The Completely Fictional—Utterly True—Final Strange Tale of Edgar Allan Poe

October 17–November 25

The Completely Fictional—Utterly True—Final Strange Tale of Edgar Allan Poe
By Stephen Thorne
Directed by Curt Columbus

Hometown favorite Bruce Nelson stars in this tale of the morbid life and mysterious final days of Baltimore’s treasured emblem of oddness, E.A. Poe. By turns a madcap vaudeville and a touching examination of artistic aspiration, this new script playfully and poignantly adds up the sum of a life lived.

Digital Dramaturgy

Cast

Bruce Randolph Nelson*
Edgar Allan Poe

Charlie Thurston*
Young Edgar/Others

Jimmy Kieffer*
Dickens/John Allan

Naomi Jacobson*
Eliza/Others

Erick Pinnick*
Moran/Others

Kenneth Lee*
Kindly Doctor/Others

Libya Pugh*
Valdemar/Others

Caroline Kaplan*
Virginia/Others

Baltimore Center Stage: Amadeus,Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, Animal Crackers, Edgar Allan Poe, Galileo, Arms and the Man. Tour—National Players. Regional—Rep Stage: The Goat, Hysteria, The Violet Hour (Helen Hayes Award), The Dazzle (Helen Hayes Award), Irma Vep (Helen Hayes nom), Faith Healer (Helen Hayes nom); Everyman Theatre: Company Member, The Dresser, Red, You Can’t Take It with You, Private Lives, Shipwrecked! (Best Actor City Paper), I Am My Own Wife, The Pavilion (Best Actor City Paper); Folger Theatre: The Comedy of Errors, She Stoops to Conquer; Olney Theatre Center: Farragut North, The Underpants; Woolly Mammoth Theatre: Company Member, Dead Man’s Cell Phone (Dwight, Originated Role), Fuddy Meers (Helen Hayes nom); The Shakespeare Theatre: The Taming of the Shrew; Signature Theatre: Never the Sinner. Education—Towson University. Professional—Instructor at Howard Community College, Everyman Theatre, Stevenson University; Facilitation at McCormick Spice, Johns Hopkins University.

Baltimore Center Stage: Edgar Allan Poe. New York—Cherry Lane: Pictures and Dreams; Columbia Stages: Moon for the Misbegotten. Regional—Trinity Rep: The Completely Fictional […] Tale of Edgar Allan Poe (World Premiere); Chautauqua Theater Company: Three Sisters, Love’s Labour’s Lost, You Can’t Take It with You, Macbeth, Carve; Breadloaf Acting Ensemble: Hamlet; Creede Repertory Company: To Fool the Eye, A Wonderful Noise, Swiss Family Robinson, Urinetown, Sweeney Todd, Crazy For You, Drood, Fools, Life is a Dream; Riverside: Big Love, Prosperity, Long Christmas Ride Home. Education— MFA Brown/Trinity Rep. For Becky.

Baltimore Center Stage: Edgar Allan Poe, The Rivals. Regional — Shakespeare Theatre Co: Merry Wives of Windsor; Playmakers Repertory: Big River, As You Like It, Opus, All My Sons, Pride and Prejudice, Nicholas Nickleby Parts 1 & 2, Shipwrecked!, The Importance of Being Earnest, The Little Prince, Pericles; Chautauqua Theater: Amadeus, Macbeth; Alliance Theatre: A Christmas Carol, Livin’ in the Garden, To Kill a Mockingbird, Twelfth Night. Other credits—99 Ways to F@#k a Swan, The Flu Season, Autobahn. Film/TV—Criminal Minds, A Place Apart, A Reason to Believe. Education—MFA, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Awards—Independent Weekly Best Supporting Performances 2010.

