DOUBLE EXPOSURE to Blend Poetry, Film and Theater at Beyond Baroque

Poet Film Stage will present Double Exposure, an original multidisciplinary production combining poetry, film, theater and live music, at Beyond Baroque on Friday, October 23.

Created and directed by Kathleen Florence and Rich Ferguson, the 80-minute production is composed of seven interconnected sections written by 21 writers and poets.

A mysterious suitcase moves through Los Angeles, changing hands as it carries the audience from one poetic scene to the next. The production will combine the individual works into a single cinematic narrative.

The evening will open with a short film featuring Amy Raasch, Harry E. Northup, Rich Ferguson, Benin Lemus and Joseph Paulson. Florence directs the film, which will transition into the live performance.

Featured writers and performers will include California Poet Laureate Lee Herrick, former San Francisco Poet Laureate Kim Shuck and Palisades Poet Laureate Michelle Bitting.

Special guests Harry E. Northup and Corinne Conley will join the production from the Motion Picture & Television Fund. Northup’s film credits include Taxi Driver, Mean Streets and The Silence of the Lambs. Conley has worked across film, television, radio and theater and voiced Rudolph’s mother, Mrs. Donner, in Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

Joseph Paulson and Amy Raasch will return to Poet Film Stage after appearing in the company’s previous production, Outlaws & Angels. Paulson recently played the leading role in An Enemy of the People at the Odyssey Theatre. His screen credits include Mad Men, Catch-22 and I Am the Night.

Raasch is a poet, actor and musician who received the Linda J. Albertano Poetry Fellowship from Beyond Baroque.

Drummer and percussionist Butch Norton will perform the production’s original score live. Norton co-founded Eels and has performed and recorded with artists including Lucinda Williams, Tracy Chapman, Rufus Wainwright, Fiona Apple, Michael Penn and Tracy Bonham. He recently performed Beat of the Traps at the Museum of Contemporary Art.

Additional poets and performers will include Conney Williams, Suzanne Lummis, S.A. Griffin, Luivette Resto, Pam Ward, AJ Luxton, Dennis Cruz, jimmy vega, Nicelle Davis, Elaine Mintzer and Dig Wayne.

Double Exposure follows Poet Film Stage’s Outlaws & Angels, which sold out its May 2026 engagement at Beyond Baroque. Florence and Ferguson founded the series to explore what happens when poetry adopts theatrical and cinematic forms.

Double Exposure will be presented Friday, October 23 at Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center, located at 681 N. Venice Boulevard in Venice, California. The lobby will open at 7 p.m., theater doors will open at 7:20 p.m. and the performance will begin at 7:30 p.m.