There is an old story - possibly true - about a wireless telegram which was sent by a passenger aboard the steamship Titanic, during its only voyage, during which it sank in the North Atlantic. The message: ''This is the most wonderful trip I've ever taken.''
The obvious lesson? To quote the colorful Yogi Berra, ''It ain't over, till it's over.''
Throughout human history, both literature and nonfiction have been written, volume after volume, weighing in on the meaning and the value of someone's life. Of course, some people write about other people's lives, which they understand only obliquely, at best.
For the rest, the trouble is, of course, if the author is writing, he's sending a proverbial telegram from the Titanic. The complete answer isn't available until it's too late for the consequences to be taken into consideration.
All of this is an introduction to a most unusual and meaningful cultural opportunity. Next week, you have a chance to hear from those who do know the entire story of their own lives, because those people are dead.
It's called ''The Spoon River Project,'' and it has a most appropriate setting. It will be performed in one of the most beautiful places in our county: Lake View Cemetery, on the north side of Jamestown. And, just for atmosphere, all but one of the performances take place after dark, by the light of lanterns and torches.
Let me give you the specifics of this amazing production, and then I'll tell you something about the people involved and the project's history.
JUST THE FACTS
Evening performances will be Tuesday through next Saturday evenings, at dusk. For those who like precision, those performances begin at 9:30 p.m. The one performance in broad daylight will be Aug. 1 at 4 p.m., for those who prefer their cemeteries fully illuminated.
If you show up somewhat before dusk, which is to say 8:30 p.m., you can also take a guided tour, conducted by volunteers from the Fenton History Society, of the graves of some of Jamestown's most prominent former residents. Have a look at how the Prendergasts, the Fentons, and others of the families for whom our community and our streets are named, prepared to face eternity.
And, if you've ever wondered what lies inside some of the large mausoleums which are to be found in the cemetery, on Friday and next Saturday, at 11 p.m., you can have a tour inside them, as well.
And, if that isn't enough, for those who enjoy a little gnosh with their tomb visits, representatives of the Marvin House will sell homemade snacks before each of the late-night performances.
Then, when you've had a look at our community's real past, your guides will escort you over to a site, deep within the cemetery, where park benches have been drawn together, and you will see actors from our area, perform a play which has been adapted by Jamestown native Tom Andolora from Edgar Lee Masters' moving collection of poems, ''Spoon River Anthology.''
Tickets are $15 per person, which includes both the tour and the performance. Purchase them from the Reg Lenna Box Office, from the gift shop of the Fenton History Center, from the Labyrinth Press, on E. Fourth St., in Jamestown, or from either the Bemus Point or the Chautauqua Institution gift shops, called The Viking Trader. You can also purchase them online at www.TheSpoonRiverProject.com.
Seating is limited, and the previous year's performances sometimes sold out even though in 2009, it rained like Niagara Falls all through many of them, so if there are spaces available at the beginning of a performance, you can buy a ticket at the door, but you risk being sold out.
If you want more information about the performances, you can use the web address which I just gave, or you can phone 664-6256.
The organizers have asked me to tell you, you're welcome to bring blankets or towels to sit on, if you don't enjoy wooden park benches, but please don't bring lawn chairs or other furniture. If you feel the need to bring a flashlight, to help you walk through the cemetery in the dark, you can do so, but if you start flashing them at the actors or annoying other members of the audience, there will be ''grave'' consequences.
Here, a blood curdling laugh.
The tours begin from the corner of Lakeview Avenue and Buffalo Street, which is the main entrance to the cemetery. There is a great deal of free, on-street parking near that intersection. Just please remember that for the July performances, you should park on the side of the street where the odd-numbered house numbers are located, and in August, park on the side where the even-numbered house numbers are found.
And, while we're giving words to the wise:
Please remember that you should wear shoes in which it is reasonable to walk over grassy terrain.
There is a small restroom at the cemetery, but the wise will take care of that business at an appropriate location before arrival.
If you need to leave during the performance for some unforeseen emergency, locate an usher. He or she will escort you out safely. Please don't risk walking through the cemetery in the dark.
Most of all, remember, you're in a cemetery. The production will treat those grounds only with dignity and respect. Surely the audience should do the same.
PARTICIPANTS
''The Spoon River Project'' is being produced by the Fenton History Center, the Lake View Cemetery Assn., in association with Robert John Terreberry.
It has been adapted from the original Edgar Lee Masters poems by Jamestown native Tom Andolora. He has also directed the production.
