ENG 243-C1 Dr. O'Brien Introduction to Short Story

9 min. In "Great Minds", Dan Harmon meets with the greatest minds of history for an in-depth conversation about their lives, followed by mini excursions out into the world. Dan Harmon takes his Community fortune and builds a Time Machine. His guest from the past is Edgar Allan Poe (Paul F. Thompkins). A visiting network executive (Mary Lynn Rajskub) takes a liking to Poe, and Dan uses him to win her over.

90 min. Edgar Allan Poe: Buried Alive draws on the rich palette of Poe’s evocative imagery and sharply drawn plots to tell the real story of the notorious author. The film, featuring Tony Award-winning and Emmy-nominated actor Denis O’Hare, explores the misrepresentations of Poe as a drug-addled madman akin to the narrators of his horror stories.

30 min. Poe was born in Boston to actors David and Elizabeth Poe; but his father disappeared when Edgar Allan was three, and his mother died a year later. He was adopted by a family in Richmond, Virginia but was disowned when he was 17. After a brief career as a West Point cadet and soldier, he endured many difficulties but became one of the first great American imaginative writers. His works include The Raven and The Telltale Heart.

46 min. Descend into the dark world and tragic life of the melancholy author who is the uncontested master of the macabre, and hear excerpts from his famous works. He is the uncontested master of the macabre, a genius whose melancholy nature made his own life as tragic as one of his strange tales. Edgar Allan Poe's haunting poems and chilling stories established him as one of the most important men of American letters. But behind his popularity and artistic success was a personal life defined by broken hopes and failure. This extraordinary program tells Poe's complete story, from the death of his parents when he was three, to his tragic collapse on the street at age 40. Dramatic readings recall the devastation of his broken engagement and the loss of his child bride. And experts explore the bouts of depression and addiction that tormented the man and gave birth to his dark and brilliant art. BIOGRAPHY® takes an intimate look at one of literature's most complex and fascinating figures.

13 min. Edgar Allen Poe's classic poem in a dramatic setting.

18 min A contemporary adaptation of THE TELL-TALE HEART by Edgar Allan Poe. Corliss Young waits hand and foot on a bed-ridden old man, Alban Porter. Abandoned as a child, Corliss has become maid, nurse, and cook to Porter, living in dread of his constant demands and repeated insults. Each day, Corliss methodically plots to kill the old man, sneaking into his room each night to watch him sleep. A HOLLOW PLACE explores the emotional emptiness of a trapped young man. and how his rage finally explodes. By modernizing the story and creating contemporary African-American characters, the film brings the story of misdeeds and guilt to a new generation, capturing the vivid madness of the killer that is so engrossing in the original short story.

40 min. This live recording of the world première of Rautavaara's On the Last Frontier, with Segerstam conducting the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra and the Finnish Philharmonic Choir, comes from the Finlandia Hall. The inspiration for this powerful work was Edgar Allan Poe's description of a boatload of shipwrecked men, drifting towards the South Pole, approaching a gigantic curtain of fog which draws them into the unknown… An introduction in which Rautavaara and Segerstam talk about the composition is available.

24 min. "A dramatization of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" performed by Michael Kane. 1958."

60 min. The Pennsylvania Dance Theatre performs four original dances in their entirety, featuring choreography by Megan Brazil, Colin Conner, JoAnna Mendl Shaw, and Ann Van Kuren. Provides excellent examples of inventive choreography, music, and professional modern dance. Produced by Penn State Public Broadcasting, this is a rare chance to see contemporary choreography in performance.