Spoon River House Festival

Come to the Hyde Park house where Edgar Lee Masters wrote the classic Spoon River Anthology. Three shows take place in a two-weekend festival celebrating this iconic work from the 1910s. Let the ghost of Edgar Lee Masters take you on an imagined journey to Spoon River, Illinois! Limited tickets are now on sale for each show. 

Spoon River Characters—directed and curated by Iris Lieberman, eight leading lights of Chicago theatre spin a tale of characters from honest, hardworking, chaste, and churchgoing to corrupt bankers, abusive husbands, unfulfilled wives, sexual deviants, and failed dreamers… brought by from the dead by Jerry Bailey, Mary Bonnett, Sharon Carlson John Green (and his guitar), Gary Houston, Razz Jenkins and Adjora Stephens.

Spoon River Classical—song settings by composer Lita Grier and art songs from the period, curated by Carl Ratner, with pianist and music director Dana Brown, soprano Michelle Areyzaga, baritone Dorian McCall, soprano Marissa Howard, and tenor Emanuel-Cristian Caraman with narrator Paul Geiger as Edgar Lee Masters.

Spoon River Cabaret—Claudia Hommel, Barbara Smith, Ruth Fuerst, Jonathan Lewis are joined by Joanie Winters, Jace McCloy, Daniel Johnson, and Randolph Johnson to share songs the Spoon River folk would have sung had they lived long enough!

CHARACTERS — Fridays, September 13 and 20
CLASSICAL — Saturdays, September 14 and 21
CABARET — Sundays, September 15 and 22

All shows begin at 7 PM and are followed by artist talkback and reception with light refreshments.