan, in particular, shows tremendous range as both Poe’s dead wife Virginia and a selection of humorous supporting characters.

They are well served by the minimalist set (Eugene Lee) that lends itself effortlessly to the different worlds of the play and presents almost no sightline issues (no small feat in the round). The costumes (David Burdick) are impeccable and facilitate numerous quick changes—comic and horrific alike—while the sound design (Zachary Williamson) is creepily vast.

The second act is considerably longer than the first, and seems to extend beyond its natural endpoint—a haunting tribute to Poe’s Masque of the Red Death. The scene that follows feels lackluster in comparison, and the play peters out instead of ending with a bang. Nevertheless, this is a daring and well-crafted piece that will quickly earn its place in the American canon.

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DC Theatre Scene (Oct 31, 2012)

The Completely Fictional–Utterly True–Final Strange Tale of Edgar Allan PoeJayne Blanchard

Once upon a Sunday dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,Will this latest Poe play rate high or very poor?Will I nod, nearly napping, or will my synapses be a-snappingAs I watch Poe’s tortured writhing, writhing at death’s door?“’Tis some play,” I muttered, “Tapping pain and horror at the core—Only this, I say—encore!

The mystery surrounding Edgar Allan Poe’s last days still tantalize us 163 years after the writer and visionary was found lying in front of a derelict waterfront Baltimore saloon, disoriented and delirious and wearing someone else’s clothes. He died October 7, 1849 in what came to be known as Church Home Hospital and was buried at downtown Baltimore’s Westminster Church. Every year from 1947 to 2009, an anonymous stranger known as “The Poe Toaster” left a partially empty bottle of cognac and three roses at the grave on Poe’s birthday, January 18th.

Why did Poe never make it from Richmond to New York? What was he doing in Baltimore—was he ill or on a drunken binge? What were his last days like—some theories have him and other sots being rounded up and taken from polling place to polling place to vote in fixed elections.

Stephen Thorne’s atmospheric and emotionally wrought play The Completely Fictional—Utterly True—Final Strange Tale of Edgar Allan Poe delves into the unknown and unknowable final hours of Poe’s life as he lay on a hospital bed, feverish and utterly alone as death comes rapping at his chamber door.

Combining biographical material with excerpts from his most famous tales and poems, as well as other writings, … Final Strange Tale of Edgar Allen Poe takes us into the eternal dark night of the soul of a man possessed—possessed by his visions, his imagination, his doomed love for the teenaged Virginia Clemm, and his incessant poverty.

Director Curt Columbus and scenic designer Eugene Lee set the spooky tone from the start, wrapping the Head Theatre in muslin burlap cloth that turns the space into a magic lantern show or a tent show that Poe himself may have enjoyed in the mid 1800s. Sound designer Zachary Williamson provides a sinister symphony of moans, creaks and other eerie sound effects.

The stage resembles a funeral bier as the actors mount the stairs to encounter Edgar Allan Poe (Bruce Randolph Nelson), thrashing on the bed and refusing to go gently into that good night. He takes us and the dismissive medical staff on a tour of his fever brain as he roots through the wretchedness of his life—a journey rendered by Mr. Thorne in black velvety prose as hectic and stylized as that used by Poe.

“Death,” he says. “We approach its gates in dreams” and the first concerns a nurse who morphs into French scientist Valdemar (the impeccable Libya Pugh), a mesmerist from one of Poe’s science fiction stories . She recounts a spine-tingling tale of putting a man, at the cusp of death, into a trance, where he remained hovering between two states of being until he is awakened and quickly vanished in a mist of smoke reeking of the grave.

The mother he scarcely knew—she died when he was 3—Eliza (Naomi Jacobson, potent and defined in this and a variety of roles) becomes a shrouded, silent vision of beauty and longing as she visits her son on his deathbed. Like a deranged version of A Christmas Carol, Poe is also visited by other ghosts from his past—his thundering and scathing uncle John Allan (Jimmy Kieffer) and the fragile, tragically eager to please Virginia Clemm (Caroline Kaplan), who resembles a blood-splattered Ophelia when she comes, singing, to haunt her husband.

Perhaps the most shattering confrontation is from his younger self (Charlie Thurston, creating a vigorous, arresting portrait of the young poet), first seen as a man about town full of spirit and woozy on words as he spellbinds a society gathering with his recitation of “The Raven.” Young Poe believes in the divine transformational qualities of poetry and love; Old Poe sees




nothing but a life wasted in pain and need and horror. In a demonic stroke worthy of one of his characters, Poe kills off his younger self and then begs forgiveness—“The fever of living is conquered at last.”

