The Spyglass Seven by Michael Seebold finds Edgar Allan Poe resurrected from the grave for one night, to speak again with the ghosts of the seven women who most shaped his life and work. In a cemetery before dawn, the ghosts reminisce on their loves, rivalries, and literature from the 1830s and 1840s. Under the mysterious presence and vigil of the Spirit of Beauty, Poe is given until sunrise to determine which of the seven women was his soul mate.
The play incorporates writings and poems from Poe and his contemporaries, including the infamous Obituary for Edgar Allan Poe written by Rufus Griswold. Among the historical figures to appear in the play are Jane Stanard, an early mentor figure from Poe’s years in Richmond; Sarah Helen Whitman, the enigmatic spiritualist and one-time fiancée to Poe; and Virginia Clemm, Poe’s first cousin and wife, whose death from tuberculosis inspired some of the poet’s most famous poems.
The Spyglass Seven received the 2012 Arts NC State Creative Artist Award for Playwriting and saw its world premiere at NCSU University Theatre in 2013. The play has run previously in New York and in the International Edgar Allan Poe Festival & Awards in Baltimore. In June 2025, it ran at the Poe Museum in Richmond, Virginia, with a cast led by actors Elias Morris (Poe) and Kate Shoulders (Beauty), with hair, makeup, and special effect designs by Sol Henriquez.
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