Author Anne Rice Coming to Portsmouth

The Music Hall’s Writers on a New England Stage series is thrilled to welcome the prolific bestselling novelist and memoirist, Anne Rice, author of the acclaimed series The Vampire Chronicles, on Tuesday, Nov. 4.

Rice will discuss her much-anticipated novel, PRINCE LESTAT: The Vampire Chronicles, a large, luxuriant, and chillingly hypnotic mystery-thriller that takes readers to present-day New York and the West Coast, ancient Egypt, fourth century Carthage, 14th-Century Rome, and Renaissance Venice.

The 7:30pm event in The Music Hall’s Historic Theater in downtown Portsmouth, NH, includes an author presentation and on-stage interview with Virginia Prescott, host of New Hampshire Public Radio’s “Word of Mouth.” The series’ house band Dreadnaught will play live music during the one hour event.

Said Patricia Lynch, Executive Director of The Music Hall, “Anne Rice is a legend and she comes to us with her masterful vampire, Lestat. Let the spine tingling begin – what a way to celebrate the haunting season! Rice is one of those rare authors who has garnered a passionate following in the rich, bloody, supernatural trajectory of vampirism. This should be a remarkable evening, full of surprises… don’t miss it!”

With over 100 million books sold to date, Rice once again brings to her devoted readership tales of the supernatural in PRINCE LESTAT, a harbinger of her much-anticipated return to The Vampire Chronicles, as well as the her return to the vampire Lestat, the antihero who started it all. In her new work, Rice thrusts her most famous characters into the present, forcing them to reconcile with the past while surviving in the modern age. In pages that pulse with menace, drama, and intrigue, Rice deepens her vampire mythology with this compelling work that once again summons up the irresistible spirit-world of the oldest and most powerful forces of the night.

“I have always written about outsiders, about outcasts, about those whom others tend to shun or persecute” says Rice, “…The supernatural novel is my favorite way of talking about my reality. I see vampires and witches and ghosts as metaphors for the outsider in each of us.”

ABOUT THE BOOK

PRINCE LESTAT opens with the vampire world in crisis. Vampires have been proliferating out of control; burnings have commenced all over the world and huge massacres, similar to those carried out by Akasha in The Queen of the Damned, are creating chaos. Old vampires, roused from slumber in the earth, are doing the bidding of a Voice commanding that they indiscriminately burn vampire-mavericks in cities from Paris and Mumbai to Hong Kong, Kyoto, and San Francisco.

As the novel moves from present-day New York and the West Coast to ancient Egypt, fourth century Carthage, 14th-century Rome, the Renaissance Venice, the worlds and beings of all the Vampire Chronicles – Louis de Pointe du Lac; the eternally young Armand, whose face is that of a Boticelli angel; Mekare and Maharet, Pandora and Flavius; David Talbot, vampire and ultimate fixer from the secret Talamasca; and Marius, the true Child of the Millennia; along with all the other new seductive, supernatural creatures – come together in this large, luxuriant, fiercely ambitious novel to ultimately rise up and seek out who-or what-the Voice is, and to discover the secret of what it desires and why.

And, at the book’s center, is the seemingly absent, curiously missing hero-wanderer; the dazzling, dangerous rebel-outlaw; the great hope of the Undead: the dazzling Prince Lestat.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Anne Rice was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. She holds a Master of Arts Degree in English and Creative Writing from San Francisco State University, as well as a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. Anne has spent more of her life in California than in New Orleans, but New Orleans is her true home and provides the backdrop for many of her famous novels. The French Quarter provided the setting for her first novel, Interview with the Vampire. And her ante-bellum house in the Garden District was the fictional home of her imaginary Mayfair Witches.

She is the author of over 30 books, most recently the Toby O’Dare novels Of Love and Evil, and Angel Time; the memoir, Called Out of Darkness; and her two novels about Jesus, Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt and Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana. (Anne regards Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana as her best novel.) Under the pen name, A.N. Roquelaure, Anne is the author of the erotic (BDSM) fantasy series, The Sleeping Beauty Trilogy. Under the pen name Anne Rampling, she is the author of two erotic novels, Exit to Eden and Belinda.

