The EDGAR ALLAN POE Experience - THE BELLS

Around the same time I was beginning my professional career at CASA MANANA in 1973 I was still in high school and I also wrote my first play THE BELLS which was a sort of psychodrama taking place within the mind of EDGAR ALLAN POE. I had been doing quite a bit of research on Poe, and the parallels between his life and his work seemed very interesting to my 16 year old manchild brain.

The play is pretty dreadful, but it was chosen to be included in an evening of one-act's to be performed for the public by our drama club, THE VAGABOND PLAYERS of R. L. PASCHAL HIGH SCHOOL in Fort Worth, Texas. I was allowed to direct it myself, and so I had my first taste of staging my own adaptations, which would continue  with different companies for the next 20 years.

I staged the publicity photos which appear above, and although the faces are quite young I think the overall effect looks very professional for a High School play.