The long-awaited and highly-anticipated recording of The Dauphin Player’s The Spoon River Anthology is being released on YouTube on Friday, Feb. 26th.

The Spoon River Anthology is a collection of short free verse poetry and monologues narrated by the ghosts of the fictional town of Spoon River, who tell the stories of their lives and deaths, some of which intertwine with other stories throughout the performance.

Co-director Kathryn Whitaker and others chose Spoon River due to its great impact and influence from the time of its release, and the importance it has in today’s times.

“(Spoon River) was thought to be ‘conceptually stunning and shockingly frank’ in its time, since it tells the story of a midwestern cemetery written in flatly realistic and often ironic free verse,” said Whitaker in an interview to the Prep News. “In many ways it is an exposé of the small town … a small town populated by the memories of Lee Masters' youth. The sense of experiential truthfulness gave Spoon River its impact. (Masters) wrote the lives of men and women everywhere … relationships, drama, gossip, successes and failures. The characters have a freedom to speak openly and in many cases ‘explode the myth of the small town as a cultural idyll.’”

One of the most important and essential parts of the recording and post production was the original score, written and composed by choir teacher (and musical director of Spoon River) Addie Akin.

With Whitaker’s inspiration and guidance, Akin decided that hymns would be a strong basis for the score, as it connects to the play theologically.

“I bow, as always, to Mrs. Whitaker's keen creative eye and incredible knack for storytelling,” said Akin. “I absolutely love hymns … many of them have such beautiful melodies that touch my heart when I hear them.” 

After writing original pieces and arrangements for the production, and given full creative flexibility on the number of songs and artists involved in the recordings, Akin recorded the entire score over the course of one afternoon. With the help of John Kavanaugh, the songs were selected and mixed, and eventually sent to the videographer with instructions as to where and when to edit them into the performance.

Despite a very different instruction and recording process, Akin is very pleased with the end result.

“Due to Covid, the rehearsal process was truncated and we had to be flexible when students couldn't make a meeting, but in the end the students did an admirable job learning the music,” said Akin. “As you may be aware, this process was very different from composing an actual score to accompany the show, but I'm very pleased with the end product and am so grateful to have been part of it.”

Incidentally, Spoon River was a perfect story to perform during Covid-19.

“It really was a great choice for a lot of logistical reasons, one of them being its in the public domain meaning we can use it and publish it without any copyright problems. Furthermore, it’s also good and easy to do solo monologues—solo scenes—during social distancing,” said co-director Kevin McKernan. “Also, looking back it feels like this was the perfect play to do thematically. Like any timeless piece of art, (Spoon River) really speaks to the very moment that we’re in, which is everyday people living out their lives in a time where we are dealing with a lot of death, and grief, and loss … this feels very timely. It’s a story about people living their lives and having regrets and learning from their elders and trying to appreciate the moment they’re in, and realizing that these struggles—love and loss, being a parent, son, daughter, sister, brother, friend or lover—those challengers and joys are timeless, and as strange as it is it seems to speak to our time rather beautifully.”

McKernan in particular is excited for audiences to experience the final poem and how it relates to the times we are in.

“What I’m really looking forward to is that in the last poem this character is speaking directly to us and says ‘it takes life to love life,’ which is quite touching and moving,” said McKernan. “People often talk about last year and this year as a wasted year and the fact that we can’t do the things we’re used to doing, but this final poem reminds us that that doesn’t matter. This is life, this is it, this is the big game. There is still as much love and life and energy and problem solving and good times now, and it's the opportunity to look at and take in life differently. This is as good as it gets.”

For sophomore Joe Pottinger, the most exciting and anticipated aspect of the final cut is the production value and the virtual set.

“I’m mostly excited to see the whole thing put together,” said Pottinger. “It was very interesting to film since it was a very simple set, but with all the elements and the editing I think the set will look very cool and fit more with the production. Once they edit everything together it will look very professional and well done, and through the lens of the camera the set is going to look even better.”

For the whole creative team, what they are looking forward to the most is the opportunity to share art and to give inspiration when audiences need it most.

“I'm just so excited to be able to share something of this level of quality in a time where we've had to sacrifice quality in many aspects of our lives,” said Akin. “The arts in particular have had to be so creative in how we learn, rehearse, and perform, due to Covid. This project is an incredible testament to the tenacity and dedication of my colleagues, and I can't wait for the SLUH community to enjoy it.”

The Dauphin Players’ performance of The Spoon River Anthology is now streaming on the SLUH YouTube channel.