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MARTY CLEARThe Henry B. Plant Museum adds 19th century journalist Richard Harding Davis to the cast of its weekly historical monologues.
TAMPA - It has been 106 years since Richard Harding Davis stayed at the Tampa Bay Hotel. He'll be back again on Sunday.
Davis, a dashing 19th century journalist, is the newest in the rotating cast of characters of "Upstairs/Downstairs," a weekly performance series at the Henry B. Plant Museum.
But in 1898, the real-life Davis was a guest at the Tampa Bay Hotel. In those days, the building was a luxury resort that brought the wealthiest people in the country to Tampa.
Now the building, whose minarets have become a symbol for the city, houses the museum, plus University of Tampa classrooms and offices.
The museum, which opened in 1933, is a reproduction of the Tampa Bay Hotel as it existed when it welcomed its first guests in 1891.
"It's like a time capsule," said museum spokeswoman Sally Shifke. "The lighting is authentic, and most of the furniture is the actual furniture from the hotel. We want people to feel, when they walk through the door, that 2004 is left behind and they've entered the world of 1891."
Since 1999, a popular part of that experience has been "Upstairs/Downstairs."
Every Sunday from September through November, and then again from January through May, local actors re-create actual characters who walked the halls of the hotel in its heyday.
Including Davis, the latest addition to the cast, "Upstairs/Downstairs" has six characters. They appear in rotation, one each week, and perform carefully researched half-hour monologues for museum visitors. Most of the characters are hotel employees (a laundress, a hunting guide, a head waiter and a telegrapher) who have a somewhat different view of life at the hotel and in Tampa than the well-heeled guests.
Davis, played by local actor Chris Holcom, kicks off the new season of "Upstairs/Downstairs" on Sunday. Davis was an influential reporter, war correspondent, novelist and playwright. He's the first new character added to the series in two years.
In 1898, as American soldiers geared up in Tampa for the Spanish-American War, Davis stayed at the hotel and sailed to Cuba with the first troops. He was the only correspondent "embedded" with the Rough Riders, and his dispatches helped make Teddy Roosevelt a national hero.
Roosevelt's wife Edith, coincidentally, was also a Tampa Bay Hotel guest, and is portrayed in "Upstairs/Downstairs."
Tampa writers Nancy Cole and Sandy Frye created the new piece after extensive research into Davis' life and the era. That same kind of research had gone into all the vignettes, Shifke said, and that's one reason the "Upstairs/Downstairs" series received the prestigious Award of Merit for State and Local History from the American Association of Museums in 1990.
The fall schedule of characters includes Davis on Sunday and Oct. 17; laundress Maggie Stroud Sept. 12 and Oct. 24; hunting and fishing guide Arthur Schleman Sept. 19 and Oct. 31; head waiter Otis Freedman Sept. 26 and Nov. 7; Edith Roosevelt Oct. 3 and Nov. 21; and telegrapher Pauline Smith Oct. 10 and Nov. 28.
There will not be a performance on Nov. 14.
PREVIEW: The 2004-2005 season of "Upstairs/Downstairs" premieres at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Henry B. Plant Museum on the campus of the University of Tampa. There is a suggested donation of $5 for adults and $2 for children for admission to the museum; there is no additional charge for "Upstairs/Downstairs." Seating is limited to 35 people. 813 254-1891 or www.plantmuseum.com Hours: 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tue.-Sat.; noon-4 p.m. Sun.