An Evening with Edgar Allan Poe
By Robert Mason
October 26 - 29, 2017
Main Parlor, William Peace University
15 E. Peace St., Raleigh
William Peace Theatre delves into the dark imagination of one of America’s foremost authors in An Evening with Edgar Allan Poe, October 26 - 29 in the parlor of William Peace University’s Main Building. This anthology work explores six of Poe’s short stories, a collection of terrifying and mysterious tales dealing with madness, murder, and mayhem.
This production features several of the author’s most recognizable titles: “The Fall of the House of Usher,” “The Cask of Amontillado,” and “The Tell-Tale Heart.” It also gives audiences a chance to experience works they may not have encountered: “The Purloined Letter,” “The System of Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether,” and “The Oblong Box.” These twisted tales tend to contain bizarre murders and often allow Poe to blur the lines between the sound mind and insanity.
Audiences are invited to experience the brilliant and disturbing imagination of Edgar Allan Poe in the mid-nineteenth century parlor of Peace’s Main Building just in time for Halloween.
Dr. Wade Newhouse, director of this production, earned his Ph.D in English at Boston University. At William Peace University he teaches such courses as Composition, Children’s Literature, Southern Literature, Storytelling for Simulation, Critical Approaches to Film, and The Gothic: Ghosts and Vampires. He has published articles and book chapters on a wide variety of authors, including Sir Walter Scott, Ambrose Bierce, William Faulkner, and Neil Gaiman. He is a member of Raleigh’s Village Idiots and has performed with that improvisational comedy troupe for over ten years. As an actor, Dr. Newhouse has often appeared on the Peace stage, playing such roles as Nick Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Herr Schultz in Cabaret, the Narrator/Mysterious Man in Into the Woods, and the Chairman in The Mystery of Edwin Drood. He also appeared as Macbeth in Bare Theatre’s Macbeth, Sidney Bruhl in Forest Moon Theater’s Deathtrap, Vincent/Theo in Peaceabilities Production’s Vincent, Laertes in Honest Pint Theatre’s Hamlet, and, most recently, Kent in Honest Pint’s King Lear. He co-directed William Peace Theatre’s 2014 production of Much Ado About Nothing and directed Twelfth Night (2016) and Noises Off (2017). He currently serves as the Interim Program Director for Peace’s Theatre and Musical Theatre programs.