Baltimore Center Stage: Edgar Allan Poe. New York—Atlantic Theatre: Scenes From An Execution (Galactia). Regional—Arena Stage: A View from the Bridge (Beatrice); The Goodman: Mary Zimmerman’s Pericles (Bawd/Lychorida); Shakespeare Theatre Company: Richard ll (Duchess of York, Helen Hayes Award), Julius Caesar (Calpurnia); Woolly Mammoth Theatre: 20 year Company Member, Dead Man’s Cell Phone (Hermia, premiere), The Unmentionables (Nancy); Signature Theatre: God Of Carnage (Veronica); Arizona Theatre Company: Ten Chimneys (Louise, premiere); Folger Theatre: The Winter’s Tale (Paulina), Henry VIII (Katherine); Wolf Trap Opera: The Inspector (The Inspector, premiere); Ford’s Theatre: State Of The Union (Norah/Grace Draper); Kennedy Center; Berkshire Theatre Festival; Milwaukee Rep; Round House Theatre, Olney Theatre Center; Delaware Theatre Company. Film/TV—I Fall To Pieces, Her Father’s Eyes, Homicide: Life on the Street. Awards—2009 Lunt Fontanne Fellowship through Arena Stage (with Lynn Redgrave), 2 Helen Hayes Awards, 12 Helen Hayes nominations, DC Arts Commission Individual Artist Grant.

Baltimore Center Stage: Edgar Allan Poe, Once on This Island. Broadway—A Christmas Carol (Mr. Smythe, w/ Frank Langella). Off Broadway—The Tin Pan Alley Rag (Walter Payton). Touring—Sunset Boulevard (John, w/ Petula Clark), Jesus Christ Superstar (Pilate). Regional—Theater Raleigh: RACE (Henry); Florida Studio Theatre: The 25^th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Mitch); Prince Theater: Dreamgirls (Curtis); Pioneer Theatre: Paint Your Wagon (Ulyssess Wilson), Five Guys Named Moe (No Moe); Trinity Repertory Company: Annie (Bert Healy); Ritz Theatre: Kiss of the Spiderwoman (Valentin); Papermill Playhouse: Baby (Dean Webber, u/s Nick), Follies (Ensemble, cast recording); Westchester Broadway Theatre: Smokey Joe’s Café (Adrian); Gorilla Theatre: Side Show (Jake); Hangar Theatre: The Wiz (Tinman); Open Stages: Yellowman (Eugene); Actors Theatre of Louisville: Once on This Island (Daniel); Goodspeed Opera House: Swinging on a Star (Standby); Education—James Madison University.

Baltimore Center Stage: Edgar Allan Poe, Snow Falling on Cedars. Off Broadway—The Pearl: Hamlet; Mabou Mines: Li, The Last King; Ma-Yi Theatre: The Suitcase Trilogy. International— Singapore Repertory Theatre: Death of a Salesman, The Cherry Orchard. Regional—Arena Stage: M. Butterfly; Shakespeare Theatre: Henry IV Parts 1 & 2, Hamlet; NJ Shakespeare Fest: Pericles; People’s Light & Theatre: Trying to Find Chinatown, How We Talk in South Boston; Arkansas Rep: Hamlet; Magic Theatre: Leonce and Lena, Woyceck, The Beaux’ Stratagem; American Players’ Theatre: Two Gentlemen of Verona, Hamlet, The Tempest. Film/TV—Delocated, Deception, Children of Invention (Sundance), Across the Universe, L&O: CI, One Life to Live, Love & Adventure in NY. Education—BFA, NYU Tisch School of the Arts (Cinema, Theatre, English); Public Theatre Shakespeare Lab; MFA, American Conservatory Theater. Professional—Director: Colored Exposures (La MaMa). Gratitude to friends & family for their incredible support; and to Center Stage for the opportunity.www.ikennethlee.com