The highly colored atmosphere struck by this play is a shivery delight, yet lighter moments are scattered here and there, such as Poe’s meandering discourses with Charles Dickens (Mr. Kieffer, as generous of mind and heart as the author as he is miserly as John Allan), touching on their disdain for critics and calling each other out on lapses of logic in their writings.

Mr. Nelson, with his defined classic diction and noble bearing, seems to have time-traveled to capture the essence of Edgar Allan Poe—a man of restless mind and infinite mystery.

In Mr. Nelson’s gripping portrayal, he seems better acquainted with Death than with himself. Suffering and the beckoning grave were Poe’s constant companions in life, goading his ungodly visions and giving him a shadowy taste of Hell to shock his still-beating heart.

DC Theatre Scene Cont.

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DC Metro Theater Arts (Oct 25, 2012)

The Completely Fictional–Utterly True–Final Strange Tale of Edgar Allan Poe at CENTERSTAGEAmanda Gunther

Once upon a midnight dreary there came a production that spoke quite clearly of a haunted poet whose tale is known forever more; the madness of a man quite clearly haunted by his ending nearly, approaching rapidly the ghost of death a knocking at his chamber door. CENTERSTAGE presents most dearly as their 50th Anniversary season progresses here, an offering of Baltimore’s beloved macabre poet and his bizarre end with Stephen Thorne’s The Completely Fictional — Utterly True — Final Strange Tale of Edgar Allan Poe. Directed by Curt Columbus, this wildly riveting ride takes you through the tumultuous ups and downs of the famed poet’s final moments; traversing the dark delusions as he tumbles from the brink of sanity into the drastic depths of the surreally unknown.

Scenic Designer Eugene Lee provides a haunting atmosphere for the stage which is set in the round. Chandeliers strung from the ceiling and concealed by muslin drapes with wide sweeping curtains around the house create a ghostly environment, augmenting the spooky effects of the players that drift in and out of the space and Poe’s reality as the show progresses. Otherwise using a minimalist design, Lee succeeds in properly executing an eerie ambiance without crafting clichés into his work.

The madness woven into the text of this production may not be an infection but it spreads like one. Galloping levels of insanity floats abound between Poe and his delusional incarnations of the characters of his past. Recollecting such fever dreams as his mother and his younger self; the text is both frighteningly realistic and bizarrely unbelievable, creating a complex series of scenes that are truly maddening to behold. Director Curt Columbus does a flawless job of incorporating the more macabre aspects of Poe’s insanity into the subtle scene shifts; relying on well-placed entrances and exits of characters floating about at precise moments to appear as shades or shadows; wisps of wraiths that may exist only in the delirium of Poe’s fragile mind.

The intensity with which these haunted hallucinations occur is downright petrifying. Moments of utter unnerving truths blast into reality, creating by powerful acting and the haunting contrast of actors in darkness and sudden blinks of light. There is never a dull moment throughout the performance and each of the characters fall into their own series of unfortunate sorrows; making the overall events of the show that much more dramatic and profound.

Valdemar (Libya Pugh) shares the sickness of the mind that Poe masters, letting her inward manifestations of the otherworldly phenomenon possess her character in such a way that she is almost a female double of Poe. Pugh masters a robust French accent and slinks about the stage with a scientific prowess that makes her slightly villainous. Doubling up as one of the more doting nurse nuns at the hospital, Pugh rivals her minor performance with the title characters in intensity and ferocity.

Adding to the insanity comes the conversation with Charles Dickens (Jimmy Kieffer). Playing the aloof historical writer Kieffer creates a slight instance of comic relief, his presences echoing strongly despite the humor. When he switches roles to the formidable John Allan his presence is terrifying; a dark and foreboding man easily putting Poe in his place. Another stunning performance in this cast of extremely talented actors.

The most stunning moment in this show comes between the duality of Poe (Bruce Randolph Nelson) being forced to face off with his younger self; Young Edgar (Charlie Thurston). Not only is the physical resemblance striking and shocking to behold but the mannerisms in which Thurston moves about the stage mimic Poe’s with such a spry fluidity that it is beyond haunting to see them arguing with one another. Heated debate ensue as Thurston plays the blame game with Nelson, flipping through memories and shadows of the past with frightening tenacity.

