CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The multimedia show “I Hear America Singing” celebrates the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence through songs that convey the ideals of our country’s founding and the ongoing journey to fulfill those ideals of liberty, unity and hope.
The show was created by Julie Gunn and Nathan Gunn, the co-directors of the Lyric Theatre program and music professors at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. It involves more than a dozen Illinois faculty members and alumni.
“I Hear America Singing” was commissioned by the Peoria Riverfront Museum to complement its exhibitions celebrating the 250th anniversary, and the show premiered at the museum in March. It will be performed in Algona, Iowa, on Aug. 21 and at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts on Sept. 10-11. The show takes inspiration, and its title, from the Walt Whitman poem “I Hear America Singing.”
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“People sing when they have strong feelings. This is about the aspirations, pains and dramatic hopes of all Americans through time,” said Julie Gunn, who is the show’s musical director as well as a performer.
In developing the show, Gunn said she and her husband, Nathan, asked themselves what it is to be American and what Americans sing about. “We often sing about the promised land in some way, and the journey we are on,” she said.
Gunn said the songs and poetry don’t try to present a timeline of American history or a specific narrative but instead touch on a range of time periods and stories about Americans. The music includes spirituals, work songs and contemporary songs. They are performed by opera and musical theater star Nathan Gunn; opera star Adrienne Danrich; singer and actor Ben Jones; and recent alumna of the Lyric Theatre program Catheryn Kuhar.
The music introduces the idea of a journey through songs such as “Bound for the Promised Land” and “Down to the River to Pray.” It explores the theme of change with Sam Cooke’s “A Change is Gonna Come,” “Something’s Coming” from “West Side Story” and Curtis Mayfield’s “People Get Ready.”
The darker times in our country’s history are recounted with “Old Red Hills of Home,” told from a Confederate soldier’s point of view, and “A Letter from Sullivan Ballou,” based on a Union soldier’s last letter to his wife before going into battle. “Breathe” was co-written by Danrich in the wake of the George Floyd murder in 2020.
Sarah Wigley — a Lyric Theatre resident director and Illinois music professor, and the show’s stage director — said that, when choosing the music, she and the Gunns considered balancing ballads with up-tempo numbers and the dark moments with a sense of light and community.
The singers suggested some of the songs they perform, with Kuhar singing “Christmas Lullaby” from “Songs for a New World”; Danrich singing “Stand Up,” about Harriet Tubman; Nathan Gunn singing “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?”; and Jones singing “Beautiful City” from “Godspell.”
“By the end, we have found our way again. We know we’re not at the promised land, but we have come out of the hard times and are holding hands going toward the future,” Julie Gunn said.
A seven-piece band, including Julie Gunn on piano, accompanies the singers. The band members all have Illinois connections, and the stage manager, technical director, lighting and media directors are Illinois faculty members.
Lisa Gaye Dixon, an emerita professor of theatre and dance, and an actor, director and playwright, is the narrator of “I Hear America Singing.” Gunn said Dixon’s character represents the “spirit of America” and the presence of hope for what the country can be.
Dixon wrote her text to provide context and connections between songs. It includes quotes from Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr. and James Baldwin. She said she chose quotes about the larger ideas of being American, including words from Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address” and from King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” She also wrote about the idea of movements, especially in the 20th century — for workers’ rights, women’s rights, civil rights and gay rights.
“All these movements are about many different groups of people saying, ‘We, too, are Americans,’” Dixon said.
The show includes a video of three actors, including Illinois theatre alumnus Tyrone Phillips, reading the poems that are the foundation of the show. In his poem, Whitman wrote of the “varied carols” of America’s laborers, of the mother and young wife, and of a group of young men. In responses to Whitman’s work, poet Langston Hughes in “I, Too,” described himself as “the darker brother” and wrote “I, too, sing America,” anticipating the day when he also has a seat at the table. Poet Allison Hedge Coke’s “American, I Sing You Back” offers the perspective of an Indigenous woman as the midwife of America, singing it into existence and, when the country loses its way, singing it back to its “self-considered purpose.”
Julie Gunn and Wigley said they want the audience to feel a part of the show and that it speaks to their experiences.
“It’s very easy to think we have nothing in common with the people who founded the country or with other Americans. When I look at the different styles and artistry of music making, there are so many similarities of the dreams and the struggles we have now that were also happening then,” Wigley said.
Gunn hopes the show will travel for performances in other locations. She said that while it was prompted by the 250th celebration this year, it isn’t limited to that.
“I think the vast majority of Americans think we are people that have certain hopes and certain values,” Gunn said. “The show is prompted by 2026, but it speaks to America more profoundly.”
