John Astin bringing ghost of Poe to Holmdel
‘Once Upon a Midnight’
STEVE ALEXANDER John Astin transforms himself into Edgar Allan Poe in his portrayal of the tormented 19th-century writer in Edgar Allan Poe — Once Upon a Midnight to be performed at Holmdel High School Feb. 8.
to benefit Holmdel Theatre Co.
By elaine van develde
Staff Writer
n the subject of 19th-century poet and prose writer Edgar Allen Poe, actor John Astin will tell you never to say "nevermore" to the scathing beauty that lies in demons.
The romance of Poe and the profound passion Astin believes Poe had for life motivated him to study and portray the man known as the "master of the macabre."
Astin, a Los Angeles resident and native of Maryland and Washington, D.C., is coming to Holmdel High School at 8 p.m. Feb. 8 not only to share his interpretation of Poe with the public again, but to give perspective on Poe’s work through his performance in Edgar Allen Poe — Once Upon a Midnight.
Astin has been playing Poe and conveying his work in a one-man show for about three years now. He’ll be the first to tell you that his performance is not new to New Jersey audiences.
But what brought him to the Garden State this time is a desire to help the Holmdel Theater Company raise funds. The theater’s principal, Wendell Smith, is on the board of trustees at Johns Hopkins University, Maryland, Astin’s alma mater. Actually, Smith was ahead of Astin in college by a couple of years, and Astin is now a visiting professor at the university.
Astin said he also has a message to get out about Poe, and he’ll do it whenever the opportunity arises and his schedule permits.
To him, that message is about how passion can push artists to do what they love most — the uncanny love that underscores an artist’s work, paving its way to a timeless life of its own.
That’s what Astin said Poe aspired to do and succeeded in doing in his short lifetime — a lifetime in lock step with tragedy, leaving the writer with nary a penny in his pocket.
An actor, director, producer and writer best known for his portrayal of Gomez Addams on the popular 1960s sitcom The Addams Family, Astin has studied Poe extensively.
He has a passion for Poe all his own, and he is always happy to share it, show or not.
"The show was a wonderful coincidence for me," Astin said. "I really had no [lifelong actor’s] interest in playing the character of Poe; I had just really wanted to share his work with people. Doing the character came later. The show was co-written by Paul Day Clemens and Ron Magid a few years ago when I happened to be studying Poe on my own. There were so many reasons for doing this. Poe’s story is so inspirational. His life was filled with tragedy. And in spite of that, he managed to create all of this…the excitement in his work, his art, is absolute electricity."
That passion, whatever form it takes, transfers from Poe to Astin, to poetry, to prose, to philosophy, to acting. Astin will tell you it’s why he does what he does and it’s why Poe wrote. It’s why any artist does what he or she does, he said, because there’s a message borne out of intense caring that’s to be remembered.
"Poe was trying to express the inexpressible for all time," Astin said. "He had a great deal of passion and perspective. He understood that all of us are connected as human beings and it’s critical to respect the dignity of every human life. It was his belief that nothing is or can be greater than any one soul. I share that perspective."
Contrary to the intense caring Astin knows to have weighed on Poe’s heart, the writer was known as a cantankerous curmudgeon with a very dogmatic edge, Astin said. Poe drank a lot, lost many a job as an editor and watched virtually all of his lovers drop dead of consumption (tuberculosis).
"Poe, most of the time, cared a great deal. His life was largely about survival and protecting his loved ones. But he was not always able to do that. He lost a lot of people he loved a great deal," Astin said.
"There was a tremendous amount of beauty in the reality of his work as well," he added.
Known as a dark prince of the printed word and inventor of eerie detective tales such as the chilling "The Telltale Heart," Poe created a fright factor that is also filled with an uncanny passion for pursuit of the truth, according to Astin.
"The truth has an element of the macabre in it," Astin said. "Poe was a seeker of truth, and that made his work all the more beautiful and romantic. He dealt with life and death and the sometimes frightening realities they bear. He was not afraid to explore the darkness. He didn’t pretend it didn’t exist."
The leading critic of his time, Poe still felt the sting of sour words when it came to his work, which always mattered to him, Astin said. Poe was considered an outsider in the literary establishment, accepted one moment and rejected the next, Astin said.
For instance, Poe’s poem "The Raven," which "he lived to see the success of," Astin said, was rejected the first time he submitted it to a magazine in 1845. It was written while his beloved wife (and first cousin) Virginia was dying, serving as somewhat of a "catharsis, or path toward discovery — a medium through which Poe expressed ideas and life," Astin said.
"There were many stories of women who died and returned," he added.
In "The Raven," that woman was Lenore.
Though Astin said choosing a favorite work of Poe’s is like asking him to choose one of his five children (all sons), he will point out, "Poe achieved a lot of notoriety, notwithstanding that some of his most important work was ignored."
Considered perhaps his most prized work, "Eureka," a long prose poem that unraveled, through art, some riddles of existence, was panned, and Poe was devastated.
"Poe was one of the first people to tackle the reason it is so dark when there are so many stars in the sky," Astin said, referring to "Eureka."
Written in 1947, "Eureka" was a product of the pain Poe felt after Virginia’s death and was the culmination of every message he had ever written or mark he had tried to leave behind, Astin said. It is a work he said he deeply appreciates.
The forward to "Eureka" explains not only Poe’s purpose, but that of almost every artist. It reads: "To the few who love me and whom I love — to those who feel rather than those who think — to the dreamers and those who put faith in dreams as in the only realities, I offer this Book of Truths, not in its character of truth-teller, but for the beauty that abounds in its truth, constituting it to be true. To these I present the composition as an art-product alone, let us say as a romance or, if I be not urging too lofty a claim, as a poem."
As Poe’s work takes you through the poverty-stricken, plagued life of loves lost and truth in tragedy, so does Astin’s in Once Upon a Midnight. The show has been praised as blending the historical with the supernatural in a journey through Poe’s imagination.
Astin’s bio reads like that of any successful person in the business with hundreds of television, voice-over, producing, directing and writing credits. It can be read in a program. What cannot be read in a theater is his insight; it must be experienced. Though his credits are too long to enumerate, Astin is more than modest — a sincere tribute to an artist from an artist. See for yourself.
Show tickets are available for $25 and $35, and student rates are $12. Call (732) 946-0427 for reservations.