Thurston and Nelson share an all encompassing scene of love loss and tragedy with their shared wife, Virginia (Caroline Kaplan). The moment is too precious to give away especially with how quickly it turns from brilliance to true darkness, but it is Kaplan’s finest hour upon the stage; stealing the attention away from her dueling husbands with a force as strong as the stormy night’s thunder.




Nelson as the title character is unflappable. Stalwart in his convictions that he is neither going mad nor dying, he derives a passionate justice to the poet’s character. The fever of blood has overcome him; coursing through his veins with a tenacity that shocks the audience to the core. Nevermore a performance so genius and so brilliant than the epic absurdity portrayed by Nelson in this role. A stunningly expressive man, extrapolating the darkest details of Poe’s inner sanctum for all to understand; a show not to be missed. Be sure to see it before it flies away.

DC Metro Theater Arts Cont.

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Broadway World (DC) (Nov 2, 2012)

BWW Reviews: The Completely Fictional–Utterly True–Final Strange Tale of Edgar Allan Poe at CENTERSTAGECharles Shubow

Baltimore and Poe....so many connections.

Poe is buriend in the Westminster Burial Grounds, next to Westminster Hall, now part or the University of Maryland campus on West Fayette Street in downtown Baltimore, just a couple of blocks east of the home of the new Everyman Theatre.

There’s an “Annabell Lee Tavern” named for the Poe work in Baltimore.

There is only one professional team in any sport named after a work of a writer, the Baltimore Ravens.

The Ravens used to have three mascots - Edgar, Allan, and Poe (now there’s just Poe).

And on November 14 @ 6:30 p.m. there will be a Raven Special Lager special tasting at CENTERSTAGE.

On November 4th at 7 p.m. Liam Flynn’s Ale House at 22 W. North Avenue (at Charles Street) in association with CENTERSTAGE and the Baltimore Performance Kitchen and the SingleCarrot Theatre present THE POE PROJECT at Pub Labs.

The star of CENTERSTAGE’s production, Bruce Nelson, will be presenting an actor’s workshop entitled “Improve with Bruce Nelson on Saturday, Dec 8, 2012 from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Single Carrot Theatre (location to be determined.)

That’s it for the extra-curricular activities.

Now to The Completely Fictional–Utterly True–Final Strange Tale of Edgar Allan Poe presented as the second production of the year at CENTERSTAGE. Is this one of the longest titles of any play you’ve seen?

Now to answer the question is it a “trick” or a “treat”. Well, it’s not a treat.

POE got it’s world premiere at the Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, RI in 2011. It was written by an actor in The Acting Company of that highly respected theater, Stephen Thorne. Whenever I see an actor turn to writing a play I get suspicious. It was directed by the company’s Artistic Director, Curt Columbus who also takes the helm in Baltimore that he had in Providence.

But neither Columbus nor the fine cast of actors can save a complex book of a play which is salvaged only but an enjoyable Act II. You can save a lot of time and just arrive after intermission.

The play opens in a Baltimore hospital where Poe (the always magnificent Bruce Randolph Nelson, a member of the Everyman Theatre Acting Company) is stretched out on his deathbed insisting he wasn’t going to die.

Then you are faced with another death bed this time in New York (inspired by Poe’s “The Facts in the case of M. Valdemar“ (played by a creepy Libya Pugh). Vlademar is a mesmerist who is experimenting with a patient waiting to die. The body decomposes in front of our eyes and goo emenates from the bed. (This play is not intened for the young). There’s plenty of blood later on.

Not much else happens in Act I except you see a glimpse of the young Poe (played by the wonderful Charlie Thurston, who was also in the Trinity production) just before the curtain falls.

It is the confrontation of Nelson and Thurston in Act II that is thoroughly entertaining. One of the best scenes involves the young Poe reciting a verse and the old Poe claiming it got better after he revised it later in his life. The conversations between the two is clever and entertaining.




The remaining cast members are all terrific: Naomi Jacobson, Caroline Kennedy, Jimmy Kieffer, Kenneth Lee, and Erick Pinnick.

You can’t fault actors for a bad choice of a play. What CENTERSTAGE should have presented was the wonderful musical about Poe, NEVERMORE, done by the Signature Theatre in Shirlington, VA.

Broadway World Cont.