Tickets and Signed Books

Tickets to Writers on a New England Stage: Anne Rice on Tuesday, November 4, are $13.25 ($11.25 for members of The Music Hall and NH Public Radio). For each 1-2 tickets sold, the purchase of a book voucher ($28.95, hardcover) is required. Vouchers can be redeemed on the night of the event for a signed copy of Rice’s discussed work, PRINCE LESTAT. Ticket purchasers can buy as many book vouchers as they like. Additional copies of the book can be purchased as available that evening ($28.95). To purchase event tickets and vouchers, call The Music Hall box office at603-436-2400 or visit 28 Chestnut Street, Portsmouth. Tickets and vouchers are not available online.

Music Hall 2014-15 Season Sponsors: River House Restaurant; Carey & Giampa Realtors; Residences at Portwalk Place

Writers on a New England Stage Presenting Sponsor: University of New Hampshire

Writers on a New England Stage Media Sponsor: Yankee Magazine

Writers on a New England Stage Series Sponsors: The Sedoric Group of Wells Fargo Advisors; Piscataqua Landscaping and Tree Service; Calypso Communications

Evening Sponsors: RMC Research Corporation; RiverWoods at Exeter; Seacoast Area Libraries

About Writers on a New England Stage

Writers on a New England Stage was created by Executive Producer Patricia Lynch, also Executive Director of The Music Hall, and is a partnership between The Music Hall and New Hampshire Public Radio. Since 2005, the series has spotlighted a broad range of celebrated authors including Salman Rushdie, John Irving, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Dan Brown, Isabel Allende, Stephen King, Ann Patchett, E.L. Doctorow, Madeleine Albright, John Updike, Wally Lamb, Jodi Picoult, David McCullough, and Cokie Roberts, among many others. Each author’s presentation is followed by an interview with Virginia Prescott, host of New Hampshire Public Radio’s “Word of Mouth.” Live music is performed by the award-winning house band Dreadnaught. The live shows are rebroadcast on New Hampshire Public Radio. The series’ media is sponsor Yankee magazine; its companion bookstore is RiverRun, in Portsmouth, NH.

About The Music Hall

The Music Hall is a performing arts center featuring curated entertainment from around the world in two theaters in its downtown Portsmouth, New Hampshire campus - one, a landmark 1878 Victorian theater, designated an American Treasure for the Arts by the National Park Service’s Save America’s Treasures Program, the other the intimate Music Hall Loft around the corner, recently named “best performing arts venue” by Yankee Magazine and the recipient of the NH AIA award for design excellence. With acclaimed signature series like Writers on a New England Stage – a partnership between The Music Hall and New Hampshire Public Radio – and the Intimately Yours music series, we bring top authors and artists to both stages. Also, HD broadcasts from The Metropolitan Opera and the National Theatre of London as well as extraordinary cinema fill both screens almost every night of the year. This dynamic arts center urges patrons to Explore + Learn via master classes, post film panel discussions, and matinees for children. An anchor cultural organization in this historic working seaport, The Music Hall is one of downtown Portsmouth’s biggest employers and largest contributors to the regional economy: The Music Hall and its patrons contribute $7 million annually to the local economy through show and visitor related spending. Innovative in its outlook, the organization is community oriented and committed to making the Seacoast flourish. The Music Hall is a 501(c)3 nonprofit managed by a professional staff with the assistance of a volunteer board. Though global in the scope of its artists and programs, The Music Hall operates independently with the support of 3,000 members, 300 corporate partners and 58 community partners. Welcoming more than 100,000 patrons (including 20,000 children) each year from the tri-state area and beyond, The Music Hall is the region’s center for the performing arts, literature and education…easy to get to, impossible to forget. An American Treasure celebrating 135 years.

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Submitted text. Photo by Derek Shapton