[NEohioPAL] SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY Opens at Actors' Summit

[Neil Thackaberry]

Actors' Summit 

Presents 

SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY

Actors' Summit, Hudson's Equity Professional Theater, announces the cast of the upcoming production of Spoon River Anthology. Based on the poetry of Edgar Lee Masters, the play is a theatrical presentation by five actors of over sixty brief portraits of the residents of a small town in Illinois. Spoon River will have a preview performance on March 12 with the official opening night on Friday, March 13, 2009. The play will have twelve performances through March 29, 2009. The play is performed Thursdays, Fridays, & Saturdays at 8 PM and Sundays at 2 PM at the Actors' Summit Theater in downtown Hudson. Additional daytime performances have been scheduled for student groups.


The Play and the Poetry

Spoon River, in rural Illinois, produced one of America's great poets -- Edgar Lee Masters. In the town's weekly paper he created brief dramatic portraits of his fellow citizens speaking from the grave. Alternately comic, poignant, romantic, and mysterious, we are introduced to over 60 characters. Lovers, preachers, teachers, old married couples, Civil War heroes --- each take their turn to reveal the secrets that they took to their grave. 

Spoon River Anthology (1915), by Edgar Lee Masters, is a collection of unusual, short, free-form poems that collectively describe the life of the fictional small town of Spoon River, named after the real Spoon River that ran near Masters' home town. The collection includes two hundred and twelve separate characters, all providing two-hundred forty-four accounts of their lives and losses.


Each poem is an epitaph of a dead citizen, delivered by the dead themselves. They speak about the sorts of things one might expect: some recite their histories and turning points, others make observations of life from the outside, and petty ones complain of the treatment of their graves, while few tell how they really died. Speaking without reason to lie or fear the consequences, they construct a picture of life in their town that is shorn of all façades. The interplay of various villagers - e.g. a bright and successful man crediting his parents for all he's accomplished, and an old woman weeping because he is secretly her illegitimate child - forms a gripping whole.

Many of the characters that make appearances in Spoon River Anthology were based on real people that Masters knew or heard of in the two towns in which he grew up, Petersburg and Lewistown, Illinois. Most notable is Ann Rutledge, regarded in local legend to be Abraham Lincoln's early love interest though there is no actual proof of such a relationship. Rutledge's grave can still be found in a Petersburg cemetery, and a tour of graveyards in both towns reveals most of the surnames that Masters applied to his characters. Other local legends assert that Masters' fictional portrayal of local residents, often in unflattering light, created a lot of embarrassment and aggravation in his hometown. This is offered as an explanation for why he chose not to settle down in Lewistown or Petersburg.


The Cast

The cast of five is made up of Actors' Summit veterans.


Kathleen Culler, a graduate of Point Park University Conservatory of Performing Arts, has been seen in Sanders Family Christmas, Main-Travelled Roads, Musical of Musicals, the Musical, Quilters, Polish Joke, and A Midsummer Night's Dream here at Actors' Summit. She has also performed in productions at The Cleveland Play House, Magical Theatre Company, Weathervane Playhouse, The Beck Center, and Player's Guild Theatre. 


Sally Groth has performed in more than 20 shows at Actors' Summit, including Medea, Romeo and Juliet, Candida, Turn of the Screw, The Herbal Bed, and All in the Timing). Locally, she has performed at the Porthouse Theater and Ensemble Theatre. Regional theater credits include: The Shakespeare Theatre in Washington D.C., the Denver Center Theater, The Wayside Theater, Trustus Theater in S.C., the U.S.C. Summer Rep. and a national tour of The Little Prince.


Bob Keefe has been seen at Actors' Summit in Polish Joke, Picnic, Cotton Patch Gospel, Mrs. Warren's Profession, and Arms and the Man. He recently completed a long run at the 14th Street Theatre in We Gotta Bingo.


W. James Koeth's credits at Actors' Summit include Sanders Family Christmas, The Thing About Men, and Personals. He has been seen locally at Porthouse Theatre, Playhouse Square, Great Lakes Theatre Festival, Cain Park,and the Beck Center. He rounded the country in the National Tour of Jekyll & Hyde. Jamie coaches acting and guitar privately and has directed fourteen musicals for Stagecrafters Youth Theatre. 


Daniel H. Taylor has become a regular at Actors' Summit where he has been seen in Sanders Family Christmas, Rounding Third, Medea and MacBeth. Daniel has worked both on and off stage with Cleveland Public Theatre, The Ohio Shakespeare Festival, and The Bang and the Clatter. Gallaudet University has commissioned him to write original musical scores. He tours with his bluegrass band FishCreek, and is technical director for Firestone High School Theatre.

Performance Schedule


Performance Schedule
Spoon River Anthology will have its preview performance on March 12. The opening night performance is Friday, March 13, and it will be followed by a dessert reception with the cast. Regular performances continue through Sunday, March 29.


Performance times:

Performances are given Thursdays, Fridays & Saturdays at 8:00 PM and Sundays at 2:00 PM at the theater, located at 86 Owen Brown Street, Hudson, Ohio. 


Tickets

Preview tickets are $15. Regular performance tickets are $28 on Fridays & Saturdays, $25 on Thursdays & Sundays, with seniors receiving a $3 discount at regular Thursday and Sunday performances. 

New this year: ALL full time student tickets (with ID) are $7 at all performances. 

Tickets can be purchased by phone at (330) 342-0800 or from the website at www.actorssummit.org. 


Web site

Actors' Summit Theater can be found on the web at www.actorssummit.org. Actors' Summit is a professional, not for profit, 501-c-3 professional arts organization. We are seeking volunteers and board members. For more details please call MaryJo or Neil at (330) 342-0800. 

Actors' Summit is working under a developmental agreement with Actors' Equity Association (the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers.)


Actors' Summit: Professional Theater -- Ohio Artists.

 

 

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