WordStage Literary Concerts to Present GOREY STORIES and POE AND FIENDS for Halloween

Wordstage Literary Concerts presents two different performances in two different venues to celebrate the Halloween season.

Our first perfromance continues our Wright Chapel Series at the Lakewood Presbyterian Church 14502 Detroit Ave. at Marlowe in Downtown Lakewood on Friday, October 28th at 7:30 PM

GOREY STORIES is a wonderfully weird collection of works culled from the meanderings of the fevered imagination of writer and illustrator Edward Gorey; author of over a hundred books, award winning designer for theater and dance productions from Cape Cod to Broadway, Illustrator of the New York Times and New Yorker magazines, and universally known for his animations that opens the PBS Mystery! Series. We present this as an opportunity to indulge in a deliciously decadent pre-Halloween revel, submerging yourself in the madcap, macabre world of an American original.

This varied assortment of peculiar characters and humorous, horrid happenings is drawn from the best of Edward Gorey's illustrated works, including The Curious Sofa, The Gilded Bat, The Blue Aspic and the Unstrung Harp.

Readings from these ghoulishly gothic tales and poems will be performed by actors Marc Goodman, Agnes Herrmann, Paul Slimak and Tim Tavcar. To accompany this eerie evening, appropriately atmospheric music will be performed by violinist Mary Beth Ions and Patrick Wickliffe. Spine tingling selections will be drawn from the works of composers Camille Saint Saëns, Modeste Mussorgsky, Edvard Grieg, Franz Schubert and Felix Mendelssohn.

Tickets are general admission with suggested donation of $10 at the door. Please note that we are continuing to maintain our "Pay what you can" policy to ensure accessibility for everyone who is interested in attending.

Our second performance in honor of the "Scary Season" will be held at the Music Settlement's BOP STOP - 2920 Detroit Ave. in the Hingetown area of Cleveland on Sunday afternoon, October 30th at 3:00 pm.

Poe and Fiends is a compilation of tales and poems from several masters of the macabre - including Ray Bradbury, H. P. Lovecraft, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Christina Rossetti, and of course, Edgar Allan Poe himself. Their spine tingling tales, verse and drama will be interpreted by actors Skip Corris, Marci Paolucci and Tim Tavcar. The performance will also feature a spine-tingling Soundscape composed and performed by master percussionist, Paul Stranahan on gongs, singing bowls and other usual and unusual percussion instruments.

Tickets for this event are $10.00 and may be obtained by visiting the Bop Stop's website, www.themusicsettlement.org/event-rentals, or purchased at the door. For further information on these two performances, visit the WordStage web site at www.wordstageoh.com or call us at 216-712-6926.