University Theatre has begun enthusiastically crafting the stage production of The Spyglass Seven, a play by Michael Seebold, a senior in English and philosophy and the recipient of the 2012 Creative Artist Award in theatre.
The Spyglass Seven tells the story of a deceased Edgar Allen Poe and his quest to find his soul mate. This one-act melodramatic play features Poe’s ghost as it travels through various dimensions of the afterlife. He encounters an array of characters from his past as he seeks to escape the loneliness that defined his life. This unnerving and intriguing play takes place in one night and is filled with both romance and mystery.
This re-imagined depiction of the legendary author is a work that University Theatre could not be more proud of, as it is the first time it will produce a play written by a Creative Artist Award winner. It was written by a hard-core fan of the famed author and poet — Seebold said that his many years of studying Poe inspired the work.
“I would ascribe the genesis of the project to a lasting fascination with the works of Poe,” Seebold said. “The idea for the play emerged after years of avidly consuming his pages of dark romanticism.”
While Seebold has been interested in theatre for many years, The Spyglass Seven is his first written work for the stage. He completed an early draft in 2011, and said that the project “has been years in the making.” Once the script was finished, Seebold was eager to unveil the play to the public.
“The full production has come about as a part of the NCSU Creative Artist Award, which the play was awarded in 2012,” Seebold said. “University Theatre put on a public reading of the script in April, 2013, and the full production will be performed on stage for the first time September 6th.”
Having written mainly prose prior to this project, Seebold is looking forward to seeing his work brought to life on stage.
“The first time I heard the cast read through the script, I was fascinated by the simultaneous sense of familiarity and estrangement in the words,” Seebold said. “One becomes so used to hearing the lines echoing inside one’s own head during the writing process that when they are read back to one from the stage, there seems a mirror like quality to the words. They sound both unexpected and familiar to the ear and take on new life. Watching the play develop from script to stage has been thrilling.”
John McIlwee, the director of The Spyglass Seven and many more University Theatre productions, is delighted to be a part of the project, calling the play an exquisite work.
“Michael has created a world of romance and mystery that explores the magnificent words of Poe applied to the situations and emotions of the women he knew and often loved,” McIlwee told University Theatre in an interview for its website in 2012. “He has given us a view of Poe that allows the audience to span the arc of his literary genius throughout his life and he has done it with an entertaining conceit that has made his play this year’s Creative Artist Award winner in Theatre.”
Seebold’s immediate plans for the future include graduate studies while continuing to pursue his writing career.
The Spyglass Seven will be presented by University Theatre on Sep. 6 through 8. Admission is five dollars for members of the community or free with student ID.
