A theatrical retelling of Edgar Lee Masters’ Spoon River Anthology will open Feb. 27 in the auditorium for the student body and beyond to behold. After three months of hard work, the cast and crew have a colorful story to share on how they brought the 1915 poetry collection to the stage via DGN Theatre’s The Spoon River Project.
“About spring of last year, our director Mr. Mozes asked me if I would want to direct a show in our season for this year and of course I said yes,” director and senior Meaghan Wernett said. “I was very excited to have that opportunity, and so once he asked me that, I started sifting through hundreds of plays trying to find the right one. I finally landed on this one, and Mr Mozes and I read it through, and I knew it could be something really, really great.”
The Spoon River Project is the first play in the past four years with a student as its lead director. The play will be about a series of ghosts who recount their memories of the fictional town, Spoon River, Illinois. While bringing this story to life, Director Wernett and her peers have faced the additional challenge of staging the play in-the-round in the Small Theater, which has presented its own set of obstacles.
“In-The-Round staging means that the stage is in the center, and then there are seats for the audience on all four sides. This is unique in the case of, when creating the light plot and when you look at it from a design perspective as well as a lighting perspective, you have to keep in mind that one person’s front-light or back-light or side-light is different for everyone,” lighting director and junior Rain Heller said. “So, if there’s a character facing left to one section of the audience, you have to make sure that their face is lit for them, but you also have to make sure that they can still be seen by other people in the audience.”
While DGN Theatre is working off of Tom Andolora’s stage adaptation of Masters’ novel to create the performance, this staging format is one of many liberties that the students are working with to bring the play to Room 248.
“I’ve never blocked anything in-the-round. A lot of my actors have never acted in-the-round. So, that’s also been kind of a unique challenge of the show, but it’s been a really rewarding experience so far,” Wernett said. “It’s been great getting to learn how to do something completely new that I’ve never done before.”
Additionally, The Spoon River Project will be a play with music, featuring a live pit of two violins, a piano, a guitar, a harmonica, and a banjo. While DGN Theatre asserts that the production is not a musical, some of its actors will bring their musical talents to enhance the storytelling.
“We’ve got actors who are learning instruments for this, like Kate France, for example, doesn’t always play the banjo but she’s playing the banjo in this. Gabe Deaton doesn’t play harmonica, but he’s willing to try. And so, everyone’s doing new things, and I think that’s what makes it special,” Art & Technical Director Ariel Mozes said.
The Spoon River Project’s company, made up of 50 students, includes 13 actors with multiple roles each, 22 production staff members, and 25 crew members. On top of some members belonging to more than one of these categories, the entire student body of the play has had to work beyond the mandates of their titles in order to make all of this happen.
“Something that’s important to give credit to is all of the kids in the show. They are amazing. We have not done something like this, but that’s not deterring them. They’re very confident in what they’re doing. They’re coming to it with a very willing-to-work attitude, and if they don’t understand how to do something, they don’t just back off,” Choreographer and senior Brianna Cappello said. “They’ve never done this kind of choreography before, but that’s not deterring them. They’re ready to work, they’re willing to learn, and it’s a great thing to see from them.”
The series of unique circumstances that apply to The Spoon River Project have required every member of the cast and crew to pull their weight in order for the show to run smoothly come Feb. 27. By firsthand account, the producers themselves attest that this has been achieved.
“No show is ever the same as the other one, and so we constantly get to reinvent ourselves and learn–learning by doing and learning by failing. And that’s the best part, that we’re all growing and making mistakes and making great work because of it,” Mozes said.