July 12 – 20, 2008
Written & directed by Peter Coy
Featuring Jon Cobb as Poe and jazz vocalist Patti Finn, as the women in his life, with pianist Bob Bennetta, and bassist Jim Ryan.
Photos from the Hamner performances
The Hamner goes to DC…
“Riotous and arrestingly revelatory, the Hamner Theater’s latest creation will surprise the laughs out of you.” Miranda Hall, on DCtheatrescene.com
A Washington Post “Fringe Must-see” (Scroll down to comment#5 for a glowing review)
Read some more comments from festival-goers about the show.
‘…I don’t know where in the hell Nellysford Virginia is, but I know it is lucky to have Hamner Theater. Bravo!’ -comment on Washington City Paper review.
Washington City Paper: Fringe & Purge (blog report)
The Hamner Theater’s Poe & All That Jazz at the Capital Fringe Festival.
Poe’s post-modern pastiche. Jazz, ghosts, poetry and song. Phantastic!
TICKETS ON SALE AFTER JUNE 23, 2008 AT www.capitalfringe.org
or 1 866 811 4111. All tickets are $15.
Shakespeare Theatre Company@The Harman Center – Forum
610 F St N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20004
Performances held:
Saturday, July 12 at 6:30pm
Sunday, July 13 at 3:00pm
Wednesday, July 16 at 6:30pm
Friday, July 18 at 8:00pm
Saturday, July 19 at noon
Sunday, July 20 at 8:00pm
Poe & All That Jazz to be staged during the Capital Fringe Festival
The Hamner Theater presents Poe & All That Jazz by Peter Coy, July 12 – 20 at the Forum at Sidney Harman Hall. Helen Hayes Award-winning playwright Peter Coy explores undercurrents of abandonment in Poe’s tragic personal life, thinly veiled in art. Horrifying and humorous, ‘a delicious, confusing, delicate, sensual delight’ – jazz, ghosts, poetry and song. A phantasmagoric ‘dream within a dream – none of this is real’ but it’s all true.
All tickets are $15. Reservations and information after June 23 from 1.866.811.4111 or capitalfringe.org, or at the Fringe Box Office from July 7.
See photos from the Hamner Theater Poe
The Hamner Theater presents POE & ALL THAT JAZZ at the Capital Fringe Festival.
Six-show run at the Forum at Sidney Harman Hall, from July 12-20, 2008.
What visions haunted Edgar Allan Poe as he sat in the still of the night, his imagination raging? And who was Annabelle Lee, the child who danced with him in their kingdom by the sea? Behind all of Poe’s lyrically redolent love poems and twisted love stories loom real-life women. In the Hamner Theater’s production of Poe & All That Jazz , performed at the Forum at Sidney Harman Hall during the Capital Fringe Festival, Helen Hayes Award-winning playwright Peter Coy explores undercurrents of abandonment in Poe’s tragic personal life.
Much has been written about the breadth of Poe’s influence on literature. It is perhaps less well-known that his mother Eliza was the brightest star of the American theater scene from 1804 till 1811, and that Poe himself was a gifted singer and dancer. Poe & All That Jazz delves into the lesser-known facets of Poe’s life, weaving together Poe’s prose with jazz standards. Says playwright Peter Coy, “These love songs by the greatest American lyricists of the twentieth century, like Poe, have permanently imprinted words and images on the minds and spirits of America.”.
This play sheds light on Poe’s relationships with the many women he loved and memorialized. Using Poe’s own words for 80% of this work, Coy provides a glimpse into the tortured psyche of this brilliantly creative man – Poe and the women in his life come alive.
Poe & All That Jazz features Jon Cobb as Poe and jazz vocalist Patti Finn as the women in his life, with pianist Bob Bennetta, and bassist Jim Ryan, and was written & directed by Peter Coy.
Since 1987, playwright Coy has written several one-acts, two screenplays, and 25 full-length plays and adaptations. His play “A House In The Country”, won the 2001 Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding New Play produced in Washington, DC, and will be produced as part of the Wintergreen Performing Arts Festival in late July.
All six performances of Poe & All That Jazz will be held in the Harman Center – Forum, 610 F St NW, 20004. Performances held Sat & Wed July 12 & 16 at 6:30pm, Sun July 13 at 3:00pm, Fri & Sun July 18 & 20 at 8pm and Sat July 19 at noon. Tickets are available from June 23 online at www.capitalfringe.org or by phone at 1.866.811.4111, or at the Fringe Box Office from July 7. The Fringe Box Office will be located in the former AV Ristorante Italiano at 607 NY Ave, NW, WDC 20001. All tickets are $15.
The Hamner Theater is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization. The Hamner Theater receives funding from the Virginia Commission for the Arts, the Donovan Foundation, the Perry Foundation and several donors who prefer to remain anonymous, to support its mission of bringing professional theater to Nelson County VA.
About the Fringe Festival:
In July 2008, downtown DC will come alive with hundreds of performances for the third annual Capital Fringe Festival. The mission of Capital Fringe, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, is to connect exploratory artists with adventurous audiences by creating outlets and spaces for creative, cutting-edge, and contemporary performance in the District. During the 2007 Fringe Festival 20,000 tickets were sold, 508 individual performances happened in over 20 venues in and around the District. For further information on the festival, running July 10-27, 2008, visit www.capitalfringe.org.
The Doll, by Susan Leschke
Patti Finn’s Dress by
