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"Edgar A. Poe Presents" running Nov. 7-16 at New Hazlett

 


    The year is 1849, you’re strolling through New York City on a brisk autumn evening and decide to take in a lecture by a rising young author and literary critic named Edgar A. Poe.

    What would that have been like?

    A new Prime Stage Theatre play by Pittsburgh sci-fi/horror fiction writer Lawrence C. Connolly offers a glimpse of Poe’s celebrated magnetism in Mr. Edgar A. Poe Presents: Tales of Mystery, Horror & Imagination.

    The world premiere production runs for seven shows Nov. 7-16, 2025 at New Hazlett Theater, 6 Allegheny Square East, on Pittsburgh’s Northside.

    Tickets (adult $40, artist/educator $25, groups $25, student $20) are available by calling (412) 320-4610 x10 or ordering online at https://newhazletttheater.org/events/mr-edgar-a-poe-presents-tales-for-horror-mystery-and-imagination.

    Directed by Art DeConciliis, Mr. Edgar A. Poe Presents: Tales of Mystery, Horror & Imagination recreates the dark genius of Poe in his prime performing a selection of favorite tales before a spellbound live audience.

Sam Lander as Edgar Allen Poe Credit: Prime Stage Theatre

    The 5-member cast includes Alex Blair, Justin Mohr, Jenn Rian, Jess Uhler and Sam Lander as Edgar Allan Poe.

    The Poe play is the first production in Prime Stage Theatre’s 2025-26 season of world premiere plays by Pittsburgh playwrights that includes Freedom House:  Giving Life a Second Chance by L.E. McCullough (Jan. 23-Feb. 1, 2026) and Speak by Tammy Ryan (May 1-10, 2026).

    Poe playwright Lawrence C. Connolly’s writing has appeared in fantasy, horror and science fiction journals around the world from Amazing Stories and Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone Magazine to the Nightmare Cinema anthology film and the Veins Cycle novel series set in Western Pennsylvania 

    His latest novel, Minute Men: Execute and Run, touted as Mission Impossible meets X-Men, hit bookstores Oct. 14, 2025 on the Arc Manor imprint.

    In Mr. Edgar A. Poe Presents: Tales of Mystery, Horror & Imagination, Connolly presents an insightful portrait of an author who was often as mysterious as the characters in his stories.

Playwright Lawrence C. Connolly

    “Poe was the son of professional theatre actors,” says Connolly. “He was a natural performer who gave lively readings and lectures to packed auditoriums across the Eastern U.S.”

    Poe’s personality permeates his stories, adds Connolly, and the resulting eccentricities aren’t always conducive to dramatization. “It’s the reason why so many Poe adaptations are more ‘inspired by’ than ‘based on’ his stories. But from the start, I wanted to stay as true as possible to the works and to what we know of the writer himself.”

    Since its founding in 1996, Prime Stage Theatre has presented over 100 plays that introduce student and family audiences to classic and contemporary works of world literature.

    “Three years ago, we commissioned Lawrence  Connolly to create a stage play offering a new take on Mary Shelley’s original Frankenstein tale,” says Prime Stage artistic director Dr. Wayne Brinda. “That was a very exciting dramatic recasting of a well-known story, and we believe audiences will find Mr. Edgar A. Poe Presents: Tales of Mystery, Horror & Imagination just as dynamic and thought-provoking.”

    For more information, contact Connie Brinda, Prime Stage Theatre General Manager, at (724) 773-0700 or cbrinda@primestage.com.

 

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* Prime Stage Theatre 2025-26 Season

 

Nov. 7-16, 2025. Mr. Edgar A. Poe Presents:  Tales of Mystery, Horror & Imagination

By Lawrence C. Connolly; directed by Art DeConciliis

popular sci-fi and horror fiction writer Lawrence C. Connolly recreates the dark genius of Edgar Allan Poe performing a selection of favorite tales before a live audience in the 1840s.

Jan. 23-Feb. 1, 2026 ­– Freedom House:  Giving Life a Second Chance

By L.E. McCullough; directed by Scott Calhoon

Historical playwright L.E. McCullough dramatizes the 1967 creation of Freedom House Ambulance Service, America’s first mobile emergency medical unit staffed by professionally-trained paramedics from Pittsburgh’s Hill District.

May 1-10, 2026 – Speak

By Tammy Ryan; directed by Dana Hardy Bingham

Resident New Dramatists playwright Tammy Ryan brings to the stage Laurie Halse Anderson’s acclaimed young adult novel Speak, the contemporary story of a teenage girl who uses art to find her voice and redefine her identity after the trauma of rape.

* Upcoming Prime Stage Theatre Special Events

Nov. 10, 2025, 7:30 p.m. – Divina: A Fantasy Cabaret

By Regina Gibson; directed by Stephanie Cunningham

New York actor/singer Regina Gibson performs Divina: A Fantasy Cabaret, her hilarious one-woman show with pianist Douglas Levine infused with comedy, storytelling, arias and the inevitable appearance by opera legend Maria Callas.


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