The National Edgar Allan Poe Theater invites Baltimore lovers of Poe and radio to be part of the LIVE studio audience for their audio drama adaptation of “The Purloined Letter” on Saturday, September 14, 2024 at Enoch Pratt Free Library.
“The Murders in the Rue Morgue” was recorded in January 2024, and Poe’s first story in which readers were introduced to Auguste Dupin, French detective extraordinaire, and inspiration for Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes.
Poe Theater recorded the second mystery, “The Mystery of Marie Roget” last March, wherein Dupin and his assistant investigate an unsolved murder.
“The Purloined Letter” is the third installment of Poe’s Auguste Dupin mystery series, in which Dupin and his assistant help the Paris police find a stolen letter being used to blackmail the highest members of the French government. It’s the only one that does not involve murder.
“What’s unusual about ‘The Purloined Letter’ is the others had to do with murder and mayhem and all this, and ‘The Purloined Letter’ was really more of a logic puzzle,” said Alex Zavistovich, artistic director of the National Edgar Allan Poe Theater. “So, there’s not a lot of room for suspense.”
Zavistovich compensates for this by creating personalities for characters that Poe had not even bothered to name and tying elements of the previous two stories together in this final episode. This includes “will they/won’t they?” dynamics between characters and other elements of tension that will put the members of the audience on the edges of their seats.
All the actors except one have returned from the previous two recordings, creating a continuity between the recordings.
Zavistovich wrote the script, directed, and is the Foley director for the radio adaptation of “The Purloined Letter.” He expects that after post-production the recording should be up and streaming on WYPR by the end of September.
The first two Poe LIVE performances are available by clicking this link, as are many other National Edgar Allan Poe Theater performances at Poe Theater on the Air, whose dramas have won awards of excellence from the Hear Now Festival and an award for Best Adaptation from The International Edgar Allan Poe Festival.
Zavistovich described the process before recording begins.
“I do opening remarks first, saying, hey, you know there are three things I need them to do. First, sit quietly in the room while we capture what’s called room tone,” he explained. “It’s the sound of the room, right? Because that covers over a lot of edits and things like that. You need the atmosphere of the silence in that room.”
“Then I recap what the show is about,” Zavistovich said.
“And then, most importantly, I say, ‘Despite the fact that this is a live recording, feel free to react if you think something is funny. We wrote it to be funny. You can laugh. Don’t be afraid that just because this is a live recording, you have to sit there! Because it’s better to have the reaction!” he laughed.
He recommended people in the audience get there around 15 minutes before the show begins and make sure they’ve used the rest room before they find their seats. It does make the recording sound awkward if it picks up an audience member leaving the room or coming in late because the recording picks up all the movement in the room.
Previous Poe LIVE recordings have been very well attended, and there is only room for around 50 attendees, so register soon to ensure availability. Registration is free and available by clicking this link.
The recording session on September 14 will be in the Poe Room of the Enoch Pratt Free Library at 11 am and last approximately 90 minutes. The Enoch Pratt Free Library is located at 400 Cathedral Street, Baltimore, MD.
Although born in Boston, Poe spent several formative years in Baltimore. He is buried at Westminster Hall and Burying Ground in Baltimore City.