Tell-Tale Electric Poe

SPECIAL EVENT!! ~ INDOORS THIS YEAR!!

Tell-Tale Electric Poe
By Edgar Allan Poe
Adapted by Coterie Artistic Director Jeff Church
Composed by Rex Hobart

One actor…one musician delivering Poe stories and poetry with musical lines and retorts from a reactive electric guitar! The perfect way to celebrate Halloween, this show overflows with poetry, riffs, ghosts and morbid prose floating in an atmospheric setting. Horrifying and humorous, our sublime creation blends old with new. Featuring The Premature Burial and the oft-requested masterpiece, The Tell-Tale Heart, along with Poe’s classic poem “The Bells.” With R.H. Wilhoit interpreting Poe and Rex Hobart live on multiple electric guitars.

Approx. Length: 50 Minutes

R.H. "Hollis" Wilhoit once again brings the works of Edgar Allan Poe to life after his celebrated performance in Electric Poe in 2020 and 2021. Previously at The Coterie, Hollis played a remarkable number of roles in Puffs and in A Charlie Brown Christmas as well as work as a troupe member of our Dramatic STD/HIV Project touring schools. Regionally, he has performed in the one-person show Every Brilliant Thing at Spinning Tree, Milking Christmas at The Living Room, and The Little Prince with Mesner Puppet Theater. When not acting, he is currently working with and is a Founding Member of The Confluence Theatre Company.
 

Scott “Rex” Hobart is a self-described “Hack Of All Trades” local rock/country musician and Coterie's former Resident Technical Director/Scenic Artist who is reprising his role from 2020 and 2021 as the mysterious musical counter-player to Edgar Allan Poe’s richly grim imagery. Scott studied visual art at the Kansas City Art Institute and completed his undergraduate degree in American Cultural Studies at UMKC. He made his theatrical acting and composing debut in The Coterie’s Night of the Living Dead (2007 and 2008), and he also composed, designed set, and performed in Tell-Tale Electric Poe. Scott also writes and performs country and rock with his bands “Rex Hobart and the Misery Boys” and “Giant’s Chair,” respectively.

Audiences and Critics loved ELECTRIC POE 2021:

“an authentic chill... preserve[s]
Poe’s romantic voice while
dialing in on the stories’ most
propulsive moments...
engaging for adults but
chaste enough for older kids.”
- KCStudio.org

“R.H. "Hollis" Wilhoit returns [and]
is (which I didn't feel possible)
more magnificent than last year...
a mastery of horror that surely
would even make Poe take notice...
I can't think of a better way
to celebrate Halloween.”
- BroadwayWorld.com

"Wilhoit is a master of
suspense... [a] hauntingly
good performance"
- KCParent.com

Original production designs and illustrations by the Kansas City Art Institute Illustration Department's student staffed agency, MICRO. Tell-Tale Electric Poe design by Rhiannon O’Brien.