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The Southern Writers' Theater and The African American Playwrights Exchange invite you to join us at 7pm on Friday, October 31 in the library of The Player's Club, 16 Gramercy Park South, NYC for

STAGEFRIGHT,

a special pre-Halloween party event which fuses two poems by Edgar Alan Poe with one tale of (political) horror by AAPEX playwright Fernando Manon.

Poe may not have written much for the stage, but theater was definitely in his blood. Both of his parents were actors. That being the case, why didn't he write more plays?

Maybe he had... STAGEFRIGHT?

Was it the untimely death of his talented mother which left him orphaned at the age of three? Was it the horrible Richmond theater fire which consumed the lives and bodies of everyone in the theater that night? Do these tragedies resonate in his work (e.g. The Fall of the House of Usher; The Bells)? But even if he didn't write scripts, Poe's work has provided an endless source of material for actors. Where would Vincent Price be without him? Are his poems poems - or are they MONOLOGUES? And has his work not served as a profound source of inspiration for writers of stage, radio, television and film who have encountered his work since his death in 1849.

Join us, if you dare, for a brief sojourn with Poe himself (Jared Reinmuth) in the library of the renowned Player's Club. Let our hostess, Liliane Klein, turn you on to that monster THE CONQUERER WORM (is he talking about the theater?), and experience one of the most horrible horrors of all time as the Devil (Staxx Cordero) and a "really bad dude" (Lawrence Floyd) debate just what it takes for a man to have to go to h**l in Fernando Manon's classic political satire YOU'RE GETTING ME HOT.

And then THE RAVEN flies.

Seating is limited. Please RSVP ASAP to aapextv@gmail.com.