Edgar Allan Poe's macabre masterpieces find a home in Kansas City's historic cemetery

To start the Halloween season, The Coterie Theater is bringing Gothic horror performances back to Union Cemetery, the state’s oldest public graveyard and the final resting place of many Kansas City founders.
A small crowd gathered Saturday evening, sitting on blankets and folding chairs at sunset on a hillside in Union Cemetery. The trees were tinged with orange and red as actor R.H. Wilhoit stepped out onto a grassy field between the graves to recite the work of American horror master Edgar Allen Poe.

Though he didn't break character until the end of the show, Wilhoit said performing Poe’s works in Missouri’s oldest public cemetery adds an eerie layer to each performance.

“Respectfully, we are surrounded by thousands of dead bodies,” he said of the site. “We perform in front of a holding vault, which is where they stacked dead bodies when it was too cold to create graves."

Wilhoit is leading The Coterie Theatre’s production of "Electric Poe," now in its fourth year. This time, Wilhoit has adapted three Poe works, including the poem “Annabel Lee” and short story “The Cask of Amontillado.”