Baltimore Center Stage: Edgar Allan Poe, The Rivals; Caroline, or Change. Off Broadway/Tour—New Victory: The Bluest Eye (Claudia); Classical Theatre of Harlem: Romeo and Juliet (Lady Capulet, NY, FL, NC, PA), Ain’t Suppose to Die a Natural Death (Scavenger Lady). Off Off Broadway—Lookingglass: Odyssey. Regional—Baltimore Shakespeare Festival: Hamlet (Gertrude); Peterborough Players: Doubt (Mrs. Muller); Shakespeare on the Sound: Julius Caesar (Portia); Goodman: Dreams of Sara Breedlove (dir. Regina Taylor); Steppenwolf: The Bluest Eye, Wedding Band (Julia); Congo Square: From the Mississippi Delta, The Piano Lesson (Berniece); Chicago Shakespeare: Macbeth; Milwaukee Rep: A Christmas Carol; Milwaukee Shakespeare: As You Like It (Rosalind); First Stage Milwaukee: Smoldering Fires; St. Louis Black Rep: Train Is Comin’. Film/TV—Platinum Wings (TV Pilot), Law & Order: SVU, One Life To Live, Jack’s Big Music Show. Education—UIUC (MFA). Professional—Co-founding Ensemble Member of Congo Square. Teaching Artist—Harlem School of The Arts.

Creative Team

Curt Columbus
Director

Eugene Lee
Set Designer

David Burdick
Costume Designer

Josh Epstein
Lighting Designer

Zachary Williamson
Sound Designer

Gavin Witt
Dramaturg

Sharon Jenkins
Choreographer

Nancy Krebs
Speech Consultant

Stephanie Klapper
Casting Director

Laura Smith*
Stage Manager

Baltimore Center Stage: Edgar Allan Poe. Joined Trinity Rep as Artistic Director in January 2006. His directing credits for Trinity include His Girl Friday, The Merchant of Venice, Camelot, Cabaret, The Odd Couple, The Secret Rapture, The Receptionist, A Christmas Carol, Memory House, Blithe Spirit, Cherry Orchard, and the world premiere of Stephen Thorne’s ...Poe. Three of his plays—Paris by Night, The Dreams of Antigone, and Sparrow Grass—premiered at Trinity. His adaptation of Crime and Punishment (with Marilyn Campbell) is published by Dramatists’ Play Service. Curt’s translations of Chekhov’s plays are published by Ivan R. Dee, including a collection, Chekhov: The Four Major Plays. Sparrow Grass is being published by DPS. Curt lives in Pawtucket with his partner, Nathan Watson.

Baltimore Center Stage: Edgar Allan Poe. Broadway—Wicked, Glengarry Glen Ross. Off Broadway—Signature: Heartless; Westside Theatre: My Name Is Asher Lev; MCC: The Other Place. Regional—Hartford Stage: Hedda Gabler; Long Wharf: My Name Is Asher Lev; Arena Stage: The Music Man; Trinity Rep: His Girl Friday, Clybourne Park. Film/TV—Production designer for NBC’s Saturday Night Live (1974-Present). Education—BFA, The Art Institute of Chicago and Carnegie Mellon; MFA, The Yale School of Drama; three honorary doctorates. Awards—Tony Award, American Theatre Wing’s Design Award, Outer Critics’ Circle Award, Drama Desk Award, Lucille Lortel Award, Elliot Norton Award for Sustained Achievement, the Pell Award, and was recently induced into the New York Theatre Hall of Fame. He lives with his wife, Brooke, in Providence. Professional—Resident scenic designer at Trinity Rep.

Baltimore Center Stage: Lookingglass Alice, Next to Normal; Amadeus; Twelfth Night; dance of the holy ghosts; Animal Crackers; …Edgar Allan Poe; The Mountaintop; An Enemy of the People; The Whipping Man; A Skull in Connemara; The Rivals; Snow Falling on Cedars; Working it Out; Cyrano; Caroline, or Change; Hearts; Things of Dry Hours; Crumbs from the Table of Joy; Elmina’s Kitchen; Picnic; a.m. Sunday; The Rainmaker; Blithe Spirit; and many others. Regional—Everyman Theatre: Sweat, Dancing at Lughnasa, Intimate Apparel, Long Day’s Journey into Night, The Revolutionists, The Book of Joseph, Dot, Los Ostros, An Inspector Calls, Death of a Salesman, A Streetcar Named Desire, Ruined, Ghosts, Blithe Spirit; Walnut Street/Totem Pole: The Last Night of Ballyhoo, Moon Over Buffalo. Opera—Cincinnati: Don Giovanni; Boston Lyric: I Puritani; Tulsa: Tosca, The Barber of Seville, Carmen, Fidelio. Dance—BAM: FLY: Five First Ladies of Dance; Dayton Contemporary Dance: Lyric Fire (world premiere, dir/choreographer Dianne McIntyre). Other—Baltimore Symphony Orchestra: Holiday Spectacular.

