Chamber Theatre Productions filmed their live-action plays for Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart," "Annabel Lee," and "The Raven" so that they could still bring their premier educational theatre to classrooms in our new COVID reality. With an audio production of "The Bells" and an animated biography video to supplement the plays, the company's "Edgar Allan Poe: The Midnight Collection" brought drama into 8th grade's English classroom to conclude an October author and horror study on the classic Gothic writer. 

Students discussed the impact of the narrator breaking the fourth wall in Chamber Theatre's "Tell-Tale Heart" and the extent to which it helped honor the first-person point of view that drove Poe's original text. 8th graders also compared and contrasted the different tones in "Annabel Lee" and "The Raven," while identifying the similar topic of grief that coursed through both performances. Lastely, students analyzed how the tone changed as the dramatic reading of "The Bells" progressed. 

8th graders received themed "goodie bags" to help celebrate the end of their Poe unit.



Since the nameless narrator in Poe's "Tell-Tale Heart" was overcome by stress and anxiety due to his guilty conscience, the main treat was a baggie filled with some different stress relief items: a black cat squishy stress toy, a realistic heart-shaped splat ball, an eyeball bouncy ball, and black cat putty. 




In addition, eyeball gumballs filled black cat goodie bags, and a plastic "pale blue vulture eye" hid inside one lucky pouch...while the rest would dissappoint their recipients with a red, plastic eyeball.