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Chesapeake Taste (Oct 25, 2012)

Edgar Allan Poe at CENTERSTAGE Theater ReviewNadja Maril

Edgar Allan Poe, credited with writing the first detective novel, liked a good mystery. Thus it is fitting that The Completely Fictional- Utterly True-Final Strange Tale of Edgar Allan Poe by Stephen Thorne which opened last night at Baltimore’s CENTERSTAGE theatre focuses on the mystery of Poe’s death.

Performed in the Head Theater, set up as a theater-in-the- round, the ensemble cast of seven actors plus Bruce Randolph Nelson portraying Edgar Allan Poe; enter and leave the stage from multiple directions and levels, providing an multi-sensory experience. Eugene Lee, has designed a deceptively simple but effective structural framework for the Washington College Hospital in Baltimore setting, where Poe lies delirious recreating scenes from his life in his mind.

Initially attired as medical personnel, the actors swiftly change in and out of character roles as varied as Charles Dickens, French mesmerist Valdemar, and Poe’s childhood bride Virginia. Their transformations are aided by the talents of costumer David Burdick, who managed to design garments that layer and transform themselves from glamourous and gaudy to filthy and ragged. The brilliant ensemble cast includes actors: Charlie Thurston, Jimmy Kieffer, Naomi, Jacobson, Erick Pinnick, Kenneth Lee Libya Pugh and Caroline Kaplan.

Directed by Curt Columbus, this play is not for the faint of heart. It is, after all, almost Halloween and Poe was fascinated by the dark and macabre. It is peppered with ghoulish imagery, blood, and gore. For aficionados of Poes work, there are many references to The Masque of the Red Death, The Tell-tale Heart, and of course The Raven. As to from whence inspiration for The Raven came, some literary historians think it was a result of his friendship with Dickens. (Dickens had a pet talking raven.)

While it was widely thought initially that Poe died of alcoholism, He had given up liquor six months prior to this death and was discovered lying unconscious outside a saloon. However, when offered alcohol in the hospital he refused it and found it difficult to drink water while suffering from tremors and hallucinations. A 1996 study conducted R. Michael Benitez MD, an assistant profession of medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, published in their Maryland Medical Journal theorizes, based on the journals of the attending physicians, that Poe died of rabies. The wide swings of pulse rate, various states of confusion, and reluctance to drink water are consistent with the diagnosis of rabies. Poe had several pets in his household, and while there is no record of a bite, frequently rabies victims have no memory of being bitten.

Dying is not an easy task, even for Edgar Allan Poe as portrayed by an actor as masterful as Baltimore based Bruce Randolph Nelson. And does Poe ever really die? As long as his stories keep being read and told, he stays alive.

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Baltimore Post Examiner (Oct 26, 2012)

CENTERSTAGE’s Edgar Allan Poe leaves more questions that answersAnthony C. Hayes

On a cold October morning in 1849, Edgar Allan Poe, poet, writer and literary critic, was found in the streets of Baltimore, unconscious and wearing ill-fitting clothes. The stricken author was taken to nearby Washington College Hospital where he languished hallucinating for nearly four days before finally giving up the ghost. There are twenty-three theories about what caused the author’s untimely death. Being parodied by a playwright and a preposterous production is not one of them.

The Completely Fictional – Utterly True – Final Strange Tale of Edgar Allan Poe, which opened Wednesday night at CENTERSTAGE, doesn’t really answer the question of what killed Poe. Instead, the play grapples with the question of what may have been going through the mind of a dying man. Having Poe’s life flash, as it were, before his dimming eyes is indeed a worthy idea; however, what emerges is not a recognizable chain of events but rather, something more akin to a late night Pabst-and-pizza-induced dream within a dream. The show features an ensemble cast of seven actors who portray both background parts and a number of characters from the author’s life – from his long dead mother and stern stepfather to his sickly, child-bride.

The story opens with an obsessive, disoriented Poe surrounded by hospital staff; the writer completely unaware that he is a dying man. The scene abruptly changes from a dour death watch into a burlesque affair; the first of many such jumps in Poe’s fevered mind. There were genuine belly-laughs at this sudden shift of gears and a handful more in several succeeding scenes. But there was nervous laughter, too, as the audience never seemed sure of the script or the director’s intent. Was this a comedy? Was it a drama? A fiction? A farce? It’s impossible to say.