The person responsible for the costumes worn by all performers is Ann Thorpe.
The lighting and sound are the work of John Fuchs.
Actors in this year's production are Skip Anderson, Emily Blackwood, Mary Hoover, Adam Hughes, Mike Nichols, Daniel Pierce, Merle Szydlo, Robert John Terreberry, Ralph Walton, Karen Waterman and Kristy Woodfield.
Musicians this year are Eric Grundstrom, Adam McKillip and Carol Svenson.
THE ACTORS SPEAK
I thought readers might enjoy hearing from some of the actors who participated in last year's production, who have returned to this year's version. I wasn't able to reach all the repeaters by phone, but I think I got enough to give us a flavor.
Perhaps it will give us some depth perception about the coming production:
Karen Waterman is preparing to perform in a Spoon River production for the third time. She said, ''Tom Andolora has presented a number of summer acting workshops in town, and he began using the poems of 'The Spoon River Anthology' as material to give his students a similar style of literature, a similar length, etc. That was my first, and last summer was my second production. Each of the three productions have been different, but obviously, they have a great deal in common, as well.''
Perhaps the most significant difference has been the addition of music which would have been familiar to the characters who speak of their lives. Songs such as ''Blessed Be the Tie That Binds,'' and ''We Shall Gather at the River,'' help create a sense of the time period, and help us understand the values and lifestyles which would have been familiar to them.
In his book of poems, Masters wrote 244 fictional and semi-fictional epitaphs for people who lived in a small town, not unlike our own, around the turn of the 20th century. The actress said that one of the things she likes is that with each production, Andolora selected epitaphs which suited the physical appearances, ages, energy levels, and other elements of his actors.
Since some of the actors who performed last year have moved out of town, or have other responsibilities which make them unable to repeat their roles, many of this year's performers will be different, and so the characters they play will be different.
''I think we're really working hard at getting this ready, and yet it's fun,'' Ms. Waterman told me. ''I like working with Tom Andolora. He has wonderful ideas about how to portray the characters, but he doesn't force his ideas on us. He lets the actors decide how to portray the personalities of the characters each of us presents.''
She added that because the events of the characters' lives take place in a small town, each person's story inter-relates to the stories of nearly everyone else. Sometimes a character will talk about a woman who helped him, or a man who was a rival for something he wanted, and an actor might not even realize that the other actor is talking about one of his or her characters.
''I'm repeating some characters I played last year, so I mostly understand how those people inter-related with the other characters. On the other hand, I'm doing some new characters, and so I need to fit them, into the other actors' work,'' she said.
Among the characters she'll be repeating is that of Mrs. Merritt, a woman given no first name. Her epitaph tells us that she loved her husband, but she took a young lover. Also among the collection is the memories of the husband. This year, they've also added the epitaph of the lover, as well, so they'll be adjusting their portrayals slightly to include his point of view.
The actor playing Tom Merritt, the wronged husband in both productions, is Daniel Pierce, better known as Deacon.
Pierce finds it astonishing how many people think that, because the production will be held in a cemetery after dark, that the play is a ghost story, or that people will find it frightening.
'''The Spoon River Project' is about people's lives,'' he said. ''Yes, some of them led violent lives or weren't as good as we would like them to be, but others were gentle and kind, faithful, honest and clean. It's just as though you took a group of people from Jamestown today. The play is about people, allowed through literature to look back on their lives, and to share with us whether they're happy about them, or ashamed or whatever.''
He said that among the changes from last year has been a change of some of the songs, which the director believes better sets the tone of how the characters lived.
The actor said he is impressed how well the director knows the original book, on which the production is based. ''He knows it cover-to-cover, that's for sure,'' he said. ''If someone is rehearsing his part and he or another actor comes up with a question about what he's saying or what might have caused something to happen, he is able to go right to the poem which answers the question. If it's important to understanding the segment, we'll add the new poem.''
And, what are Pierce's feelings about the project? He answered, ''This is well worth anyone's time. Hearing people talk about what they've done and what they wish they'd done is valuable for anyone.''
THE ORIGINAL POEMS
Edgar Lee Masters wrote his book of fictional epitaphs in mid-life, publishing it in 1915.
The 244 poems tell of people who lived in the fictional, Central-Illinois town of Spoon River, during the last years of the 19th century and the early years of the 20th.
The book set off two separate controversies. First of all, Masters borrowed the names of his characters from people he actually knew, growing up in the area around Lewistown and Petersburg, Ill. It is believed he gathered other names by borrowing them from gravestones in actual cemeteries in that part of the country.
