Hometown Theater To Host First Performances of "Bill Oberst Jr.'s Weird Tales"

Nov. 26, 2012 - PRLog -- Bill Oberst Jr., whose performance in Facebook's 'Take This Lollipop' was awarded a 2012 Daytime Emmy, will debut the new touring stage show 'Bill Oberst Jr.'s Weird Tales' in his hometown of Georgetown, SC.

The historic Strand Theater, where the actor says he spent untold childhood hours happily watching matinee movies and dreaming of the career he has now, will host the premiere of 'Bill Oberst Jr.'s Weird Tales' on Jan 12, 2013. The one-man show begins a national tour in the spring.

Oberst, named 'The King Of Indie Horror' by the U.K. horror fan site Erebus Horror in March, is a former career stage actor. Since coming to Los Angeles 4 years ago, he has amassed over 80 film & TV credits http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2454994/ and has been called "the best actor you've never heard of" by The Hallmark Channel. He says he was inspired by the speaking and performance tours of actor Vincent Price in creating the new one-man show. "Price had great fun playing on his dark screen image and performing classic literature like Poe's 'The Raven'" says Oberst. "I wanted to do something in the same style, something fun and literate that I could take out on the road on weekends when I am not filming."

'Bill Oberst Jr.'s Weird Tales' will feature Oberst performing short stories from Edgar Allan Poe, H.P. Lovecraft and the man he says is his favorite writer of all, the late Ray Bradbury. Oberst performed Bradbury's short story 'Pillar Of Fire' in the author's hometown of Waukegan, IL on Halloween weekend this year as a part of the Ray Bradbury Storytelling Festival http://www.waukeganpl.org/Storytelling-Festival

The actor says not all of these stories he'll choose for 'Bill Oberst Jr.'s Weird Tales' are scary, but all are "wonderfully strange." Oberst, who has toured to hundreds of schools for the NEA, says he hopes to inspire a new generation of young readers to embrace the authors he has included in the show. "I'm doing Poe, Lovecraft and Bradbury in their own words, using the exact texts that they wrote. That's important to me. I fell in love with language at an early age. I'd be so happy if one young person was taken enough with hearing these words to read more of these authors, or if one adult was inspired to go back and re-read them. That would be enough for me."

Besides being recognized at the Daytime Emmy Awards for 'Take This Lollipop,' Oberst has received other major recognition this year: CNN called him "an emerging horror icon" in a profile this summer; he won a Golden Cobb Award from the National B-Movie Celebration Festival as Best Rising B-Movie Actor and in an upset victory over better-known nominees Tom Sizemore and Martin Sheen's brother Joe Esteves, he won a Best Actor Award at Hollywood's Shockfest Film Festival  for his lead role in the film 'Children Of Sorrow.' http://erebushorror.com/2012/11/24/bill-oberst-wins-even-...

Reserved-seat tickets for the premiere performances of 'Bill Oberst Jr.'s Weird Tales' are $15.00 and are available by reservation from the Strand Theater box office at 710 Front Street in Georgetown, SC by calling 843-527-2924. There will be two performances only, both on Saturday, January 12, 2013 at 4pm and 7pm.

"I'm humbled and a little nervous to be previewing this show in my hometown" say the actor, "but I've loved the Strand Theater  since I was a kid. Besides, it's sort of a good luck charm for me. I previewed 'An Evening With Lewis Grizzard' at the Strand in 1999 and it went on to run for a dozen years and 2,000 performances on tour. I'm happy that my home folks are willing to have me there."