By Haneen Khatib/nw news editor

Theatre Northwest will present The Poe Murders, a play written and directed by drama associate professor Josh Blann.

In this play that runs Oct. 12-16, Blann took several scenarios from the work of Edgar Allan Poe and incorporated them into a modern-day horror mystery.

“I wanted to start doing something more in the spirit of Halloween,” he said.

Blann didn’t find exactly what he was looking for in Poe’s work.

“I read several and didn’t see any that served our needs,” he said. “So I thought, ‘I am going to type away and see what I come up with.’”

Although Blann didn’t find a specific story he could put in his play, Poe was an inspiration.

“It turned into a good way to retell Edgar Allan Poe’s stories, you know, stories of horror and psychological violence, and turn it into a good way to tell the stories in a way that’s entertaining,” he said.

Blann has made sure the show is not “cheesy.” His goal is for it to be scary, not silly. It is aimed toward college students.

“He calls us the cheese police,” said Anastasia Braswell, who plays Sherie. “A lot of the ideas are stemmed from all of us because, you know, Josh wrote it.”

The play has a lot of violence and some profanity.

“Big thing is this is not for kids,” said Joshua Jones, who plays Edmund.

Blann stressed that the play isn’t a typical Poe story people are used to reading.

“The play takes us through a journey of Dr. Cook, a professor of literature at a university in present-day New Orleans,” Blann said. “Several murders start to occur, and Dr. Cook realizes that five of his students might be behind the murders.”

Each murder is taken out of one of Poe’s stories that are discussed in Dr. Cook’s class.

“So we are following Dr. Cook as he tries to discover how to stop the murders from happening,” he said.

The cast came in not knowing each other.

“It has made us closer,” said Brandon Hatten, a cast member. “It’s like we’re one big family.”

The play will begin at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday in the WTLO theater.

Tickets are $6 for general admission, $3 for seniors and non-TCC students and free for TCC students faculty and staff members. To order tickets, call 817-515-7724.