Announcing LOSS OF BREATH: The Unfinished Life And Death Of Edgar Allan Poe

The Suffolk University Theatre Department is proud to announce Wesley Savick's fantastical play, Loss of Breath: The Life and Death of Edgar Allan Poe. Loss of Breath weaves together Poe's stories and biography with sideshow illusion, puppetry, and Japanese Noh Theatre. The Puppet Showplace Theater has created puppets and masks to depict a realm between life and death, the dwelling place of Poe, his mother, spouse, Annabel Lee, ghosts and other ghastly creatures..... and a middle-school English teacher from Indiana.

Playwright and director, Wes Savick

"...turned to Edgar Allan Poe for a number of reasons. He's famous. He's theatrical. But most importantly, he was obsessively preoccupied by the hazy line which divides life and death. At the outset, it struck me that puppetry, which is essentially the art of animating the inanimate, was the perfect theatrical tradition to explore this boundary. I was most interested in the dynamic between living puppeteers and the dead puppets their art compels them to bring to life.

We are living through incredibly tumultuous times. Last spring, I wrote a new musical - one state, two state / red state, blue state - inspired by the sharp division in our country...a humanistic response to a critical political situation. I wanted to follow that up with a piece which speaks to, what Poe refers to as "this horrible, never-ending oscillation between hope and despair." The context is emotional, but the emotion, I believe, is timely. The piece celebrates the power of the imagination in the throes of this condition."

Ticket prices for the general public are $15 and $10 for students and seniors. For more information and to purchase tickets over the phone with a credit card, please call 866-811-4111. Tickets can also be purchased online at moderntheatre.com.

Loss of Breath is a production of the Suffolk University Theatre Department and will run in the Modern Theatre from November 15-18.