Happy Summer!  11:11 has a busy few months ahead of us.  Not only are we preparing a fun, one-night-only audience-driven theatre night, we are also in the midst of writing for our upcoming season.

First on the docket: Edgar Allan Poe.  Each season we adapt a classic work for the stage, and it was back in March, I think, that we had that “Aha!  We should do Poe in October!” moment.  So we contacted Mr. John Greene, who created a fantastic proposal incorporating Poe’s short stories, letters and poems into a crazed, frenzied piece of theatre.

Next came the creation of a writing team.  To give John’s vision some 11:11 flavor, company members/playwrights Evan Quinlan and Noah Tobin agreed to take on some writing, while Brian Tuttle and I became supervisor/overseer/big picture types.

And after a few brainstorming and ground rules meetings, the writing began.  This included flurries of emails, arguments, pen throwing (I assume), and lots of Poe reading and rereading.

Finally, last night we reached a new step.  We gathered anyone who was willing to be gathered in our circle of company members, friends and coworkers (thanks guys!), and read the plays OUTLOUD.  Excitement!  For the first time we heard shorts of The Tell Tale Heart, The Fall of the House of Usher, and about seven more plays all in one sitting.  I was never a Poe fanatic when I had to read him in high school, but it was really cool listening to all these works back to back.  
So next steps? Give feedback to the playwrights, and start figuring out how to turn all of these separate short plays into a whole.  And spend some time in the sun.