My name is Tom Andolora. I am the playwright who adapted Spoon River Anthology into The Spoon River Project. I am very grateful for all of you who have considered producing my adaptation and grateful to anyone who has already produced it.
I understand all the questions asked here. They are good ones.
If I may first give you a little background on how I created The Spoon River Project. Like most of you, I am a theatre educator. I taught theatre for probably 40 years. I started out teaching Drama in my hometown of Jamestown,NY during the summers I was in college. I moved to NYC about 35 years ago. In that time I have taught theatre in many, many public schools as a visiting resident artist. I taught drama in a private school for several years. I taught theatre/musical theatre and had a private voice studio at Brooklyn College for several years. I am now spending more time writing and less time teaching.
I started working on Spoon River monologues many years ago with young actors. After working on the monologues for several years, I had created a 20 minute staged presentation of monologues and a few songs I threw in. It never dawned me i was writing an adaptation. It only occured to me, after many years, that my 20 minute staged classroom presentation was the start of a full length adaptation. It was only then I seriously started to create The Spoon River Project, It all came from my class work as a theatre educator. I am telling you this, because I identify more as a theatre educator than as a playwright.
Now to get to your questions and concerns... Personally, I never refer to The Spoon River Project as a "play". I have always called it a "theatre piece with music". It is not a typical play, so it is better not to approach it in the same way as you would a traditional play. I think that will free you up some. It is a unique piece in that aspect.
I have a deep, great love of the work of Edgar Lee Masters. I think his writing is miraculous. I don't consider what these characters are divulging to us as "monologues".... to me they are deeply human stories... revelations, confessions. The brilliance of his writing is that he somehow created fully fleshed out characters and complete stories in each of these short monologues. The Spoon River Project also has a very strong theme of "community" in it. These people most probably know each other. This may be the first time they have heard these stories from the other residents of Spoon River. Or... they may have known, or even been responsible for the way they affected each other. So it's important that they listen to each other and react to what is being said. Some of the stories stand alone, and some of the stories can be told only by putting two, three, or four characters together.
The people of Spoon River were not always kind to each other. They were not always kind to people in their own homes, or even to themselves. The stories cover the spectrum of the human experience.
I always urge directors to TRUST the material. It's brilliant. Not me, but Edgar Lee Masters. I have seen productions where directors assume the audience is going to be bored so they add a lot of extra stuff, which in the end just muddies the waters. The stories they tell are powerful, and interesting, and dense. Trust the source material!
I have directed The Spoon River Project five of six times. As a director you must work with each actors to find and communicate the story. What are these characters telling us? Why are they telling us? Sometimes it is obvious and sometimes it takes a long time to figure out. I am pretty confident I know all of these characters now. However, I always leave the door open to the possibility that perhaps there is more to a character's story than I have figured out. Sometimes a different actor will have a great idea, or see a character in a different light than what I have seen. Figuring out what the story each of the characters are REALLY telling us, and getting the actors to communicate that story is the challenge of the piece. It is also the great reward when the actors make the discovery. The actors have to understand every word they are speaking.
Also remember Edgar Lee Masters wrote these stories with no fourth wall, which makes the work very theatrical. The people in Spoon River know there are living people listening to them. They are compelled to tell their story. They refer to the audience as "passerbys".
One last thing. The music. Much of the music is related to the characters and the story being told. I took great care to choose appropriate music. It reflects on the characters at times. I feel the songs are the pillars of the piece.
It took me (aside from working on the pieces in class for a couple decades) three years to complete The Spoon River Project. I was lucky as a playwright. I was able to have it produced in my hometown for three years before it was published. Each of those three productions helped me fix the piece to get it where I wanted it.
I hope this helps with any questions or concerns you may have. The Spoon River Project was a labor of love for me. I wanted to bring EL Masters great work to a new generation.
I hope this helps with any questions or concerns you may have. I do understand there are about 100 different reasons you might choose a particular piece to produce. I thank you all for reading my "theatre piece with music" and are considering producing it.
I am always very happy to answer any questions anyone has for me. My email address is tomandolora@aol.com. Please feel free to contact me personally or reach me on this thread.
Thank you.
Best Regards to all.
Tom Andolora
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Tom Andolora
NYC NY
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Original Message:
Sent: 05-04-2018 12:42
From: Frieda Gebert
Subject: Play: Spoon River Project: The answer to Quality vs Quantity.
I directed the show this past fall. My students LOVED it and grew more as actors than I would have believed possible. We did the show outdoors at a local cemetery, just at dusk. It was amazing. I would be happy to answer any question you come up with. I highly recommend the play!
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Frieda Gebert
Drama and Speech
Boyle County Schools
Danville, KY
Original Message:
Sent: 05-03-2018 12:26
From: Christopher Dwyer
Subject: Play: Spoon River Project: The answer to Quality vs Quantity.
Hi All:
Thank you so much for all the great answers and discussions regarding my last post about Quality vs. Quantity. In looking for a script I stumbled upon The Spoon River Project published by Playscripts. I like that it can be performed with as little as eight actors and can balloon up to 25-30 people if needed. That allows for flexibility and I also think the staging capabilities are fantastic with this creative piece.
Have any of you directed this show and what was your experience? My main concern is lack of interaction with actors on stage. We can do some cool things with the staging and music at the top. But eventually, I feel an audience might get tired of watching a bunch of monologues. Let me know what you think?
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Christopher Dwyer
Head of Drama
St. Vincent Pallotti High School
Laurel, MD 20707
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