If he used a real name and associated it with a character who has lived a regrettable life, or a violent one, the families of the named person often believed their loved one had been slandered.
A few of the characters in the poems reveal that they didn't die in the way their death certificates claimed. Those were especially controversial. Many believed he included his personal beliefs and feelings about actual people in his writing, although he always insisted that they were fictional.
The character of Lucinda Matlock, a hearty pioneer woman who worked hard and lived a difficult but decent life, is believed to be a portrait of the poet's own grandmother.
Masters' poetic claim that Ann Rutledge was the first love of Abraham Lincoln has resulted in profit-seeking businessmen erecting an enormous tomb over her grave and seeking to attract tourists to the area, although there is little concrete evidence that any relationship existed between the 16th president and the woman buried there.
Secondly, while the poems don't spend a lot of time discussing heaven and hell, mostly reflecting back on the characters' earthly lives, that very omission made many people believe that the poet was suggesting that there is no afterlife or that everyone drifts into a sort of limbo, regardless of how closely they lived their lives to the doctrines of one religion or another.
Masters was born in Kansas, in 1868, but grew up in central Illinois. By the time he died, in 1950, he had published more than 50 volumes, including poems, dramas, novels and biographies. None of them was as successful as ''Spoon River.''
Many later writers, including Thornton Wilder in ''Our Town,'' and novels such as ''Babbit'' and ''Winesburg, Ohio,'' which revealed an undercurrent of scandal under the calm surfaces of small towns, have been linked to his writing.
FROM THE DIRECTOR
I asked Tom Andolora to share with my readers, his thoughts and feelings about his ''Spoon River Project.'' This is what he said:
''I am so grateful that the Spoon River Project is returning to the majestic Lake View Cemetery again this year. How often will an audience be able to see live performers and musicians in the dark of night, lit by lanterns and torches, and dressed in period costumes, bring such a compelling set of characters and stories to life, in a historic cemetery?
''By joining together the forces of The Fenton History Center, The Lake View Cemetery Assn., and so many talented local actors and musicians, we have worked very hard to create an experience you will not soon forget. We have done our best to create a moving and meaningful piece of theater in the perfect setting.
''More than 500 people attended the production last summer. Seating is limited, and many of the performances were sold out last year. I invite everyone to experience this unique evening, and urge you to get your tickets now.''
WINKS
Two notes from Chautauqua Institution:
If you missed the dramatic production on Thursday evening, in which the Chautauqua Theater Company joined with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra to give a stunning performance of Peter Shaffer's famed play ''Amadeus,'' about the life of Mozart, there is still hope.
The production will be repeated tonight at Artpark, in Lewiston, a bit over two hours' drive from Jamestown and nearer to Dunkirk. The Buffalo Philharmonic, conducted by JoAnn Falletta will perform in place of the CSO.
The performance begins at 8 p.m. Tickets range in price from $15 to $48, and can be purchased at the door or at the park's website at www.artpark.net.
Second, the Institution previously announced that comic and singer Drake Bell would appear in the Amphitheater on Aug. 13. Instead, on that evening, you can see ''ABBA: the Concert,'' which will feature songs which were made famous by that Swedish pop group from the 1980s. These include ''Dancing Queen,'' ''Take a Chance on Me'' and ''Mamma Mia,'' which was the inspiration for the smash Broadway musical by the same name.
If you purchased a ticket to the Bell concert, you may use it for the ABBA Tribute Concert, or return it for a refund. Those wishing to buy a ticket for the ABBA Tribute may do so for $37, in person at the Chautauqua Gate Building, by phone at 357-5823, or by computer at www.ciweb.org.
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A few weeks ago, we shared with you the 2010-11 season of productions by Buffalo's Kavinoky Theatre Company.
They have recently announced that they will replace the previously announced production of Agatha Christie's play ''The Mousetrap,'' which was to begin in the last days of April and run through May 2011. Instead, the company will present ''The Grand Manner,'' the latest creation of Buffalo-born playwright A.R. Gurney. That play is currently being performed at Lincoln Center in New York City.
For more information about the company and its coming season, phone 829-7668 or visit their website at www.kavinokytheare.com.
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Buffalo's Shakespeare in Delaware Park Company has opened their second production of the summer, free of charge, at the outdoor theater behind the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, in Buffalo's Delaware Park.
An all-female production of ''Macbeth'' will play Tuesdays through Sundays at 7:30 p.m. For additional information, phone 856-4533, or check their website at www.shakespeareindelawarepark.org.
