The Fantastic Terrors of Edgar Allan Poe
“Believe nothing you hear, and only one half that you see.” –Edgar Allan Poe
The short stories and poems of Edgar Allan Poe come alive outside the buildings of Old Sturbridge Village, as told by the characters who have just witnessed them occur. At six different locations throughout the Village, tales of horror, revenge, obsession, and deception will be repeated in pulsating rhythm…like a beating heart.
Written & directed by PJ Griffith for Old Sturbridge Village & Coggeshall Farm
Cast and Crew | Click on the photos to read more
-
Sam Urdang
Roderick
Sam Urdang
Roderick
Sam Urdang is from Boulder, Colorado and is currently based in New York. Previous stage credits include Bottom (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Eddy (Eschaton), Brom Bones (The Sleepy Hollow Experience), Burrus (Brittanicus), Pistol (Henry V), Moriarty (Sherlock!), and Absinthe (Nutcracker Rouge). This is his second credit with PJ Griffith. Sam Urdang is currently the object manipulation specialist at Company XIV in Brooklyn.
-
Alanna J. Smith
Evangeline
Alanna J. Smith
Evangeline
Alanna J. Smith is a NYC actor. Catch her most recent work in Season 1 of CBS’s FBI: Most Wanted. On stage, she recently appeared as Inga in the American premiere of the London Revival of Young Frankenstein the Musical at Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia.
www.alannajsmith.com | @alannajsmith
-
Jake Austin Robertson
William
Jake Austin Robertson
William
Jake Austin Robertson is an NYC actor/VO artist/comedian and cat-sitter. Named “Best Emerging Actor” for his Off-Broadway show MADMAN at the United Solo Festival. Credits include: Love in the Time of Corona with Saundra Lezzenbaum (Youtube/Instagram Series), Raising Hell (Animated Series), Everything That Rises Must Converge (Compagnia de’Colombari), Babette’s Feast (Off Broadway), Hamlet (Torn Out Theater), As You Like It (Shakespeare’s Globe Residency). He is also a teacher, translator, and scholar of the Soviet Gulag. He received an MA in Acting from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and a BA in Slavic Studies from Princeton. Raised by two moms in Lombard, Illinois, he is fluent in Russian and Disco.
jakeaustinrobertson.com | @rakejobertson
-
Andre Ozim
Tristan
Andre Ozim
Tristan
Born in the small town in Oklahoma to a Nigerian Igbo Mother, Andre Ozim is a stage and screen actor from Washington, D.C. who quit his internship as a paralegal and moved to New York in light of finding his passion. Andre won Best Actor Award at NYU Tics for his performance in one of his 1st films “Jahar“, which premiered at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival.
Classically trained in Shakespeare, Andre studied abroad taking workshops at various conservatories in London, England including the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA).
andreozim.com | @andreozim
-
Anna Cain
Psyche
Anna Cain
Psyche
A Brooklyn based actor, comedian and writer, Anna has a BA in creative writing from the University of Washington, which she earned after serving in the Army. She’s a Meisner and Grotowski trained actor who has spent a great deal of her time making people laugh through sketch (Upright Citizens Brigade) and stand up around the Tri-State area. Her NYC theatre work has been seen in the NY Fringe Festival (The Coward), IRT Theatre (Miranda From Stormville) and as a regular actor with Random Access Theatre’s The Drunk Texts. She’s been in two pilots you haven’t seen, because they didn’t get picked up, but she swears she was excellent in them. You’ll find her in the upcoming films A Serial Killer in Harlem and Something Was Creeping and at any dog park trying to play with stranger’s puppies.
-
Chelsea Renae
Annabel
Chelsea Renae
Annabel
Chelsea Renae is a recent graduate of The American Academy of Dramatic Arts 2020. A few of her highlights include originating a role in a piece written and directed by Rend star Fredi Walker Browne, playing Mrs. Potts in Picnic by William Inge, as well as Lena/Francine in Clybourne Park. When she is not acting in straight plays, her rich alto and strong belt assist in storytelling through song. Chelsea Renae is very grateful to be a part of Nevermore: The Fantastic Terrors of Edgar Allen Poe. She believes that this is just the beginning of a flourishing career in the industry
-
Lawrence Trailer
Music
Lawrence Trailer
Music
Lawrence Trailer offers a unique type of songwriting, with his soulful voice and rhythmic acoustic stylings. Utilizing an arsenal of looping and effects pedals, Lawrence creates a dynamic and energized performance, and aims to create a connection with anyone who will listen.