Baltimore Center Stage: As You Like It, Twelfth Night, …Edgar Allan Poe. Regional—Kansas City Rep, Arena Stage: Indecent; The Guthrie, Mark Taper Forum, Goodman Theater, Geffen Playhouse, Kirk Douglas Theatre, Pasadena Playhouse, Trinity Repertory, Long Wharf, Alliance, South Coast Repertory, Geva Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, PlayMakers Repertory, Cincinnati Playhouse, Paper Mill Playhouse. Education—MFA: NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Awards—LA Ovation Award, Knight of Illumination nom., recipient of the NEA/TCG Career Development Program for Designers. Professional/Other—Josh is also a lecturer at the UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television. He serves on the O’Neill Playwrights Conference Artistic Council and currently lives in Los Angeles with his wife and three daughters. joshepsteindesign.com.

Baltimore Center Stage— Animal Crackers, …Edgar Allan Poe, Into the Woods, ReEntry. Broadway (Associate)— Lysistrata Jones; Roundabout: The Ritz, Pal Joey. Off Broadway— Irish Rep: New Girl In Town, Molly Sweeney, White Woman Street, Candida, The Hairy Ape, and others; Second Stage: Vanities; Urban Stages: ReEntry. Regional—Kansas City Rep: Pippin, Cabaret; Clarence Brown: Amadeus; 5^th Avenue Theatre: Hairspray, On the Town; Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat; Dallas Theater Center: Fly By Night, Give It Up!; Two River Theater: Carry It On, Jacques Brel is Alive and Well, 26 Miles, ReEntry, and others; Long Wharf; Westport Country Playhouse; Pasadena Playhouse; Round House Theatre; Virginia Stage; Asolo; Actors Theater of Louisville; St. Louis Rep; Vermont Stage; Syracuse Stage. Currently, he is the associate designer for Wicked, maintaing the Broadway and national touring productions.

Director of Dramaturgy and Associate Director Gavin Witt came to Baltimore Center Stage in 2003, after nearly 15 years in Chicago as an actor, director, dramaturg, translator, and teacher—and co-founder of the classically based greasy joan & co theater. Among his translations and adaptations are a half-dozen Shakespeare plays, including a Jeff-nominated version of Pericles and the BCS production of As You Like It; Jeff-nominated translations of Beaumarchais’ The Barber of Seville and Ionesco’s Macbett; and the BCS adaptation of The Voysey Inheritance. A graduate of Yale and the University of Chicago, he is currently on the Humanities faculty at Peabody Conservatory, having previously taught at the University of Chicago, DePaul, and Towson; has served on the advisory boards of several theaters; and spent more than a decade as a regional vice president of LMDA, the national association of dramaturgs, before recently joining its board.

Baltimore Center Stage: Edgar Allan Poe. Ms. Jenkins has been a choreographer and director at Trinity Rep for over 40 years, where she has worked with Artistic Directors Adrian Hall, Richard Jenkins, Amanda Dehnert, Oskar Eustis, and Curt Columbus. Ms. Jenkins spent 20 years as the dance director at Hope Arts Magnet School in Providence, RI, 15 years as a dance specialist with the RI State Council on the Arts, 10 years as a dancer with RI Dance Rep, and 10 years as a choreographer for the Arabella Project. In addition to her work at Trinity Rep, Ms. Jenkins has choreographed at Long Wharf Theatre, Arena Stage, and Hartford Stage. She was choreographer for Paramount Pictures feature School Ties, and is married to Academy Award-nominated actor Richard Jenkins.

