Cape students get to know Poe
The words of Edgar Allan Poe came to life on stage when Cape Henlopen Theatre Academy students performed for eighth- graders from Beacon and Mariner middle schools.
Two assemblies at Cape High offered hundreds of middle school students a chance to see how poems they have been studying can be performed on stage in a production called "Knowing Poe."
“Three years ago, an eighth- grade teacher from Mariner said they were teaching the works of Poe and asked if we could put something together,” said Martha Pfeiffer, Cape High theater director. “We’ve had about 400 kids here today, and everything they did was word-for-word Poe.”
Following the high school productions, middle school students worked in small groups under the direction of high school theater academy students to stage their own single-scene mime or still-life that captured the poetry.
What began as an activity to supplement eighth-graders’ understanding of the works of Poe has evolved into a learning opportunity for the 98 high school theater students who stage such works as “Annabelle Lee,” “The Tell-Tale Heart “ and “The Raven.”
Beacon Middle School student Julianna Marsh said the activity illuminated the meaning behind Poe’s otherwise archaic poetry.
“I didn’t really know the poems,” Julianna said, although she had read about Poe and his works in class.
Working with theater students helped her understand Poe’s words. “I learned more about the poems and how I can have a picture of how it would look,” she said.
Each of the five poems presented to eighth-graders were staged by Pfeiffer’s classes including theater fundamentals, movement and voice, theater history, Shakespeare and text analysis.
Cape Henlopen Theatre Academy ninth-grader Aaron Latta-Morissette said the experience of acting out Poe’s works with his peers was rewarding.
“It was rather fun,” Latta-Morissette said. “Mainly because I know the peers I got to interpret this with, and it is great to share theater with those around you.”
Cape Henlopen Theatre Academy players will present the works of Edgar Allen Poe in "Knowing Poe," for the public at 7 p.m., Monday, Oct. 29, with tickets available at the door.
