SRRHS’ new ROCKin’ Theatre Company puts on Edgar Allen Poe show

Edgar Allen Poe is known for macabre short stories and poems with ravens and mysteries — and brief tales of people obsessed with their noses.

Logan Jankowski, a senior in Sedona Red Rock High School’s ROCKin’ Theatre Company, said his role as the elector in the satirical nose story, “Lionizing,” is his favorite in the group’s six-story show, “Shuddersome: Tales of Poe.”

“I just get to be silly,” he said. “The elector is this German character who really is very upset with Robert Jones,” one of the main characters.

The other Poe stories performed in the show include “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Bells,” “The Oval Portrait,” “Masque of the Red Death” and “The Raven.”

“Some of them are funny, some of them are sad and dark,” sophomore Koen Bailor said.

Bailor said he had a little bit of experience in theater last year at Verde Valley School, but is excited SRRHS is able to put on a play like this.

“I really rather like the works of Poe,” Jankowski said. “We [the drama class] saw a documentary about Poe right before the play, and I really liked his style and his background.”

One of the more recognizable stories, “The Raven,” is split up into several different speakers to narrate different parts of the poem.

Freshman Kason Birke, the third speaker for “The Raven,” said the poem was his favorite because it was more ominous and like what he thinks of when he thinks about Poe.

He said he is a big fan of theater lighting and how the stage works, so when he is getting into character for “The Raven,” he imagines himself on a stage without lights.

“Poe would only write under one candlelight,” he said. “So that really sets me into the mindset of how he would want the story to be told.”

“I wanted to go [with a] ‘fire and brimstone’ preacher voice, just for the heavy presence,” said the fifth speaker, junior Fernando Quisumbing, who also played Ebenezer Scrooge in the school’swinter play “A Christmas Carol.” “But that skewed way too hard to Scrooge.”

He said his favorite part of that is to find ways to have a similar presence, but make it more unique to this story.

For the stage manager, freshman Alex Cutler, watching all the actors get into their own character is the best part. She said shewasn’t in the class for the last show, but helped with some staging and really enjoyed it.

“I didn’t necessarily want to act so stage manager [was good],” she said.

“I’m their fail-safe,” she said. “I’ll give lines if they call them out.”

One consensus for the theater students was the camaraderie that the program gives them.

“I’ve gotten to be a lot closer with some people that I would just be more acquainted with,” Jankowski said.

“Now that we’re working towards a common goal, we’re really getting to be friends.”

While all the students not graduating are looking forward to continuing in theater, Jankowski said he’s planning to do when he attends Northern Arizona University in the fall.

“I want to do some theater when I’m in college,” he said. “I hear they got a community troupe in Flagstaff, so I might check that out.”

Tickets are available through the Scorpion Booster Club website, scorpionboosterclub.com, for $15. Tickets will be available at the box office as well.

“We’re encouraging as many online purchases as possible, just to kind of keep it as smooth as possible, but yes, they’re available at the door,” said Sedona-Oak Creek School District Superintendent Tom Swaninger, Ed.D., who added he’s a huge Poe fan and excited for the show.

The company will stage two shows: Thursday and Friday, April 23 and 24, at 6 p.m. in the Sedona Performing Arts Center, 995 Upper Red Rock Loop Road.