What do you get when you mix Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” with America’s favorite 19th century horror and suspense writer, Edgar Allan Poe? “A Christmas Carol for Edgar Allan Poe,” of course!
That’s the premise of the brand-new script that will be presented by The National Edgar Allan Poe Theatre as a staged reading on Dec. 21 and 22 at the Fells Point Corner Theatre. This is in preparation for a fully produced version of the show around Christmastime of 2025.
The script for this production uses the framework of Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” to tell the story of Poe’s life through the time until his wife, Virginia Clemm, died at the age of 27. Poe first met Clemm in Baltimore.
The idea for this story came from The National Edgar Allan Poe Theatre and was written by Zac Pensol. Both Poe Theatre and Pensol are past winners of the International Edgar Allan Poe Festival Saturday Visiter Award for Adaptations of E.A. Poe’s Life or Works.
“We’re hopeful to see a lot of friendly faces in the audience on December 21 and 22,” said Alex Zavistovich, Poe Theatre Artistic Director. “This reading will be a workshop for a full production of the show in 2025, so audience critical reaction is appreciated. Ticket sales will go towards offsetting the cost of the full production.”
Zavistovich leads the reading’s creative team, and the director is Mark Kamie. The two last collaborated on a theatrical production of “Nightfall with Edgar Allan Poe” in Washington, D.C. The show earned a Helen Hayes Awards Recommendation, a nomination for Outstanding Choreography, and other accolades.
In a phone call with Baltimore Fishbowl, Zavistovich said they are eager to get audience members’ opinions of the show so far as they workshop it. They’ve already gone through a few revisions to tighten up the script and the run time.
“We have one more revision in the contract with the playwright, so I don’t want to squander it,” Zavistovich said. “I want people to be able to tell us what works and what doesn’t, from an audience perspective.”
Zavistovich is excited about this project because he doesn’t think anyone has done anything like this before.
“If we execute this properly, I can honestly, sincerely see this becoming an annual tradition just the way ‘A Christmas Carol’ is,” Zavistovich said. “I don’t want to do ‘A Christmas Carol,’ because there are lots of other folks that have been doing it and doing it well for a long time. But I do want to do something that nods to that time of year. So, this seems to like the perfect marriage of what we are supposed to be doing with a calendar appropriate event.”
The ticket purchases will help offset costs of the full production next year, so in addition to providing feedback to the artists and creators of the show, audience members will be helping make the full production a reality financially.
A playful warning, however: if you’re afraid you might be on the naughty list, Zavistovich has it on good authority that Baltimore Krampus will be in the audience at the reading on Dec. 22. So, do with that information what you will when purchasing your tickets.
The Fells Point Corner Theatre is located at 251 South Ann Street, Baltimore, MD. Tickets cost $22.13, and are available for purchase at this link.