Baltimore favorite Bruce Nelson, as the tortured Poe, bursts onto the stage with an abundance of energy but then has nowhere left to go. Any nuance in his complex character is lost in the cartoonish nature of the narrative. To his credit, Nelson maintained his high energy level throughout the show, as if somewhere in his actor’s heart he felt that he was carrying the weight of this production squarely on his shoulders. Nelson was not alone. Most of the cast seemed to struggle mightily to make some sense of this play.

As an ensemble, in the hospital and the parlor scenes, the cast worked reasonably well. It was in the feature roles where one might like to bury a few actors beneath the floorboards.

Libya Pugh, as Valdamar, wasted little time making this viewer’s eyes glaze over. Her turn as Poe’s enigmatic mesmerist was hindered, first by her deadpan delivery, and then by a vague French accent which relied more on Cloris Leachman than on Leslie Caron.

The scene with Valdamar and her ghastly “patient” went on for far too long, ending with what is best described as simply a gooey “boo!”.

Pugh’s Valdamar was followed in Poe’s nightmarish madness by Jimmy Kieffer as Charles Dickens. The appearance on stage of the beloved Brit came as a breath of fresh, familiar air. There was warmth and chemistry between Nelson and Keiffer. It is fair to say the two Dickens/Poe scenes are the high points of the production. Conversely, when Keiffer appeared later in the show as Poe’s stepfather, John Allan, he ineptly opted for a jarring, bombastic approach. It didn’t help that he was dressed like a figure from a steampunk convention.

Naomi Jacobson, as Poe’s mother Eliza, had little to do besides faint in her first scene, then played her second scene more as a scolding bubby than as Poe’s sweet, songstress mother. In real life, Eliza died when she was about twenty-four and Edgar was not yet three. It is hard to believe even a delusional man would imagine his mother as a dictatorial, decaying Carol Kane.

Caroline Kaplan, who spent most of the show as a background player, shrieking and spinning, simpering and sighing, finally took the stage in act two as Poe’s ill-fated child-bride, Virginia Clemm. Kaplan inexplicably turned the delicate Clemm into a psychoneurotic Ophelia. The real Virginia died of consumption at the tender age of twenty-four. Kaplan’s stage-blood-spewing take on the character makes one wish the fragile maiden had died much sooner.




Charlie Thurston, who also appeared in the original production as the young Edgar Poe, had several nice moments batting familiar lines back and forth with his dying doppleganger. Thurston gave a spirited performance, though his bloody final exit came across as just another occurrence of salacious gore. Kenneth Lee, as a sympathetic doctor, and Erick Pinnick as Dr. Moran, are both solid in small simple parts.

There are a number of anachronisms in the play, like a portable Victrola and an antique Underwood typewriter complete with a death certificate and a handy bottle of Wite-Out. For a delusional, time-traveling Poe, these flights of fantasy may be allowed. The typewriter is even explained, but by then it really doesn’t matter. The audience had long accepted the joke and had certainly ascertained that this show needed more then a few clever props to make the playwright’s premise work.

Eugene Lee’s minimalistic set design helps to keep the action moving along, while the lighting of Josh Epstein and the sound design of Zachary Williamson strive to keep pace. David Burdick’s costumes mostly work, save for the unfortunate decision to put Poe’s stepfather, John Allan, into a pair of elevated, Herman Munster shoes. Fault the director here. There are other ways to portray Allan as a towering figure in young Poe’s life, the easiest of which would have been better acting.

The Completely Fictional – Utterly True – Final Strange Tale of Edgar Allan Poe is not great theater but rather a somewhat macabre, mildly amusing, Halloween season production. It is a work in progress and hopefully the director and the cast will tweak what they can to tighten up the show. After that, it is up to the playwright or some future dramaturg to sort things out.

Baltimore Post Examiner Cont.

review



OUTspoken blog (Oct 25, 2012)

Morbid Poe Comes to Life at CENTERSTAGESteve Charing

The very instant the pre-show announcements are completed at the Head Theatre at CENTERSTAGE, a startling bang rings out, the lights black out simultaneously, and the audience is taken on a time machine to Washington College Hospital in Baltimore in 1849. Here, an apparently cold disheveled Edgar Allan Poe mysteriously shows up in a state of delirium. Medical staff cannot determine what he is suffering from, but the prognosis is not good. Despite his protestations, his demise seems certain, and it is.

