Mark Swanson

A Scythe of Time Mark Swanson

Full-Length Musical "...a dark and delectable little comedy." -The New York Times Whittaker N. Blackwood, Editor in Chief of a periodical known as The Blackwood Articles, has a plan to slip the clutches of death: claim sole dominion over the written word. He offers fifty guineas to any writer who submits to him the story of their own death: a story of truth, a story offering glimpses of the unknown, a story packed with sensation the likes of which the world has never seen. Before long, all the writers of 19th century London have dueled, hung, and drowned themselves to oblivion, and the city is overwrought with (singing and dancing) ghosts and their stories. Now Blackwood's is the only periodical left except for one. Owner and Editor of The Bluebatch Signora Psyche Zenobia, a woman of self-professed Greek heritage who once rejected a smitten Whittaker Blackwood at the London Periodical Editors' Ball, stands between Blackwood and the power to glorify his name indelibly throughout the world and across the chapters of the future. In this curious, Poe-inspired musical, a man's worth is measured by the stories that outlive him- and those who survive to tell them. Will Truth still speak after time cuts her (from the neck) down? (Cast: 1F, 3M, Ensemble)