PHOTOS AND STORY BY CORIE LYNN
Social Media Blurb: In a single-night dinner and show, The Coldhart’s musical Edgar Allan is performed in Hays.
Monday night, a crowd of theatre and literature lovers gathered in Professor’s Sandwich Shop for dinner and a one-night performance of Edgar Allan.
The evening began with a dinner of pasta, salad, garlic bread, and chocolate zucchini cake. As guests ate, they watched a performance of traveling bluegrass musician Willi Carlisle.
After dinner, the performance began.
Edgar Allan tells a dark and fictionalized account of American poet Edgar Allan Poe during his formative years.
The audience laughed along with the musical comedy as young Edgar sang, drank, and fought his way to domination of his boarding school, only to meet his match in a fellow student named Edgar Allan.
Edgar Allen is a production by and starring Katie Hartman and Nick Ryan of The Coldharts, a touring company based out of Brooklyn, New York.
The Coldharts perform shows that display the American Gothic, such as the works of Edgar Allan Poe. However, they seek to do more than tell dark and tragic tales.
“We think [art] should be affordable and accessible,” said Hartman following the performance.
She explained that, for this reason, The Coldharts tour with only their costumes and musical instruments.
Keeping the cost of performing and ticketing down in this way helps bring their productions to a variety of towns and audiences.
It is also meant to prove that theatre and other art forms are available to any type of community.
“We want to open up towns that don’t normally show art,” Hartman said.
The Coldharts will continue to provide accessibility to art following their performance in Hays. They will stop next in St. Louis, Missouri to continue performing their show The Legend of White Woman Creek.
The next performance of Edgar Allan will be held in Baltimore, Maryland on October 7, the 175th anniversary of Poe’s death.