<\/p>\n
HOLYOKE \u2014 What do Edgar Allen Poe\u2019s \u201cThe Raven,\u201d Mary Shelley\u2019s \u201cFrankenstein,\u201d and Washington Irving\u2019s \u201cThe Legend of Sleepy Hollow\u201d all have in common?<\/p>\n
Aside from being three examples of classic gothic literature, they\u2019re also the inspirations behind Shadow, Sound, Spectacle, a Western Massachusetts-based troupe that blends songs and storytelling with shadow puppetry and video. They will perform at Wistariahurst Museum<\/a> on Saturday, Sept. 20 at 7 p.m.<\/p>\n \u201cWestern education puts a lot of emphasis on studying writers of the 1800s and early 1900s. That tends to be a period of great upheaval and industrial change, and I think that resonates nicely with all the upheaval we feel in any generation,\u201d said singer-songwriter Jess Martin who, along with puppeteer Amy West and performer and videographer Abby Hanna, make up the troupe.<\/p>\n So, while stories on the surface level may be about a man haunted by a talking raven, or a monster that doesn\u2019t understand its purpose in life, they\u2019re also about the struggles people feel in any generation.<\/p>\n For Martin, that meant her journey coming out as queer.<\/p>\n \u201cBeing someone who was closeted as a child and didn\u2019t see a lot of people like me made me feel like \u2018oh, am I the monster?\u2019\u201d Martin said. \u201cThat\u2019s always resonated with me. The idea of being haunted by a bird who says \u2018nevermore\u2019 over and over again, it\u2019s just like, \u2018why is that bird here? And why is it after me?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Shadow, Sound, Spectacle began as a \u201chappy surprise,\u201d Martin said. She approached West, a puppeteer with whom she had worked with in the past, and the two worked together to create a music video called \u201cDanger in the Deep.\u201d That project was so much fun, Martin said, that they worked together again on a song Martin wrote called \u201cNevermore,\u201d based on the Edgar Allen Poe poem \u201cThe Raven.\u201d Hanna joined them, and the trio started performing for audiences.<\/p>\n The trio will bring a new song and story to their show at Wistariahurst \u2014 one inspired by \u201cThe Legend of Sleepy Hollow.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis guy disappears and nobody cares, so to me, it resonated with how dangerous it is to be visible as a queer person and especially someone who\u2019s not gender-conforming,\u201d Martin said. \u201cSo, this song interweaves between the elements of the original story with my own experiences as a queer person potentially being a victim of a society that doesn\u2019t want me around.\u201d<\/p>\n The performance will include headless horsemen shadow puppets designed by West; a live-action video by Hanna; and a song written and performed by Martin.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re excited to premiere it at Wistariahurst. Each production brings in a new piece, so the show keeps growing every time we perform it,\u201d Martin said.<\/p>\n The trio also prides themselves on having an interactive show. Even the name of their troupe \u2014 Shadow, Sound, Spectacle \u2014 was decided by an audience vote.<\/p>\n This time, audience members will be voting on their next project. Martin will perform three new songs for the audience after the main part of the show, and people will be invited to vote for their favorite of the three.<\/p>\n \u201cAmy, Abby and I all see performance as a conversation with the audience. So, how can we get them to have an opportunity to speak back to us? They let us know the direction we should move in,\u201d Martin said.<\/p>\n Tickets to \u201cShadow, Sound, Spectacle presents: Literary Monsters\u201d are $20 and can be purchased on Eventbrite.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n Read the original article on MassLive<\/a>. Add MassLive<\/a> as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" HOLYOKE \u2014 What do Edgar Allen Poe\u2019s \u201cThe Raven,\u201d Mary Shelley\u2019s \u201cFrankenstein,\u201d and Washington Irving\u2019s \u201cThe Legend of Sleepy Hollow\u201d all have in common? Aside from being three examples of classic gothic literature, they\u2019re also the inspirations behind Shadow, Sound, Spectacle, a Western Massachusetts-based troupe that blends songs and storytelling with shadow puppetry and video. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2010075,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[361555,367418,367420,367421,367419],"class_list":["post-2010074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-edgar-allen-poe","tag-jess-martin","tag-spectacle","tag-the-legend-of-sleepy-hollow","tag-wistariahurst-museum"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Shadow-Sound-Spectacle-to-bring-\u2018Literary-Monsters-show-to-Holyoke.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2010074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2010074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2010074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2010075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2010074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2010074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2010074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}