After more than a century, the voices of anxiety and joy, of longing and frustration and despair, still rise from the cemetery in the fictional Midwestern town of Spoon River.

Edgar Lee Masters' Spoon River Anthology, first published in book form in 1915, remains one of the most widely read and discussed volumes of poetry ever written, a collection of haunting monologues by Spoon River’s dead about their human existences and experiences. They shed a frank, realistic light on life in middle America.

Kansas City’s Equity Actors' Readers' Theatre (EARTh) delivers a script-in-hand reading of selected passages from Masters’ revered work, drawn from his upbringing in the farmlands of western Illinois. The event is co-presented by EARTh, which offers infrequently produced, large-cast plays in a staged reading format.