Chautauqua 2003 gives life to famous people of America's past through flesh-and-blood actors.
By BARBARA L. FREDRICKSEN
Published October 19, 2003
The popular educational sessions that came to be known as "Chautauquas" started in southwest New York in 1874 to train Sunday school teachers.
The four-to-seven-day assemblies became so popular they quickly expanded into more secular traveling tent shows with lectures, discussions, performances of Shakespeare, bands and a sprinkling of politicians and social reformers. Chautauqua tours peaked in popularity in the mid-1920s, when tent shows appeared in more than 10,000 communities in 45 states and drew audiences upward of 45-million, according to Charlotte Canning of the University of Texas in Austin.
In recent decades, Chautauquas have been revived; huge festivals across the country are built around them, and touring companies make scores of appearances.
Florida's version, Chautauqua 2003, will be in Pasco and Hernando counties Wednesday through Friday and will feature impersonations of Thomas Jefferson, Harriet Beecher Stowe, James Weldon Johnson, Eleanor Roosevelt, Zora Neale Hurston and Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. The performers, in full costume for the evening sessions, will speak in the voices of these historic figures and respond to questions from the audience while in character.
It's the 30th year for the tours, which are sponsored by the Florida Humanities Council and are free.
First session: "On Freedom," is from 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at Pasco-Hernando Community College Performing Arts Center, 10230 Ridge Road, New Port Richey, and features J.D. Sutton in "An Encounter with Thomas Jefferson" and Betty Jean Steinshouer in "Harriet Beecher Stowe in Florida."
"Many people see in Thomas Jefferson what they want to see," Sutton said. In recent years, movies, musicals and plays have presented the more human side of this towering figure. "This portrayal presents a Thomas Jefferson who resonates with audiences as both an icon and as a fellow human being," Sutton said.
Ms. Steinshouer's portrayal of writer Stowe will focus on her years in Florida after the Civil War. Ms. Stowe told her publisher she was working on another novel in her small Mandarin cottage overlooking the St. Johns River. In truth, she was establishing schools for freed slaves. This relatively unknown period in Ms. Stowe's life from 1866 to 1884 is based on Ms. Steinshouer's extensive research.
Second session: 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Thursday, also at the PHCC center, features actor LeRoy Mitchell Jr. as James Weldon Johnson, who is often called Florida's Renaissance Man for his achievements in law, diplomacy, education, music, poetry and acting. The second half of the show has actress and researcher Joan Wolfberg discussing Eleanor Roosevelt's column, "My Day."
Third session: "On Education," from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday at the Center for the Arts at River Ridge, 11646 Town Center Road, New Port Richey, features Mitchell as Johnson and Ms. Wolfberg as Mrs. Roosevelt, this time in full costume and with music provided by the River Ridge music department.
In this presentation, Mitchell will speak in the voice of Johnson, and Ms. Wolfberg will read letters written by Mrs. Roosevelt in 1959 and reminiscent of the first lady's childhood, her life in the White House and her successes at the United Nations.
Fourth session: "On Friendship," from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday at Springstead High School auditorium, 3300 Mariner Blvd., Spring Hill, features Phyllis McEwen as writer Zora Neale Hurston in "Zora Live!" and Ms. Steinshouer as Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings in "Notes from Cross Creek."
The Hurston piece is set in 1938, when the writer, folklorist and Florida native was at the high point of her life and the toast of the Harlem Renaissance.
Ms. Steinshouer's depiction of Ms. Rawlings is true to life, depicting the hard-drinking, chain-smoking, cussing author who let the world know about Florida Cracker life in The Yearling - not the willowy, romanticized Hollywood version.
"We are one of only nine places in all of Florida chosen to host this 30th anniversary Chautauqua tour," said Lynn Rothman-Venus, director of marketing and public relations for PHCC. "We were really fortunate to be chosen - and it's especially nice, because all the sessions are free."
