ABOUT THE PRODUCTION
Following the unprecedented success of GRIMM TALES, the first ballet commissioned by the Butler New Choreography Endowment, Stephen Mills explores the haunted life and works of celebrated author Edgar Allan Poe. With a commissioned score by award-winning composer Graham Reynolds, and libretto by Shawn Sides, POE / A TALE OF MADNESS shares a perspective of the blurred lines between Poe’s chilling tales and complex life.
Commissioned by the Butler New Choreography Endowment
CHOREOGRAPHY: Stephen Mills
MUSIC: Graham Reynolds
LIBRETTO: Shawn Sides
COSTUME DESIGN: Margaret Mitchell
SET DESIGN: Michael B. Raiford
Photography by Anne Marie Bloodgood
All rights reserved | No unauthorized use
HIGHLIGHTS
- Choreography: Stephen Mills
- Music: Graham Reynolds
- Libretto: Shawn Sides
- Set Design: Michael B. Raiford
- Costume Design: Margaret Mitchell
- Lighting Design: Tony Tucci & Erin Earle Fleming
- Hair & Makeup: Wendy Sanders
- Run-time: 86 minutes in 2 acts
- Dancers: 28 (10 company women, 12 company men, 5 apprentice women, 1 apprentice man & 1 male student)
- Awards: HERMES® Platinum Award for the POE Cinematic Trailer
PREMIERES
THE LONG CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS | BALLET AUSTIN
Austin, TX – 2024 (World Premiere)
PRESS
“Since he famously set a full-length ‘Hamlet’ to the music of Philip Glass almost a quarter of a century ago, Mills has repeatedly found a knack for turning cultural artifacts into completely new, living, breathing ballets.”
Austin American-Statesman
“…how this production drips with Gothic splendor. Mills has assembled his supersquad of local talent, atop-tier list of past collaborators creating Poe’s harrowing tale. Honestly, there’s too much to praise in this production.”
The Austin Chronicle
“Stephen Mills assembled a team of collaborators from among Austin’s most exciting performing arts creatives. The result is a mysterious web of dance storytelling that explores madness, trauma, and loss, some of the themes Mills has returned to time and again throughout his career.”
Glasstire
“Flashbacks and hallucinations take us through Poe’s troubled story, beginning with the loss of his mother at age 3 and ending back at the hospital…the goal is a deeply gothic effect—a reflection of a recent proclivity toward the macabre, both in ballet and the larger cultural zeitgeist…”
Pointe Magazine
“Ballet Austin’s long-time director Stephen Mills has challenged himself and his company with a huge collaborative effort named POE / A Tale of Madness…by not just focusing on one story but blending elements of five Edgar Allan Poe works, the stage is transformed into a hallucinatory nightmare. Plenty of beautiful pictures and haunting images stay with me…a dance to die for.”
The Dance Enthusiast
“Choreographed by lauded artistic director Stephen Mills, the show is set to original music from composer Graham Reynolds (who has scored films like ‘Before Midnight’ and ‘Bernie’).”
ATXtoday