This radio play dramatizes Washington Irving’s classic short-story, bringing to life scenes and characters that were merely described in the original, including the one-room schoolhouse, the Van Tassel household, the country damsels, the townsfolk’s ghost stories, singing-master Ichabod’s terrible choir, the quilting frolic, and the climatic chase by the Headless Horseman. The treatment is both spooky and funny, with a poetry duel, rained-out pie-contest and several are-they-or-aren’t-they dream sequences with the Horseman. As with my adaptations of Dickens’ “Christmas Carol” and Capra’s “It’s A Wonderful Life,” the show is suitable for all audiences, yet performable by students. However, it is not dumbed-down for kiddies. I remain true to Washington Irving’s short story, bringing plenty of authentic 1789 elements—from Major Andre, to Isaac Watts to Jonathan Edwards to Hudson Valley folktales.

----- Tony Palermo

The Lyric Center for the Arts is a non-profit multi discipline art center in Virginia, Minnesota.  Our mission is to provide education and cultural opportunities for children and adults across Minnesota's Iron Range while renovating the historic Lyric Building.

The Lyric Building is an opera house built on Virginia's main street in 1912.  It lay vacant for two decades from the 1970's and was slated for demolition in 1998 when it was purchased by the Laurentian Arts and Culture Alliance with the plan to renovate and create a much needed space for the arts on the Iron Range.

Currently, the Lyric Center has an art gallery featuring visual work by local and regional artists. We also have a children's theater company, Small Parts Players, and a community theater company, Northern Stage Works.

We believe the arts are essential to the well-being and economy of our community.  We hope you do, too.

A special thank you to our 2020 Performance Season Sponsors!

Essentia Health
American Bank of the North
Culbert Realty
Frandsen Bank & Trust
North East Technical Services
Northern State Bank
Iron Range Rotary