Rebecca Gorman O'neill

Rebecca Gorman O’Neill was born in Akron, Ohio; she escaped at age 17 to attend Dartmouth College, where she majored in Drama and English. While studying acting in London, Rebecca won her first playwriting contest, and happily jumped off the stage. Rebecca went on to earn her M.F.A. in Dramatic Writing from Carnegie Mellon University. Rebecca’s original plays have been produced in Denver, Boston, Pittsburgh, Seattle, Boulder, Spokane, Racine, and Hanover. Awards include the Panowski Playwriting Award ("Tell-Tale") and the Rocky Mountain Theatre Association’s Full-length Play Award ("The Greater Good"). Rebecca is an Associate Professor of English at Metropolitan State University of Denver, where she teaches playwriting, screenwriting, cinema studies, and the graphic novel. She is a company member of the LIDA Project Theatre in Denver.

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  Tell-Tale

Drama by Rebecca Gorman O'neill

84 pages

13 m, 21 w. (With doubling 5 m, 8 w. )


TELL-TALE is loosely based on the life and death of Edgar Allan Poe. It is, in essence, Poe’s last confession. It takes place in the Baltimore hospital where he lies in a delirium before his death. Poe is forced to look at his life, his mistakes, his outrageous behaviors, and, in the end, he must try to find peace. This peace in death comes by way of the only peace he had in life -- telling a story. Poe starts his story by casting himself as the dashing, tragic hero, but as the play progresses, his own memories slip from his control, turning on him and forcin...