Marinelli New Dance Theater is a wild, boundary-pushing creative collective of women-identifying people who aim to think beyond metaphorical ceilings and develop enthralling, can't-tear-your-eyes-away spectacles of music, movement, connection, and intellect.

The True and Unquestionable Account of Dr. Joseph Snodgrass, headed by an all-female-identifying core creative team, is an experimental, musical play about the man who fabricated many of the facts we still believe about Edgar Allan Poe and the woman who first accused Poe’s potential murderer. 

The plot follows Margaret Fuller in the year before her death, as she prepares to write the obituary of her once-rival and sparring partner, Poe. Her quest leads her to Joseph Snodgrass: Poe's physician, coattail-rider and possible lover who is acting as the gatekeeper of Poe's legacy. But Joseph Snodgrass is not who he purports to be.

 

History of the Project

After the passing of a loved one, and much like the Poe in our play, Ashley Marinelli, our writer, began having nightmares filled with images of being buried alive. She sought comfort in research and unearthed some childhood favorites, including those of Poe's involving live burial. To make sense of her findings and emotionally cope with her loss, Ashley began writing with this concept, and Poe, at heart. 

What was evident in the first workshops was the need for a physical language - a way for the paranormal to become accessible to an audience and retain its magic. This language expanded into multi-bodied structures that transformed the architecture and design of our show, blurring the line between set and flesh. 

As the choreography progressed, so did the script. Invited readings and talkbacks morphed into zoom readings and socially-distant script revisals as the Covid-19 pandemic swept the country. This was the most unexpected but perhaps most important developmental time in our history. The past two years forced us to take the script on in a new way, challenging not the content or soul of the piece, but the manner in which we were telling it. We realized that we were an all-female-identifying creative team fully immersed in the work of a man, told through the POV of another man.

From Ashley came a revised character named Lou, fashioned after the very real Margaret Fuller.

Who is Margaret Fuller?

Edgar Allan Poe and Margaret Fuller were both equally famous in their day. He was the best-read poet of his time, she the best-read female writer. He created the detective genre while she became the first female war correspondent in history. 

Both were literary pioneers with strong convictions about how art should be made, and they once ended up in a famous spat, in which Poe announced: "There are three types of people: men, women and Margaret Fuller". Margaret did not mince words in her reply.  Both died at 40 years old (within a year of one another). Both died under mysterious circumstances. 

Poe lives on in our imagination today. Margaret has been almost entirely erased. 

Women have been buffed from the public narrative for as long as facts have been subjective to the fact keepers, and women in the theatre industry are still living in a Margaret Fuller world. Though our industry is female-dominated at the performance level, the storytellers and decision-makers are predominately male. As an all-female-identifying creative team, we have found that telling a man's story has more momentum, even if it's our Trojan Horse. This show is designed to look like "another Poe show," but it's our gateway through the gatekeepers to resurrect a female perspective.

 

Our Mission

As theater around the country and especially here in New York City begins to find its footing on the knife’s edge between pandemic and endemic, we feel secure in our plan to keep our team, cast, and audiences safe. Not only are we and our venue requiring full vaccination, but our COVID-Compliance Officer has created a testing schedule and mandatory supplies list that will ensure everyone’s safety from auditions to closing night. 

We’re also out to challenge the status quo, and to work with excellent performers who tend to get passed over in the traditional casting setting in a way that is long overdue. Radical inclusivity is a pillar of our mission both in casting and audience accessibility, as is creating an atmosphere from audition to paycheck that is sustainable and equitable by above-par standards.

How Far Your Gift Will Go

We can’t wait to mount our show at The Players Club in New York City on May 12th and 13th of this year, but more so, we can’t wait to share with all of you our vision for the future of The True and Unquestionable Account of Dr. Joseph Snodgrass. The funding provided by your generous support and eventual ticket sales will make the next iteration of this show possible - an iteration that we hope will bring us to a larger space and a longer run, and afford us the time and resources to bring every element to life.

 

Follow us on these platforms:

Instagram: @josephsnodgrassplay

Facebook: @josephsnodgrassplay

Twitter: @joesnodplay

www.josephsnodgrassplay.com

Make sure you click "follow project" at the top of this page for updates from rehearsals, personal messages from the creative team, and be the first to grab new incentives as they release each week!