Dear Mr. Wiles,

Last year as I began looking for potential competition pieces for my high school actors I came across your work Nevermore: The Final Mystery of Edgar Allen Poe! and was completely captivated. I have discovered that it can be quite difficult to find quality pieces for high school drama groups. Many of the works I have read are watered-down or tacky at best. However, I felt that your work would challenge my students and force them to step into very difficult roles while tackling the work as an ensemble.

This past weekend my 12 theatre students presented a cut version of your work at the North Carolina Theatre Conference at King's Mountain High School. over the course of the two days 16 45 minute shows were presented and adjudicated by theatre professionals. Two of these shows each year are chosen to move on to the State competition, which is held in Greensboro at the end of the month. And from there two shows will move on to perform at SETC in March.

I wanted to reach out to share with you that our team performed your piece and was met with an overwhelming response from both audience and adjudicators. We received the highest ratings possible in each category and were awarded the "Judges Choice" title and will be performing this show in several weeks at the NCTC State High School Play Festival in Greensboro. The Judges were floored by the students performance, by our overall production design and by the story itself. One adjudicator said he was so captivated and didn't want the show to end and was waiting to see if we would continue story after Poe stated he wrote his new ending and Reynolds is revealed as the one in the coffin!

I wanted to take a moment to thank you for writing such a fantastic piece of work! I read several scripts, which were centered around Poe and found that yours was by far the best of all of them! We have so enjoyed working on this piece and I am looking forward to guiding these actors even deeper into character study as we prepare for the next stage of the competition. I am sure you are very busy with the affairs at Charleston Stage, however, if you should have any words of encouragement or wisdom for the actors as they prepare I know they would be beyond thrilled to hear from you.

Thank you so much for such a beautiful piece! It has been such a joy to work on!

-- Tiffany Renee Bear Vocal Music & Theatre Director Fine Arts Department CHARLOTTE CHRISTIAN SCHOOL Charlotte, NC