In only a few days, the green, leafy hillsides of Lake View Cemetery will once again be visited by hundreds of good folks, and a company of local actors will be offering them a lively exploration of lives lived by people who might well be permanent residents of the giant graveyard.
The Spoon River Project began in Jamestown three years ago as the brain child of area-born actor and educator Tom Andolora. It is a dramatic performance of some of the poems in poet Edgar Lee Masters' brilliant ''Spoon River Anthology.''
This year, less than a month ago, the after-dark, torch-lighted re-enactments in a cemetery made their way to New York City, where in Brooklyn's giant Green-Wood Cemetery - nearly 10 times as large as our own Lake View Cemetery - big city audiences trooped their way out to be reminded of where our nation came from, in an evening of drama, poetry and music.
I'll begin by telling you how you can participate in the Spoon River Project right here in Jamestown, and then I'll tell you a bit about last month's production in the big city.
THE FACTS
This year's production will take place nightly, from July 26 through July 31. Most of the performances begin at dusk - officially 8:30 p.m. - and most of the lighting is done by lanterns, torches and other fire-based sources. One performance begins at 3:10 p.m., for those who are not comfortable or available in the evening.
On July 30, there will be a late-night performance, which will begin at 11 p.m., in addition to the regular 8:30 beginning. The cemetery tour for that performance will include the interior of several mausoleums as well as the regular graves.
Tickets are $15 if you buy them in advance, and $17 if you buy them at the door. If you wait to buy the same day as you wish to attend, you might be turned away, if the available seating is sold out. Much of the ticket money benefits the sponsoring agencies.
Ticket prices include brief tours of the historic areas of Lake View Cemetery, as well as the performance itself. Tours will be conducted by volunteers from the Fenton History Center in Jamestown. You may choose to skip the tour and attend only the performance.
You can purchase advance tickets at three locations and by computer. Purchase live from the Fenton History Center, 67 Washington St., from the box office of the Reg Lenna Civic Center, at 116 E. Third St., or from the Labyrinth Press Company, 12 E. Fourth St., all in Jamestown. Purchase by computer at www.reglenna.com/tickets. There is a 50-cent service charge for tickets purchased through the civic center's website.
If you wish to ask specific questions on need additional information about the performances, you can phone 664-6256, during business hours.
Here are a number of pieces of information which might be of help to you:
If you purchase an advance ticket, it is good only for the performance described on its face. Please don't attempt to attend a performance with a ticket for a different date. The only exception is if a performance is rained out. Tickets for that performance only may be used at any of the other performances remaining.
The performance is serious theater. It involves a number of actors, representing citizens of Spoon River, Ill., who died approximately 100 years ago, and who are now represented, thinking back on their lives from beyond the grave. It is not a ghost or horror story. Children younger than age 14 must be accompanied by an adult. The performance is not recommended for young children. No one younger than age 16 will be admitted to the late-night performances.
Please arrive on time. Once the tours depart, you may not be able to catch up with them. Coming late into the performance is distracting and unfair to those who paid and came on time.
The dignity of Lake View Cemetery must be upheld at all times. No loud talking, no alcohol and no food are appropriate. Do not litter or leave behind waste. Please carry everything with you.
Please dress appropriately for the nighttime and for possible weather conditions. Sky-high heels, for example, are not a wise choice for walking on wooded paths and on what could be soft earth. Remember that insects are often attracted to flames, and use an insect repellent.
Please turn off any cellphones or other electronic equipment at the gates of the cemetery, and do not turn them back on until you leave.
Please stay with your guide on tours and follow any instructions which he or she gives. This is especially important on the mausoleum tours.
There is one small restroom at the cemetery. It would be wise to use an appropriate facility before you come there.
If you need to leave your seat during the performance, please locate an usher, who will escort you out of the cemetery. It is not safe to wander through the cemetery in the dark. When the performance is over, please leave with the group. If you are meeting a member of the company, please wait for him or her at the entrance.
You are welcome to bring a flashlight, although you should not turn it on during the performance. Seating is provided on wooden park benches. You may bring a cushion or a lawn chair if you wish, but remember you will have to carry it along on the tour before the performance.
If you've seen the show, you know that it is inspiring, tender and often entertaining. If you haven't seen it, I recommend it to you with all my heart. It's a beautiful experience.
