The Spirit of Lincoln
2009 · Hoogland Center for the Arts, Jacksonville, Illinois
In the bicentennial year of Abraham Lincoln's birth, The Spirit of Lincoln set out not to reenact the man but to find him still living among the people of Central Illinois. As the authors wrote, the show grew out of "an interesting, exciting, and sometimes frustrating year interviewing dozens of Central Illinois residents on the trail of Lincoln's spirit" — conversations held in theatre foyers, along the lanes of New Salem, in the souvenir stores of downtown Springfield, in a booth at the 3-Legged Dog coffee shop, and in living rooms and break rooms across Lincoln's old stomping grounds.
From that quilt of interviews, journals, newspaper clippings, and half-forgotten letters, the show stitches together the testimony of the living and the dead alike. A museum volunteer remembers the old man from Nigeria who stopped at the foyer and refused to go further, content simply to look into Lincoln's eyes. Jonathan Baldwin Turner races to Washington to find his dying son Charley among fifty buildings of wounded soldiers. Boy drummers from White Hall and Peoria lie about their ages to march off to "Mr. Lincoln's War." Poets, abolitionists, teachers, and Underground Railroad guides each add a thread, until the audience is invited to understand "spirit" not as ghosts and graveyards but as the things that, if we want them badly enough, are still with us.
Rather than a standing monument, the show offers Lincoln the way his Washington memorial finally chose to render him: seated, human, his hair uncombed and his tie not quite straight — and very much still our neighbor.
Songs
- There's a Spirit
- Hey Daddy
- Smoke and Flags Waltz
- Goodbye, My Friend
- Freedom, Sweet Freedom
- Don't Look Back
- The Three Carnations
Music and songs by Barry Cloyd, who also performed as the show's onstage singer and narrator.
Cast
- There's a Spirit / Barry — Barry Cloyd
- Volunteer One / Mary — Sylvia Burke
- Volunteer Two / Carl Sandburg / Student — Tim Chipman
- Soldier / Edward L. Hager — Andrew Hill
- Charles Turner / Phil Funkenbusch — Travis Deaver
- Vachel Lindsay / Lincoln / Paul Findley — Keith Bradbury
- Scott / Hunt Bonan — Scott Stanberry
- Michael, Nathan, Fritz / Tom Ryder — Granger Snodgrass
- Newton Bateman / Museum Volunteer — Roger Davis
- Owen Lovejoy / Jim Watson — Don Schneider
- Laura Isabelle Osburn Nance / Springfield Tourist — Patsy Kelly
- William Berry / New Salem Volunteer — Ken Bradbury
- Connie / Alicia / Doris Kearns Goodwin — Kristin Jamison
- Ben / Richard Taylor — Joel Tinsley
- Frank Walker / Leo Tolstoy — Harvey Mack
- Dancer / Springfield Shopkeeper — Laura Roth
The finale, "Spirit Song," was sung by the full company.
Production Notes
The Spirit of Lincoln was created for the Lincoln Bicentennial and funded by the Jacksonville Lincoln Bicentennial Commission. It was presented at the Hoogland Center for the Arts in Jacksonville, Illinois, hosted by the Jacksonville Theatre Guild.
Every story in the show was drawn from a real interview or from the writings of people touched by Lincoln — among the living, figures such as former U.S. Congressman Paul Findley, professional Lincoln portrayer Fritz Klein, author and storyteller Brian "Fox" Ellis, state historian Tom Schwartz, and songwriter Barry Cloyd; and among the deceased, voices including superintendent Newton Bateman, Lincoln's business partner William Berry, poets Vachel Lindsay and Carl Sandburg, abolitionist Owen Lovejoy, and Civil War drummer boys Edward L. Hager of White Hall and Joseph Henry Monroe of Peoria. The authors gave thanks to all those who sat for interviews and shared their collections of historical documents, "to both the living and the dead who have contributed to this project," noting: "If you didn't speak we wouldn't have a story."
Photos
