Adaptation of LIGEIA to be Presented at Cannonball Festival in Philadelphia

LIGEIA by Edgar Allan Poe will be presented in the Cannonball Festival, part of the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, at Asian Arts Initiative (1219 Vine St). This intimate physical theatre adaptation of the gothic masterpiece will run September 16-19.

Obsession for the lost LIGEIA spirals into madness in Poe's haunting tale of unutterable grief and unimaginable terror. As chilling evidence of a supernatural presence mounts, the audience wonders: are the narrator's visions caused by opium, or has his wife's corpse been possessed?

Rather than dramatizing the events of the plot, LIGEIA emphasizes the physical action of storytelling itself. Remaining faithful to Poe's original text, solo-performer William Trevino weaves poetic language with his decades of martial arts practice to create a visceral atmosphere of suspense. A 6th degree black belt in Soo Bahk Do and a veteran Poe performer, Trevino transforms martial arts movement to embody the psychological struggles of Poe's narrator.

William Trevino's work devising theatre from martial arts has been presented in NYC (including at Dixon Place and HERE Arts Center) with support from the Jerome Foundation and the Queens Arts Fund. His Poe performances have ranged from presenting The Tell-Tale Heart at the Edgar Allan Poe House & Museum in Baltimore, to hosting the television series Gothic Tales on Manhattan Neighborhood Network/MNN.