L.A. Troupe to Stage 3 Award-Winning Poe Plays in New York

Zombie Joe's Underground will be performing in New York's theater district this fall. The experimental theater group has been invited to perform three of its acclaimed stagings of Edgar Allan Poe classics -- "The Tell-Tale Heart," "The Masque of the Red Death" and "The Bells" -- at St. Luke's Theater in Manhattan, starting in late August.

"I can't believe what a cool opportunity -- and what a compliment -- this is," said Zombie Joe, whose 50-seat "black box" has become a NoHo Arts District fixture, with its fast-paced, intense explorations of the forbidden and the macabre. "It's amazing," added Denise Devin, his partner and co-producer, "to think we'll be in a 170-seat theater one block off Broadway, right near Times Square."

Since 2000, when they opened the eerily decorated storefront, Zombie Joe, Devin and a family of actors have been dedicated to bursting the envelope. "We always push ourselves beyond our limits," Zombie Joe said, "and we hope to shock and amuse our audiences, taking them a little deeper than they're used to." In April, the troupe's innovative production of "Masque of the Red Death" -- which used the whole theater, including the lobby, as part of the stage, and put the audience in the middle of the action -- won an LA Weekly Award for best ensemble work by a small theater.

"We thought that was the mountaintop," Devin said. "We were dancing! And then came the call from New York, inviting us to do it again on Broadway."

St. Luke's Theater, on Manhattan's "Restaurant Row," is one of the best-known off-Broadway venues. Says one leading Manhattan theater website, "To get the feel of 'real New York theater,' you can't do much better than St. Luke's." Earlier this year, St. Luke's hosted another show that began its life in L.A, Alan Palmer's one-man musical, "Fabulous Divas of Broadway."