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William Blake's Inn is a song cycle composed by Lacuna member Dale Lyles. It is based A Visit to William Blake's Inn, a book of children's poetry by Nancy Willard which won the Newbery Award in 1982, becoming the first book of poetry to be awarded the most prestigious prize in children's literature.
In January of 2003, members of Lacuna were privileged to take seventeen students to Ayrshire, Scotland, to sing with the Scottish Opera's international cast of The Tale o' Tam, a setting of Robert Burns's "Tam O'Shanter." They decided then that they would work towards a similar project in Newnan.
In September of that year, Nancy Willard gave her permission for Dale Lyles to set her book to music. He finished composition in September of 2006 (having taken time off in the meantime for other projects.)
In May of 2007, Lacuna staged a "cardboard and hot glue" version of the piece to demonstrate to community leaders what a staged production of William Blake's Inn might look like. Although people were complimentary, no one seemed interested in moving forward with the project, and the work was shelved.
Now Lacuna is the artistic arm of the project to produce A Visit to William Blake's Inn's world premiere in March 2025.
Interested in being a part of this world premiere? Email us! Our timeline is:
We are pleased to be working with the following organizations to make William Blake's Inn a reality:
Backstreet Community Arts
Southern Arc Dance Company
...and your organization?
a piece for chorus, soloists, orchestra, puppets, dancers, and everyone.
We visit the Inn and through the course of a day or so meet the odd and magical inhabitants, including William Blake himself.
