'Big Read' Wraps up with Movie, Murder Mystery

The following information was submitted by Wyckoff Public Library Director Mary Witherell:

Just restored to power after a ten-day blackout caused by Hurricane Sandy, Wyckoff Public Library resumes its Big Read celebration of Edgar Allan Poe with two back-to-back events that reflect his founding  role on both the horror and mystery genres on Thursday, Nov. 15 and Friday, Nov. 16.

Poe was the master of the horror story, and his subject matter of live burial, revenge, nervous collapse and compulsion has inspired scores of artists to create works on similar themes. In the final of three “double features” mixing theater with film, the library presents a dramatic reading of the Poe short story “William Wilson” followed by a screening of the Alfred Hitchcock classic suspense film Spellbound, starring Ingrid Bergman and Gregory Peck. Professor Edward Shannon of Ramapo College introduces the double feature at 7 p.m. on Nov. 15 in the Shotmeyer Room.

Poe created the first fictional sleuth, C. Auguste Dupin, thereby establishing the structure of the most popular of all genres, the mystery. The Big Read finale is a unique theatrical experience,“Murder in the Library!” which begins at 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 16. The library is the scene of the dastardly murder of one Frederick Raven, an eccentric member of the Edgar Allan Poe Society. The audience will interact with a suspicious cast of characters from one end of the building to the other until they manage to unravel the mystery. This original interactive mystery is written, staged and performed by Kathy Reed Productions. Tickets are $5, available at the reference desk or via phone at 201-891-4866, option 2. Children under sixth grade are not permitted due to the adult nature of the interactive experience.

The Big Read runs from Sept. 27 to Nov. 16 and is co-sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Friends of the Wyckoff Library. Now in its seventh year and managed by Arts Midwest, The Big Read is designed to restore reading to the center of American culture. Wyckoff is the sixth library in New Jersey, as well as the first in the 74-library BCCLS consortium, to ever win a Big Read grant.

Have a question or news tip? Contact editor Joseph M. Gerace at Joseph.Gerace@patch.com, or find us on Facebook and Twitter. For news straight to your inbox every morning, sign up for our daily newsletter.