Stephen Thorne’s play, The Completely Fictional-Utterly True-Final Strange Tale of Edgar Allan Poe, focuses on the famous author, critic and poet’s death. He employs a combination of facts, fiction and conjecture to tell a story that is intense in its subject matter and presentation but also sprinkles just enough comedic lines throughout to keep the audience off-balance.

But in true Poe fashion, there is ample use of blood and gore. The gory scene may be a little bit much for the audience’s tastes, however. I had never attended a play before when there was a collective “eww” in disgust from the audience. But…this IS Poe!

As Thorne himself wrote in the program notes, “Poe’s ability to mix fact and fiction, imagination and science gives his work a kind of documentary feel at times and a disorienting sensation of truth.” Mirroring Poe’s fascination with the macabre in many of his works, this morbid, gothic probe into the character’s psyche explores Poe’s “disorienting sensation of truth” while on his deathbed with denial of his death, how it could be stopped and how it came to be.

Through events and people that come to light (and life) during his hallucinating state, Poe (performed brilliantly by Bruce Randolph Nelson) recalls his association with a mesmerist (played by Libya Pugh) in an attempt to forestall the inevitable but he finds himself on his deathbed at the hospital nonetheless.

Other characters appear during his delirium. Poe interacts with his mother, Eliza (Naomi Jacobson), a British-born actress who died of consumption (tuberculosis) two years after Poe’s birth. He meets up with his foster father, John Allan (Jimmy Kieffer) who, along with his wife, had taken him in shortly after. Allan provided him with material support, but Poe racked up excessive gambling debts which caused an estrangement with the family.

His wife Virginia (Caroline Kaplan) appears. She was Poe’s cousin and he married her when she was 13. Sweet and innocent, Virginia felt the pain of Poe’s marriage and she, too, died of consumption 12 years later.

Poe also engages with his contemporary Charles Dickens (also played by Jimmy Kieffer), a figment of his imagination. Dickens is critical of Poe on several levels, and the exchanges are thought-provoking. Kieffer’s performances throughout the play are stellar.

But Poe’s most dramatic encounter and the one which works best is with his younger self (Charlie Thurston). In heated and passionate exchanges, the older Poe blames the younger on his failures. The younger blames the older on his choices. Virginia and Eliza also confront both Poe’s. This is great theatre performed by gifted actors.

In fact, the entire cast is outstanding under the solid direction of Curt Columbus, who like Thorne, debuted this play at the Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, RI.

Rounding out the cast is the kind doctor administering to Poe in the Hospital played wryly by Kenneth Lee and Dr. Moran, the blunt truth teller, played by Erick Pinnick. They, along with the rest of the cast except for Nelson, are called on to play multiple roles. They portray those various characters superbly.

At play’s end, the kindly doctor is filling out a form on a 19th century typewriter that Poe would have loved to have used. The doctor asks Poe what he should include as the cause of death. We won’t reveal that here, but it could have been any number of possible options though it had to be able to fit in the prescribed place on the form.




Bruce Randolph Nelson plays the title role to the hilt. Every line and gesture, every movement was delivered with gusto and Shakespearean verve. Nelson, who is among Baltimore’s most accomplished and acclaimed actors, had won Helen Hayes awards for his work at Rep Stage (The Violet Hour and The Dazzle) and received Helen Hayes nominations for Irma Vep and Faith Healer. He was also named Best Actor by the City Paper for his work at Everyman Theatre’s Shipwrecked! and The Pavilion.

Poe is presented in the round in the Head Theatre. Scenic Designer Eugene Lee crafted a set that is mostly on a raised platform that is three steps up from the floor in front of the orchestra level. In the center lies the hospital bed which sinks below and disappears when the scene shifts. There is also a runway that connects to the floor below the stage. The outer perimeter of the theater is draped in sheet-like material whereby the shadows of the actors behind them offer a ghoulish feel. The actors use all available space, even a couple of feet in front of the first row.

Veteran Costume Designer David Burdick deserves a standing ovation for his incredibly authentic period attire for all the characters. Fastidious in detail, the wardrobe was museum quality and is a major asset to this production.

Lighting Designer Josh Epstein and Sound Designer Zachary Williamson are also effective in conveying the Poe-like atmosphere.

The 50th anniversary season at CENTERSTAGE is well underway, and Artistic Director Kwame Kwei-Armah was wise to choose this exceptional play that was timed to begin a week before Halloween.

