Celtic legend inspires singer’s choral drama

Maria Anthony’s fascination with a Celtic legend and her love for music inspired her to create a choral drama.

While traveling in Glasgow, Scotland, with her husband, Anthony, she learned about Kentigern, Scotland’s patron saint. She was intrigued by the tale.

“Kentigern: Saint Mungo of Scotland” debuts at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church, 1229 Vt. Admission is free, but donations will be accepted at the door.”Kentigern” also will be performed Sept. 29 at the McPherson Scottish Festival in McPherson.

“The more I talked to people over there, nobody knew anything about him,” the Lawrence musician said. “There is really a very special quality to his story.”

Anthony researched and discovered a 500-page document detailing Kentigern’s life. She used that as she wrote music for her production.

“The stories have some strange, evocative, multi-layered, magical, moral qualities,” she said.

She compared her final product to “Jesus Christ Superstar.”

“Eventually I’d like it to be a full choir and band with all the lights and smoke,” she said.

Several different kinds of music are incorporated into the drama, including rock songs, traditional folk music and choral pieces. The songs will be sung mostly in English, intermingled with some Gaelic and Latin.

Although Anthony has a great deal of experience with writing music, she never before considered writing an entire production.

“This is completely new to me,” she said.

Saturday’s production, titled “Kentigern: Saint Mungo of Scotland,” will resemble a concert, with live vocal and instrumental music. The Rev. Charles Polifka will narrate.

That’s not all, though.

Anthony also has created artwork to accompany the show, which will be displayed during the evening. In addition, she is in the process of creating an interactive computer game with her 8-year-old son, Ian.

Eventually, Anthony said she would like her show to be produced in the form of a documentary that would include the history of Kentigern.

In the near future, though, Anthony and others will record an album of the music from the production. She said she has recruited folk singers such as Connie Dover to help.

Anthony has dedicated more than a year to her project.

“I realized halfway into this that this is a culmination of all of my experiences,” Anthony said. “It’s my musical background, my interest in Celtic and Scottish culture, my interest in spirituality, my academic vent toward research and my love for production.”

She expects her show to turn into something big.

“I’d like to spend the next 10 years of my life doing this,” she said.