Baltimore Center Stage: Edgar Allan Poe. Regional—Studio Theatre: The Habit of Art (American Premiere), The Enda Walsh Festival: The Walworth Farce & The New Electric Ballroom; Rep Stage: The Temperamentals, Yellowman, Or, Barrymore, Two by Barrie; Olney Theatre Center: Witness for the Prosecution, Charlie’s Aunt, Blithe Spirit, Carousel, Lend Me a Tenor, Morning’s at Seven, Oliver!, Doubt, Of Mice and Men; The Theatre Alliance: The WomanWho Amuses Herself; Everyman Theatre: The Crucible, Red Herring, My Children! My Africa!, Blues for an Alabama Sky, Watch on the Rhine, Cripple of Inishmaan, Candida, Betrayal, Sight Unseen, Turn of the Screw, I Am My Own Wife; Bay Theatre: Master Harold and the Boys, The Norman Conquests. Professional—Voice Instructor in the Theatre Department of the Baltimore School for the Arts and member of AFTRA, AEA, and SAG. Nancy is thrilled to be a part of this production.

Baltimore Center Stage: That Face, The White Snake, The Secret Garden, Herzog Festival (4000 Miles and After the Revolution), It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play, Next to Normal, Vanya and Sonia…, Stones in His Pockets, dance of the holy ghosts, …Poe, The Whipping Man, A Skull in Connemara. Selected credits include: Broadway—Bronx Bombers; A Christmas Story, The Musical; Dividing the Estate; Bells Are Ringing; It Ain’t Nothin’ But the Blues. Off Broadway—Daniel’s Husband; That Golden Girls Show!; Fade; Exit Strategy; The Roads to Home; Informed Consent; The Winter’s Tale; The Glass Menagerie; Billy Porter’s While I Yet Live; The Model Apartment; Emotional Creature; Karen O’s Stop the Virgens!. Regional—Many theaters including: Asolo, Canadian Stage Company; Cincinnati Playhouse, Capital Rep, Ford’s Theatre, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival; Kansas City Rep, Milwaukee Rep, Berkeley Rep, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Oregon Shakespeare Company, Old Globe Theatre, Actor’s Theatre of Louisville. Film/TV—Another Dance With Death; Poor Behavior; Stag; Alice Jacobs is Dead, Roberta, Feast of the Goat; Sidewalk Stories. TV—Lazytown. Member—Casting Society of America and League of Professional Theatre Women.

Baltimore Center Stage: Detroit ’67, As You Like It; 4000 Miles; After the Revolution; It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play; Amadeus; Wild with Happy; Twelfth Night; Stones in His Pockets; dance of the holy ghosts; Clybourne Park; Beneatha’s Place; The Mountaintop; Bus Stop; An Enemy of the People; The Whipping Man; Gleam; The Rivals; Snow Falling on Cedars; Cyrano; Working it Out; Fabulation or, The Re-Education of Undine; Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; Joe Turner’s Come and Gone. Regional—Shakespeare Theater Company: Salome; Contemporary American Theater Festival: World Builders; Everyman: Pygmalion, Shipwrecked, The Exonerated, Rabbit Hole, Doubt, Gem of the Ocean, And a Nightingale Sang, The School for Scandal, A Number, Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me, Yellowman; Woolly Mammoth: Gruesome Playground Injuries, House of Gold, The Unmentionables, Vigils, After Ashley; Folger: Measure for Measure, Olney Theatre: Stuff Happens; Theater Alliance: Headsman’s Holiday, Pangea.

*Member of Actors’ Equity Association

In the Press

For all other press related information please go to our Press Room

Reviews

“Nevermore a performance so genius and so brilliant as Bruce Nelson in this role.”— DC Metro Theatre Arts

“A shivery delight.”— DC Theatre Scene

“A daring...well crafted piece.”— MD Theatre Guide

“Stunningly directed by Curt Columbus.”— WYPR

In the News

10.19.12: The Baltimore Sun—10 Awkward Questions with Bruce Nelson
10.27.12: MD Theatre Guide—‘The Completely Fictional—Utterly True—Final Strange Tale of Edgar Allan Poe’

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