We first produced Embodying Poe in 2011. For 2015, we’ve re-imagined it.
Working in collaboration with the original composer, Doug Fraser, who also worked on last year’s hit, Song of Myself, The Whitman Project–the second show in our Fringe repertory, and visual artist, Marcus Oliver–that’s right, he’s my brother–we have developed an Embodying Poe that focuses on the demon-presence that squiggles at the heart of much of Poe’s poetic force.
That demon-presence and Poe’s salvation from it lies at the heart of Embodying Poe.
And we’ve focused much more on giving the piece an interdisciplinary aesthetic, with Doug’s music and Marc’s visuals allowed to interact directly with the audience without me or the text interfering.
And it’s been a joy.
Doug’s music ripples with energy and emotion, and Marc’s “demons” are a powerful fusion of thought and feeling: some, given a chance, literally seep into your imagination.
Together, we’re hoping that their interaction with each of the Poe pieces provides a provocation to imagine the quest that Poe is on, and that the piece’s narrator is taking: a journey into the darkness of the soul that ends with a journey into the utter expanses of the universe, which is Eureka, Embodying Poe’s final piece.
Embodying Poe has three performances at Dance Place’s Hyman M. Perlo Studio, 3225 8th St NE Washington, DC. located in Northeast’s newly developed Monroe Street Market, within two blocks of the Brookland / Catholic University Red Line Metro Stop at 3225 8th St NE Washington, DC. There is also plenty of on-street parking near the theatre.
Sunday, July 12, at 2:30 p.m
Saturday, July 18, 7:15 p.m.
Sunday, July 26, at 1:45 p.m.