THE NAMES
The poetry is blank verse. That means the actors speak as though they were having a conversation. They do not recite.
The poet was Edgar Lee Masters, who wrote 244 life stories for his wonderful characters in 1915. The selection of which poems will be presented was made by Tom Andolora, who also has directed the production. The performance lasts between 45 minutes and an hour.
The producers for the performances are the Lake View Cemetery Assn., The Fenton History Center and Robert John Terreberry.
The actors/singers who will be performing for you will be Skip Anderson, Mary Brunacini Hoover, Adam Hughes, Jack McRay, Mike Nichols, Shannon Nixon, Dan Pierce, Ron Robertson, Merle Szydlo, Ruth Walton, Karen Waterman and Kristy Woodfield.
Musicians who will accompany them will be Cody Hiller, Adam McKillup and Carol Svenson.
Costume supervisor is Ann Thorpe. Stage manager is Molly Woodfield. Lighting and sound design are by John Fuchs. Rehearsal prompter is Margie Fuchs.
JAMESTOWN/NEW YORK
Just in case some may be confused, allow me pause here, to explain that New York City is made up of five separate segments, called boroughs. Many people tend to think of one borough - Manhattan - as being the entire city, which it is not.
Another of those boroughs is Brooklyn, and that is where the performances took place, in Green-Wood Cemetery, a historical locale which includes the graves of more than 500,000 people, as diverse as musician Leonard Bernstein, politico Boss Tweed, artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, journalist Horace Greeley and abolitionist Henry Ward Beecher, whose sister Harriet wrote a famous book.
There are thousands more, but you get the idea.
I asked Tom Andolora to compare the experiences of presenting his wonderful idea in his hometown and presenting it in New York City.
He replied that there are many similarities, but that presenting in the big city requires that everything be done on a larger scale.
In Brooklyn, for example, the cemetery is so large that it was necessary to use a trolley to transport audiences to the performance site within the cemetery, while it is reasonable for the audience to walk in Jamestown.
More than 500 actors applied to play the 11 roles in the play, in New York, and he actually listened to 220 auditions. That gave him more different physical types to choose from, making poems appropriate to include in the performance that would not be reasonable in Jamestown, although he said the final script was almost identical to that used locally.
He said that the Brooklyn performances took place in late spring, when summer theaters and other summer attractions are usually not yet open yet, whereas the Jamestown performances take place in the midst of the summer, when many talented local actors are away on vacation or are working at a summer job or have some other event which makes it impossible for them to participate.
On the other hand, Andolora said, there are a number of Jamestown actors who - if they had been available in Brooklyn for the run of the performances - he would have happily cast in the production.
Because the larger population of the city meant larger audiences in Brooklyn, the performing space and seating space both had to be larger. That meant larger movements for the actors, and less intimacy than local audiences enjoy.
Another difference was in the topography of the performing space. ''The land in Green-Wood was carved by glaciers, and has very steep hills - it is actually the highest point in Brooklyn. Lake View Cemetery has much more rolling, gentle hills, which made it easier to find a more intimate performing site.
And one last difference? Green-Wood is located under the flight path of flights bound for LaGuardia Airport, in nearby Queens. All the Victorian hymns and drama had to be done with major airliners passing low overhead.
I wonder how many people aboard those airliners looked down at people carrying lanterns up through the cemetery after dark and wondered if they had stumbled into a remake of ''Dawn of the Dead.''
A WORKSHOP
If the idea of a performance in the cemetery holds your interest, and especially if you've seen one of the performances in 2009 or 2010, you are being offered an opportunity to learn more about the Spoon River Project, and to meet the director and some of the actors.
Next Saturday - that's July 23 - from 2 to 3:30 p.m., the performing company invites you to attend The Spoon River Project Workshop, in the Fireplace Room of the James Prendergast Public Library, at 209 Cherry St., in downtown Jamestown.
The director will be there to discuss the writing of Edgar Lee Masters and how he goes about ''putting the poetry on its feet,'' as the professionals call it. Cast members are also expected to be present, and may give you a sample of what they will be doing in the formal performances. There is no charge for the workshop at the library.
For information about the workshop - or as previously stated, about the production itself - you can phone the Fenton History Center at 664-6256.
