[NEohioPAL] KentPoe

Tue Sep 30 18:40:38 PDT 2008


The Largely Literary Theater Company's The Tell-Tale Play

A Two-act Collection of Poems and Stories by Edgar Allan Poe

Returns to the Kent Stage for Benefit Performances

	The Largely Literary Theater Company's The Tell-Tale Play, an acclaimed two-act collection of poems and stories by Edgar Allan Poe, returns to the Kent Stage for two performances, at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Oct. 17 and 18. The shows will be staged as benefits for the historic downtown Kent theater.
	"This is not only an ideal way to celebrate the Halloween season and Poe, whose 200th birthday is in January, it's also a chance to support this fabulous Kent landmark,'' said Mark Dawidziak, artistic director and co-founder of the Largely Literary Theater Company.
Designed for high school students and older, the play features three popular area actors - Tom Stephan, Sara Showman and Alex J. Nine. They interpret Poe's works, telling the audience along the way about the writer's short but eventful life and career.
Tickets are $10 general admission, $8 for seniors and stduents. For reservations, call 330-677-5005 or go to www.kentstage.org. The Kent Stage is located at 175 East Main Street.
Perhaps best known for its acclaimed three-person version of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, the Largely Literary Theater Company specializes in faithful adaptations of great literary works. Its dual mission is to promote interest in literature and live theater.
	Three of Poe's classic short stories are presented in The Tell-Tale Play: "The Tell-Tale Heart," "The Cask of Amontillado" and "The Masque of the Red Death." Also included are three of his major poems: "The Raven," "Annabel Lee" and "The Bells." Other poems in the play are "Alone," "Eldorado," "Dreamland" and "Spirits of the Dead."
	The set for the Largely Literary Theater Company production is relatively simple. The lights go up on three lecterns - one covered in rich velvety material - arranged before a succession of black curtains.
There are three chairs set behind the lecterns, with assorted pillars, candelabra and gothic set pieces establishing the mood. The three actors enter, dressed in period costumes, acknowledge each other, open their scripts, then Showman steps forward, stopping down stage and center, to welcome the audience.
Before the first offering, Stephan's interpretation of "The Tell-Tale Heart," the three actors take a moment or two to tell the audience about "Poe's brief, brilliant and tortured life." Born in Boston on January 19, 1809, Poe "spent only 40 years on this planet," yet he "found the time to create the detective story and write a couple dozen of the most influential horror stories ever put to paper."
The popular image of Poe is that of a doomed genius, and the stereotype, we learn, certainly has its roots in reality. But the collected works of Poe span seventeen volumes and include not only poems, terror tales and mystery stories, but satire, essays, literary criticism and comic pieces.
	The Tell-Tale Play, however, celebrates Poe as the master of the macabre, making it a wonderfully tricky Halloween theater treat.
	
	The Largely Literary Theater Company was founded by Dawidziak and Showman in late 2001. In addition to A Christmas Carol) and The Tell-Tale Play, the company offers shows based on the works of such authors as Mark Twain and Robert Louis Stevenson..
	Dawidziak, the company's artistic director, is the TV critic at the Cleveland Plain Dealer. His 11th book, The Bedside, Bathtub & Armchair Companion to Dracula, was just published. His previous books include a novel, Grave Secrets, and such non-fiction works as Mark My Words: Mark Twain on Writing, The Columbo Phile: A Casebook, The Barter Theatre Story: Love Made Visible, The Night Stalker Companion and Horton Foote's The Shape of the River: The Lost Teleplay About Mark Twain.
	For bookings, contact Dawidziak and Showman at the Largely Literary Theater Company: 330-923-8350 or at hlgrouch at sbcglobal.net 

COMPANY BIOS for The Tell-Tale Play

	Alex J. Nine has acted or directed at most of the theaters in the greater Akron area. An Akron native, he is a Kenmore High School and University of Akron graduate. Some of his favorite roles are Freddie in Noises Off at Hudson Players, Brick in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at Weathervane Playhouse and Hamlet at Coach House Theatre (for which he won his first of four Royal Coach Awards). Other notable roles include include Oberon, Lysander and Demetrius in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Master Ford in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Leonard Vole in Witness for the Prosecution, William Blore in Ten Little Indians, John Proctor in The Crucible, Shep Henderson in Bell, Book and Candle, Joe Pendleton in Heaven Can Wait and Willum Cubbert in The Nerd. He directed Neil Simon's Broadway Bound at Coach House, where he has appeared in eleven shows, including Chapter Two, Crimes of the Heart, 6 Rms Riv Vu, Private Lives and The Real Thing. He is currently a member of the Stow Players' Production Committee and he directed another Neil Simon comedy, The Sunshine Boys, at Stow this year. For four years, he was a member of the Board of Trustees for Tree City Players in Kent, serving as vice president for three of those years. During those years, he directed seven shows for the company, ranging from Shakespeare's Love's Labours Lost to William
Saroyan's Hello, Out There! and Eileen Moushey's My Fatal Valentine. His directing credits also include The Odd Couple and The Foreigner at North Canton Playhouse and Communicating Doors at Hudson Players.

	Sara Showman has appeared in many productions in Ohio since moving to the Akron area in 1983. She has worked with professional companies, as well as college, children's and community theaters. She has appeared at Kent State, Weathervane, Coach House Theatre, the Beck Center for the Performing Arts, the Canton Players Guild, Porthouse Theatre Company, the Working Theater and Actors Summit Theater. An Equity membership candidate, she earned a bachelor of fine arts degree in acting and directing from Kent State University. Favorite roles include Bella in Lost in Yonkers, Melissa in Love Letters, Clara in I'm Not Rappaport and Shirley in Shirley Valentine. She also has appeared in four Shakespeare productions at Stan Hywet. Before moving to Ohio, she appeared in several productions for theater companies in her native Tennessee, including Another Part of the Forest, A Little Night Music, A Streetcar Named Desire, Ten Little Indians and Inherit the Wind. She is the co-founder and managing director of the Largely Literary Theater Company, playing 15 roles in A Christmas Carol and developing storytelling programs for all ages. 
  
	Tom Stephan combined his acting avocation with his vocational pursuits for 31 years before he retired from English and drama teaching at Stow-Munroe Falls High School. He was recognized as a "child star" at the age of seven when he first appeared onstage in Canton, Ohio, but it was actually at the age of 21 when he began teaching school that the drama bug bit once more. He started with a supporting role in a Stow Players production, and has now been seen in over 70 major productions in the greater Akron-Canton area, including the Weathervane Playhouse, Coach House Theater, Goodyear Theater, the old Bath Players, and the Players Guild of Canton. He has won three Best Actor and one Best Supporting Actor Awards from the Weathervane Playhouse, and was honored by the State Department of Education for implementation of a middle school program called "Drama in the Classroom." For 15 years he has either succumbed as murder victim or triumphed as scoundrel in numerous "Mysteries by Moushey," audience interactive murder mysteries, in the Akron/Cleveland/Canton area. Several years ago he branched out into radio and TV , serving as spokesman and voice-over talent for commercial and industrial work. As a retired teacher, he intends to pursue acting, voice work, radio-TV, commercial work, and all other performance ventures that look both interesting and lucrative. He played Ebenezer Scrooge for six consecutive years in the Largely Literary Theater Company's three-person adaptation of A Christmas Carol.  

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