Original Work — Karson Palmer

The Haunting of Spoon River: An Original Folk Gothic Musical

Poster Designed by Karson Palmer

University of Toledo Workshop

Video of the Production coming soon ! It will be right here ! With Captions ! And also on my youtube page. :)

Keep Scrolling Down For More !

The Botanist- a Music Video Preformed by the Spoon River Ensamble

Original concept set sketch, drawn by Karson Palmer. Drafting done by Jim Hill

Our set was aquired through a deal with the UT Film department. They were doing a unit on music videos, and needed to create an original song to submit to festivals and bringing in Simon Huber to be the director of videography as a way to acquire a grant for the department and teach the class. We worked out a deal where I provided the material, the actors, and the labor for the music video and in return would be able to use the set for our production.

Jim Hill and I built, assembled, and painted the set inside a film classroom.

Then for the video shoot I was the on set carpenter, painter, propsmaster, musical supervisor, and an actor in the video when we had a no show.

Daniel Thobias was our makeup artist, Bree Stouffer was the costumer and stage manager. Aaron Smith, and Tevy Dempski were the other actors, both pictured above. I’m holding guitar.

A music video trailer for the production, directed by Simon Huber and Holly Hey. Produced for the University of Toledo Film Department.

Starring Aaron Smith, Tevy Dempski. Written, Composed and Artistic Directed by Karson Palmer

At the end of the video shoot we struck, and reassembled the set within our departments black box theater. This was my first time leading a strike and I can proudly say not only was no one killed or hurt, but the set transferred the room changeover in one piece. (Well, multiple pieces but yaknow figuratively).

This was our first debut as an ensemble, we preformed the complete first act with the second iteration of our cast. Featuring in order: Isa Herrara, Aaron Smith, Oliver Marconi, Nicole Dail, Tevy Dempski, and Alyssa Augistnak.

Since this production was happening at the same time as our departments main stage production, our department had only 30 some students total, and opening night was a week before finals.

So, we unfortunately suffered through 13 position changes, including 7 separate cast changes. All credited below in the special thanks section.

4 of these changes occurred within two weeks of opening. So, while my name appears an embarrassing amount in our credits, it was a matter of the show must go on.

The Final Original Cast:

Aaron Smith, Lindsay Hinds, Alyssa
Augustyniak, Oliver Marconi, Lavender Schiender, and Amber Wilkes.

Directed by Bree Stouffer, and Lydia Babcock

Choreography by Abby Papinfuss

Dramaturgy, Stage and Production Management by Karson Palmer.

Musicians: Edward Davenport, Karson Palmer, Dylan Gheen, Bree Stouffer, Davin Broadhurst, and Tyler Tealbert

Special Thanks to the Contributions of:

Zach Harris, Nicole Dail, Isa Herrera, Seth Camiscione, Ashley Mcbrierty, Noah Proctor, Amethyst Alexander, Alex Damm, Tim Geiger, Daniel Thobias, Kelly Mcbane, Holly Hey, Holly Monsos, Stephen Sakoswki, Chris Montepetit, Jim Hill, Gerardo Rosario-Nieves, Kaylie Britt, Lila Cooper, Micah Lawson, Jordyn Beery, Grace Mullinx, Hazel Penrose, Tyler Teachout, Emily Boes, Tyler Douglas, Ed Lingan, Matt Foss.