| Gary Sloan, associate professor, drama, was mentioned in The Baltimore Examiner about his one-man play "Haunted Prince: The Ghosts of Edwin Booth." He was also the subject of an article in The Baltimore Sun about the play. He will perform the play at the Harford County Courthouse in Bel Air, Md., and again as part of the Shakespeare in Washington festival in the spring. See the story below. |
From: The Baltimore Examiner Date: Nov. 17, 2006 Author: Matthew SantoniBEL AIR, Md. (AP) - A professor at Catholic University is working on a one-man play depicting one of Harford County's most famous sons, who was eclipsed by his younger brother John Wilkes Booth.
Gary Sloan, an assistant professor of drama at Washington's Catholic University of America, will read "Haunted Prince: The Ghosts of Edwin Booth" at the Harford County Courthouse in Bel Air on Saturday.
Edwin was one of the most renowned Shakespearean actors of his day - once performing "Hamlet" for 100 consecutive nights in New York City - but with three words and one gunshot, his brother leaped to far greater prominence in American history as Abraham Lincoln's assassin, said Dinah Faber of the Harford County Historical Society.
"After the assassination, Edwin personally felt he wouldn't be able to continue his career," Faber said. Unlike his fanatically pro-Southern brother, "he did support Lincoln, to the point that he voted for him."
Edwin Booth eventually returned to acting in 1866, she said - though history would accord his younger brother greater prominence.
The reading of the one-man show takes place in the Bel Air Courthouse, deliberately hearkening back to when a 17-year-old Edwin Booth gave one of his first performances alongside his future brother-in-law in the old courthouse, said Trish Heidenreich, from the Bel Air Office of Economic Development.
A mural of the original performance adorns the Bel Air post office, and a portrait of Edwin Booth overlooks the courtroom where the reading will be held. Sloan, along with director Stephen Fried and writer Christie Brown, will take questions and commentary from the audience after each of his two performances at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
These will be the first public showings of "Haunted Prince," which will be performed March 26 at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, Heidenreich said.
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