Saint Sebastian Players Celebrate Lincoln's 200th Birthday With SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY 10/23-11/15

To open their 29th season, the Saint Sebastian Players look to their Illinois roots through author Edgar Lee Masters and the yearlong celebration of Abraham Lincoln's 200th birthday with Spoon River Anthology in an original adaptation by SSP company member Jonathan Hagloch, who also directs the production and provides original music. Performances are October 23-November 15, 2009 at St. Bonaventure, 1625 W. Diversey, Chicago.

Masters created the town of Spoon River as an amalgam of severAl Small towns in central Illinois, where he was raised. A wide variety of characters from this fictional town deliver epitaphic monologues with haunting honesty, on topics such as their lives, loves, triumphs and tragedies. Hagloch has devoted a section of his adaptation to characters who speak of their personal relationships with "Honest Abe." Masters' work was an immediate commercial success when it was published in 1915; the original book was unconventional in both style and content and shattered the myths of small town American life.

Hagloch, who adapted Masters' work, provides original music and directs, has a long history with SSP, having authored the musical Elvicula (1995, revived 2001) and the play Time Changes Everything. He has also directed Pippin, You Can't Take it With You, The Heiress and many others. The cast includes SSP members Robert Dean, Jim Masini, John Oster, Todd Parkhurst and Nancy Pollock, along with Lauren Goode, Alisa Marier, Victoria Montalbano and Jackie Waters. Masini also serves as producer.

The season continues with SSP's annual Monologue Matchup competition November 2; an evening of short plays by Anton Chekhov February 19-March 14, 2010, with SSP member John Oster as producing artistic director; and the musical Nunsense with book, music and lyrics by Dan Goggin, directed by SSP member Kelly Rhyne, April 30-May 23, 2010.

Spoon River Anthology runs October 23-November 15, 2009 at St. Bonaventure, 1625 W. Diversey, at Marshfield just west of Ashland, in Chicago. Performances are Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. Free parking is available in two lots. Full-priced single tickets are $15, $10 for students with valid IDs and $7 for seniors and children younger than 12. Subscription packages for the three-play season are $30, $15 for seniors; other options are available that include the Monologue Matchup and/or SSP's Annual Banquet. Group rates also are available.
All programming is subject to change. For information, call 773-404-7922 or visit saintsebastianplayers.org. Tickets are also on sale at ticketweb.com.