2003-2004 Season

Written by Jeffrey Hatcher
Adapted from the stories of Edgar Allan Poe
 

JEFFREY HATCHER (Playwright) is, most recently, the adapter of Tuesdays with Morrie, based on the best-selling book by Mitch Albom. In spring 2002, his play Mercy of a Storm was commissioned and produced by City Theatre in Pittsburgh and his Compleat Female Stage Beauty received the New Play Citation Award from the American Theatre Critics Association and was produced at Philadelphia Theatre Company and the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego. Hatcher's screen adaptation of the play is slated for a 2003 release. Other recent plays include Hanging Lord Haw-Haw, What Corbin Knew and Sockdology, which won the 1998 New Dramatists Whitfield-Cooke Prize. He recently collaborated with Eric Simonson on the critically acclaimed Work Song and with Bill Russell and Henry Krieger on the award-winning musical Everything's Ducky. Other plays include Three Viewings, whose numerous productions include Manhattan Theatre Club and the New End Theatre in London, and Scotland Road, winner of the 1993 Lois and Richard Rosenthal New Play Prize. Scotland Road had its New York premiere at Primary Stages and has received numerous other productions, including the Old Globe Theatre and Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. He is currently working on film adaptations of the bestseller Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire for Magnolia Mae Films and of his play Three Viewings. His many awards and fellowships have been bestowed by the National Playwrights Conference (five times), Midwest PlayLabs, the Jerome Foundation, the McKnight Foundation, the NEA, the NEA/TCG Theatre Residency Program for Playwrights, the American Theatre Critics/Steinberg New Play Awards, the Lila Wallace Readers Digest Fund and New Dramatists, to name a few.

Hatcher has been commissioned by The Acting Company to bring Poe's tales of the macabre to life. This dynamic new play based on the works of one of America's most popular authors is a world premiere presentation.

Murder By Poe continues The Acting Company’s efforts of commissioning, developing and producing new plays based on great American literature. Following powerful and successful productions of Willa Cather’s O Pioneers! (2000-01), Mark Twain’s Pudd’nhead Wilson (2001-02), and Studs Terkel's American Dreams: Lost and Found (2002-03).  Murder By Poe brings to the stage the work of one of our most powerful contemporary American writers. This production will be joined in touring repertory by one of Shakespeare’s timeless masterpieces, Richard III.