You may have seen him at the Village before, but you’ve never seen – or heard – the haunting acoustical stylings of Lawrence Trailer like you will during Phantoms & Fire.
-
P.J. Griffith
Writer and Director
P.J. Griffith
Writer and Director
P.J. Griffith is a writer/director/performer based out of New York City with an extensive background in theater, television and museum programming, working on both sides of the proverbial camera. As the Artistic Director of Clockjack Productions, he has focused on the creation of innovative, site-specific, immersive theatrical experiences.
P.J. first gained experience in “immersive theater” performing principal roles in some of the country’s most critically-acclaimed and financially-successful immersive productions, including Sleep No More, The Illuminati Ball and Bond: Shaken Not Stirred in New York City, For the Record: Baz Luhrmann in Los Angeles, Descent in Sarasota and The Sleepy Hollow Experience in Massachusetts. As a performer, P.J.’s recent theater credits include “Stacee Jaxx” in Rock of Ages off Broadway, “St. Jimmy” in American Idiot on Broadway, “Leon Czolgoscz” in Assasins at Yale Repertory Theater and “Jett Rink” in The Public Theater’s premiere of Giant. P.J. received the 2010 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for “Best Featured Performance” for Set-Up & Punch at The Blank Theater and the 2017 New York Musical Theater Festival Award for Outstanding Lead Performance for Georama. He can be seen on television in guest starring in roles in episodes of Blue Bloods, Gotham, Jessica Jones, The Good Wife, The Mysteries of Laura, and Without a Trace. He has worked on the production staff of Comedy Central Presents, Mad TV, Phenomenon, and VH1 Storytellers.
Through Clockjack Productions, P.J. blends his background in the entertainment industry with his life-long love of museums. His work is rooted in finding a narrative that exists within a museum’s vision which a contemporary audience can connect to, then executing that story as an original theatrical production, using unexpected locations. Guests are given autonomy as the “fourth wall” is shattered, forcing them to engage a collection they have been thrust into from the opening moment until the final blackout. His recent productions include; Midwinter Mischief for Old Sturbridge Village (winner of the 2018 International Museum Alliance Joe Lipsky Award for Excellence in Playwriting), a two-hour “adventure theater” piece where groups of 15 are given an 19th century identity and follow in the wake of a wily Yankee Peddler who barters and schemes his way through a New England village to pay off a debt. Haunted by History – A Phantasmagoria (also for OSV) a 40-minute theatrical seance set in a 19th century Meeting House that goes awry when the showman’s shady ulterior motives are exposed, and the upcoming Pathway to the Ballot Box, exploring the road to suffrage for eight woman over 250 years along Historic Huguenot Street in New Paltz, NY for the centennial of the ratification of the 19th Amendment. P.J. produced/curated the OSV Craft Beer & Roots Music Festival, bringing 15 Bluegrass/Americana/Folk acts to perform in 7 unique spaces throughout the living history museum while the audience sampled beers from 19 independent breweries from throughout New England. P.J. also wrote Haunted Manhattan – The Five Points, a theatrical ghost tour through downtown Manhattan’s most notorious neighborhood, infamous for 19th century gang violence and racial mixing. P.J. also wrote Tommy Thunder’s Heavy Metal Lighting Show for Discovery Place Science Center in Charlotte, NC, dispelling myths of electricity in a high-energy rock musical using a musical Tesla Coil. ClockJack’s events have thus far sold-out, several FAR beyond their intended capacity. P.J. recently produced Get Jack in Concert alongside Tony Award-Winner Anita Waxman, with music by Grammy- Nominee Kip Winger, directed by Olivier Award-Winner Kelly Devine.