'Spoon River' a Serious Work With a Message

In Spoon River Anthology, a cast of 10 actors portrays 60 ghosts from the fictional town of Spoon River, Illinois, who gather in a cemetery to review their lives. Ledyard High School Drama will perform the Charles Aidman stage adaptation tonight and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at the United Methodist Church in Gales Ferry.

Ledyard High School Drama Coach Russell Hammond said he picked the play for several reasons.

“First, I’m a big believer that audiences and students should be exposed to great pieces of theater,” he said. “Spoon River Anthology is all about the acting and the spoken word and the language.”

Now in his first year coaching drama at Ledyard High School, Hammond said he wanted to focus on developing acting skills.

“The play takes place in a cemetery, and everybody from this fictional town basically stands up and says what their life was like, their hopes, their aspirations, their failures, what they loved about life, how life treated them… So each of the kids plays seven or eight different characters. It’s a really great acting piece.”

Hammond said one objective of the drama program is to do a wide range of works. In the spring, for example, Ledyard Drama will stage “Bye-Bye Birdie.”

“We do two shows each year, so kids who go through four years of drama at Ledyard High School end up doing eight different kinds of shows. Spoon River Anthology is really a serious work. There’s a message to it, there’s a lot of symbolism, there’s something in it for the audience to take away.”

Hammond said he has been impressed by how the cast has embraced this serious piece of theater. “These monologues are 20 to 30 lines each,” he said. “They really rose to the occasion.”

The cast includes Sara Harvey, Melissa Billing, Amber Coombe, Patrick Lockaby, Ashley Giordano, Tori Gordon, Alec Chattin, Nick Archibald, Sarah Stryker and Forrest Smith. The musicians are Grace Chattin, Kendall Swan and Callie Bateman.

“I think it’s a beautiful play that, if we can keep the audience engaged – because it’s not glitzy – I think they’re going to walk away a little better off because of it, reflecting on their own lives a little bit, and their own choices,” Hammond said.

Tickets for Friday and Saturday performances are $5, and will be available at the door the night of the performances.