Dog & Pony Show theater company, whose crowd-pleasing PEEP!!! shows have single-handedly revived old-timey vaudeville and burlesque in the Triangle, will inaugurate its new Page-To-Stage series of staged readings with Gothic, an evening of scary scenes and spine-tingling monologues from classic stories of horror and the macabre, presented at 8:15 p.m. Oct. 31 and Nov. 1 at Manbites Dog Theater in Durham, North Carolina. Gothic is part of Manbites Dog’s “Other Voices” Series. Its Saturday-night performance will be a special fundraiser followed by a reception, music, silent auction, etc.
Dog & Pony Show founder and PEEP!!! impresario Lissa Brennan (a.k.a. Miss Pixie) writes: “Page-To-Stage presents evenings of scenes and monologues adapted from works of literature, designed to provide an introduction to texts that have captivated us as readers and inspired us as performers. For the series debut, and in keeping with the season, we’ve assembled a collection of short pieces gathered from the pages of traditional gothic literature, ranging from the celebrated to the obscure — The Call of Cthulhu by H.P. Lovecraft; The Castle of Otranto, Horace Walpole; Green Tea, Sheridan LeFanu; Melmoth the Wanderer, Charles Maturin; The Monk, Matthew Lewis; Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen; The Raven, Edgar Allen Poe; The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson; Wieland: Or, The Transformation, Charles Brockden Brown; and excerpts from the poetry of Lord Byron.
Brennan adds, “The pieces vary from affectionate parody to grave tales of terror, giving glimpses into otherworlds populated by malevolent nuns, tempting demons, disembodied voices, psychotic preachers, altered scientists, giant helmets, persistent birds and ghostly monkeys. They’ll be brought to life by a cast of some of the area’s most talented performers, including Lissa Brennan, Flynt Burton, Leigh Hall, Byron Jennings, Jay O’Berski, Michael O’Foghludha, Scott Pardue, Nicole Quenelle, Adam Sampieri, and Jordan Smith, with special appearances by fetish harpist Hellion (soon to be seen in the upcoming Troma films release, Cutting Room!) and Paper Hand Puppet Intervention.”
Dog & Pony Show presents Gothic Friday-Saturday, Oct. 31 and Nov. 1, at 8:15 p.m. at Manbites Dog Theater, 703 Foster St., Durham, North Carolina. $10 Friday and $15 Saturday fundraiser followed by a reception, music, silent auction, etc. 919/682-3343. http://www.manbitesdogtheater.org/2/.