OUTspoken Blog Cont.

review



JHU Newsletter (Nov 1, 2012)

Edgar Allan Poe honored at CENTERSTAGEAafia Syed

Now playing at CENTERSTAGE, The Completely Fictional-Utterly True-Final Strange Tale of Edgar Allan Poe, a two hours and fifteen minutes long extravaganza in which humor turns into morbidity from moment to moment, throws the audience into the mind and madness of Baltimore’s very own renowned poet. It does so by telling the story of his final days in the most unique way possible — through his dreams and nightmares.

Directed by Curt Columbus, the production somehow manages to reach into Poe’s past, as well as into his future — the afterlife — and puts the audience directly in his head, taking them onto a journey with him.

The atmosphere of the theater was perfect, with deep red drapes hanging from every wall and window and chandeliers dangling from the ceiling, draped in shrouds of thin white fabric, which added a ghostly feel to the lighting.

Although fairly simple, all of these things, including the sounds of incomprehensible whispers coming from every direction and shadows roaming behind the various curtains, added to the unexpected eeriness and involved the audience.

The actors portraying doctors and nurses often stood amongst the audience themselves, as opposed to the play existing only upon the stage. At one point, snow fell lightly from above, each snowfall under its own spotlight, looking like rays of sun peeking through dark clouds.

In The Completely Fictional-Utterly True-Final Strange Tale of Edgar Allan Poe, Poe (Bruce Nelson) is essentially running away from the ghost of death, trying to a find a way around this inevitable fate.

In watching him try to flee from death, the audience delves into his life. Along the way, he must face several characters, including his dead mother and his past self.

Although the reality of the play was difficult to grasp, it didn’t matter much, as part of its magic was its delusions and jumps through time.

As indicated by the play’s ironic title, this play took place both as a work of fiction in the poet’s head, as well as in the reality of a hospital, both of which turned out to be equally significant in telling his story.

The moments of truth were made all the more powerful by the way that they were embedded into an otherwise tangled mess of insanity.

The shifts between reality and madness were effective in portraying Poe’s fragile state of mind, one in which he himself was never certain of what was in his head and what was outside of it.

Nelson did a phenomenal job as Poe, as did Charlie Thursten, who played Poe’s younger counter-part.

Both mirrored one another brilliantly, making it truly believable that they were essentially the same character, only in a different time and at a different stage in life. Their very demeanor was identical, along with the passion with which they spoke, even when their opinions differed.

Poe’s confrontations with the past were the most interesting and attention-grabbing scenes in the play: His arguments with his former self — in a way, with his own self — served as introspection for him by allowing him to realize where he had gone wrong and remember people he had hurt.

Poe’s wife, Virginia (Caroline Kaplan), dressed in a haunting way that breathed both nostalgia and regret. As a former beauty that had decayed with the passage of time, Virginia plays a very significant role in Poe’s life and in the show.




The way each Poe interacts with her gives insight into how Poe has grown by the end of his life and how he has not. Emotions are high during this final scene, and the audience clings onto every word uttered on stage. For a play in which the end is known by all from the beginning, the show succeeds in creating suspense that hangs by a thread, just like the fragile-looking chandeliers floating up above.

Valdemar (Libya Pugh) was the only actress who wasn’t up to par. Her manner of walking and talking felt unbefitting to her character, and her French accent was not quite adequate. In a fashion very similar to the film Midnight in Paris, Poe encounters another literary figure — Charles Dickens (Jimmy Kieffer) — during this play and interacts with him in a comical fashion, giving us someone almost equally complex to compare and contrast him with.

“I thought the play was both informative of Poe’s life both in content and its morbid visual aesthetic. The play’s real treat is in its use of special effects to add more than a touch of Gothic sentiment to some of the biggest tragedies in Poe’s life,” sophomore Ian McMurray said.

Overall, The Completely Fictional-Utterly True-Final Strange Tale of Edgar Allan Poe is an extremely mind-bending and haunting experience, but surprisingly not too far from the truth for a work of fiction. Poe’s final days turned out to be incredibly thought provoking for the audience, and Nelson’s acting was absolutely phenomenal, leaving the audience feeling as though they knew Poe personally during his final days.

The curtain doesn’t close once Poe has died. There is still more to see and hear after death has conquered him. There is even more still for the audience to consider and discuss once they’ve left the theater — the significance of leaving behind a legacy in life and the ways in which one can keep themselves alive in the living world even after they have been torn away from it.

JHU Newsletter Cont.

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