A great many of your friends and neighbors are working very hard and bringing considerable talent and dedication to these performances which are not only a treat for ourselves, but are spreading our community's name and cultural traditions to the many newspapers, radio stations, and television media. A large interview with Andolora appeared on the first page of the New York Times Culture Section, for example, and gave full credit to the project's origins in Jamestown.
I'm looking forward to going. Shouldn't you?
WINKS
On July 17, from noon until 4:30 p.m., you are welcome to attend Art in the Park, an event in which artists, both local and those from elsewhere who are attending Chautauqua events, will be selling their works in Miller Park. That is the small park directly downhill from the Chautauqua Post Office, near the famed Miller Bell Tower.
A portion of the proceeds from the sale of every art work in the event will go toward scholarships for art students. The event takes place rain or shine.
The 17th is a Sunday, when admission to Chautauqua is free of charge, so it's an opportunity to see the beautiful location, see the art, acquire some for yourself, and contribute toward a young person's education, all at the same time. I hope to see you there.
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The stage musical writing team of John Kander and Fred Ebb is known and beloved for a long list of successful musician shows. Just a few would be ''Cabaret,'' ''Kiss of the Spider Woman,'' ''Zorba'' and ''Chicago.''
The wonderful theater program at Niagara University will be performing a collection of the most successful songs from the oeuvre of Kander and Ebb, opening Thursday and running through July 31. Most performances are at 7:30 p.m., although a few begin at 2 p.m. or 7 p.m., so make sure of starting time, before you plan to attend.
Performing will be not only current students, but past graduates who performed songs by the talented twosome during their time at the university. Performances will take place in the Leary Theatre, on the university's campus, in Niagara Falls, N.Y.
Tickets are $25 for the general public, $22 for seniors over age 62 and university staff members, and $20 for youth and students with current NU identification cards. Purchase them by phone at 286-8685 or by computer at theatre.niagara.edu. Naturally, you may purchase in person at the university's box office also.
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Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Martha Rial will offer workshops in documentary photography at Chautauqua Suites Hotel, on Thursday and Friday of the coming week. The sponsoring agency is the Lake Arts Foundation.
The hotel is located on Route 394, between Chautauqua Institution and Mayville.
Thursday morning's presentation will focus on important skills and techniques of documentary photography. The afternoon will be spent photographing individuals and/or groups who graphically represent the future of the community. Ms. Rial will be available in late afternoon to offer critiques and advice on an individual basis.
Friday's session will begin with a group discussion and critique of participants' work, followed by additional work in the field, and concluding with additional presentations of participants' work and group critiques.
Cost for the two-day workshop is $100. Participants must have their own digital cameras, with DSLR cameras preferred, and their own memory cards. Those who have laptop computers with editing software loaded on them are encouraged to bring them as well. A few laptops will be available for temporary use.
The workshop may be audited for $30.
Places in the workshop can be reserved at www.lakeartsfestival.org. Click on ''tickets.'' Reserve by phone at 451-4004.
Martha Rial was a staff photographer at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and won her Pulitzer Prize for photographs taken in Rwanda and Burundi.
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The University of Pittsburgh at Bradford will offer a class on the subject of protecting intellectual property, on Aug. 11 from 6-8 p.m.
Attorney Johnathan D'Silva will explain about copyrights, patents and the laws relating to trade secrets for artists, businesspeople and scientists.
The class will be taught in room 200 of the Seneca Building in downtown Bradford. Cost of participation is $24. To register, email the university's office of continuing education at contined@pitt.edu, or phone them at 814-362-5078. Registration and refreshments will take place at 5:30, for a 6 p.m. start time.
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Buffalo's wonderful Albright-Knox Art Gallery, which holds one of the finest collections of contemporary and 20th Century art in the world, has recently acquired a monumental sculpture by Artist Nancy Rubins.
The work is titled Stainless Steel, Aluminum, Monochrome I, Built to Live Anywhere, at Home Here, 2010-11. It was dedicated June 30.
The museum has also just opened an exhibit titled Videosphere: A New Generation, which is the largest exhibition of new media ever undertaken from a single collection.
The gallery is located at 1285 Elmwood Ave. in downtown Buffalo. It is open Tuesdays through Sundays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with extended hours on Fridays until 10 p.m. Admission is $12 for the general public, $8 for senior citizens and students, and $5 for children between ages 6-12. Phone them at 882-8700.
