North Coast Repertory Theatre Presents NEVERMORE: An Evening With Edgar Allan Poe February 23rd & 24th at 7:30 PM.
Celebrate the bicentennial of Edgar Allan Poe's birth with Jeffrey Combs the star of Re-Animator, From Beyond, and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine & Enterprise. Set in 1848, Nevermore is loosely based on real events and follows Poe on a cross-country speaking tour fraught with strange occurrences that signal Poe's descent into madness
Notes from the Director, Stuart Gordon:
NEVERMORE is our attempt to recreate the public recitals that Edgar Allan Poe presented during the last few years of his much-too-short life.
Set in 1848, a year after the death of his beloved wife Virginia (and a year before his own), Poe had become internationally famous as the author of "The Raven" and his "Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque". But his fame did not provide fortune and so he was constantly seeking financial security and respect from the literary establishment. As a Southerner by breeding, raised in Virginia, he was looked down upon by the New England based writers of the time, which included Ralph Waldo Emmerson,
Washington Irving and Edgar's arch-nemesis
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
This is Poe in his own words. Our text is taken from his letters and essays and we have based our evening on reviews and reports of his actual appearances. Our goal is to present a sense of the fascinating man behind the poetry and brilliant tales, a man who could be his own worst enemy, and whose life was even more bizarre and tragic than his strangest story.
Jeffrey Combs (
Edgar Allan Poe) has appeared in over 75 stage productions during his long and successful career. He has performed at numerous theatres including
The Old Globe, the
Mark Taper Forum,
South Coast Repertory, Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts and the
Arizona Theatre Company.
He has starred in over 50 films and is perhaps best known for his portrayal of Her
Bert West in the cult classic RE-ANIMATOR. He also starred in FROM BEYOND, LOVE & A .45, the recent remake of HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL and
Peter Jackson's THE FRIGHTENERS among many others.
Over the span of his career, Jeffrey has also guest starred on many TV series including THE 4400, COLD CASE, and CSI. He appeared in almost 50 episodes as three different recurring roles within the STAR TREK franchise. He has also portrayed Poe on film in
Stuart Gordon's THE BLACK CAT, a highly acclaimed episode of Showtime's MASTERS OF HORROR series, which inspired this production.
He dedicates his performance to the memory of the life of his brother Gary, who will always be his hero.
Stuart Gordon (Director) is happy to be working again with his good friends Dennis Paoli and Jeffrey Combs. He and Dennis have been causing trouble since they met in high school almost fifty years ago and started a comedy group called The Human Race. And Jeffrey has been Stuart's favorite leading man since they first joined forces on the cult film RE-ANIMATOR almost twenty-five years ago. In 1969 Gordon and his wife Carolyn founded Chicago's Organic Theater Company, where as artistic director he produced and directed over 35 original plays. These included the science fiction trilogy WARP which was performed on Broadway, the world premiere of
David Mamet's SEXUAL PERVERSITY IN CHICAGO, and POE his first exploration of the life and works of this tormented writer.
Stuart is also known for his film adaptations of the works of H. P. Lovecraft which include FROM BEYOND and DAGON, as a co-creator of Disney's HONEY, I SHRUNK THE KIDS and as the director of EDMOND the film adaptation of
David Mamet's play.
Dennis Paoli (Playwright) has written screenplays and plays, many of them adaptations of the works of H. P. Lovecraft and
Edgar Allan Poe (Re-Animator, The Pit and the Pendulum) many of them collaborations with many other writers (Bleacher Bums, Bodysnatchers), most of those with
Stuart Gordon (Dreams in the Witch-house, The Black Cat, From Beyond). He teaches Gothic fiction (among other literature) and academic writing at Hunter College in New York City, and is Director of The Heidi Paoli Fund, to support cancer patients.
About the North Coast Repertory Theatre: North Coast Repertory Theatre is a professional equity theatre founded in 1982. For over 28 years, North Coast Rep has received critical acclaim from media and audiences alike. With the fifth largest operating budget of non profit theatres and employing the third most
Actors' Equity Association members (the union of professional actors and stage managers) in San Diego, North Coast Rep continues to produce high quality, award winning theatre and has evolved into one of the area's leading performing arts organizations. Located in Solana Beach, California, NCR not only draws its audience from the North County region but 50% of its audience base resides in metro San Diego and throughout Southern California. Recognized for the quality of its work and its commitment to quality, this season will be performed on the Blakistone Stage, newly dedicated to North Coast Rep founders Olive Blakistone and her recently departed husband Tom, who passed away in March of 2009.
Tickets for NEVERMORE are $25- $30 and are available onlyat North Coast Repertory Theatre in Solana Beach at 987 Lomas Santa Fe Drive, Suite D, 92075. For ticket information or reservations call (858)-481-1055 or visit www.northcoastrep.org. Box Office hours are Noon to 4:00 PM daily and Noon to 6:00 PM day of shows.
