Presenter: Sharon Wood
Speaking as Betsey Phelps, the mother of a Union soldier from Amherst, New Hampshire who died heroically at the Battle of Gettysburg, Sharon Wood offers an informative and sensitive reflection on that sacrifice from a mother's perspective. Wood blends the Phelps boy's story with those of other men who left their New Hampshire homes to fight for the Union cause and of the families who supported them on the home front. This program is only available as an in-person presentation.
Presenter: Steve Wood
Abraham Lincoln, portrayed by Steve Wood, begins this program by recounting his early life and ends with a reading of the "Gettysburg Address." Along the way he comments on the debates with Stephen Douglas, his run for the presidency, and the Civil War.
Presenter: Sally Mummey
In 1837, teenaged Victoria ascended to the British throne, untrained and innocent. Those who would try to usurp her power underestimated this self-willed intelligent young woman whose mettle sustained her through her 63-year reign. Using Queen Victoria's diary and letters, this program reveals the personal details of a powerful yet humane woman, who took seriously her role as monarch in a time of great expansion. She and her husband, Albert, set an example of high moral character and dedication, a novelty in the royal house after generations of scandal. Through her children she left a royal legacy; an era bears her name. Sally Mummey performs this living history in proper 19th century clothing resplendent with Royal Orders.
Presenter: Deborah Goss
Deborah Anne Goss appears as Abby Hutchinson Patton, recalling mid-19th-century U.S. and New Hampshire history and performing rousing anthems, heartfelt ballads, and humorous ditties sung during anti-slavery and early women's rights struggles. In the 1840s and 1850s the Hutchinson Family Singers strongly influenced the opinions of the era with their popular songs promoting healthy living and social justice-most prominently the abolition of slavery. Participants are encouraged to join in the singing on several choruses or read a poem or political diatribe of the time.
Presenter: Sebastian Lockwood
Meet Caesar, who is descended from the Goddess Venus. This program introduces Caesar as a young boy living with his Mother, Aurelia, and his Aunt Julia, two women who will shape the boy who will be the most powerful man on earth. Using a rich variety of texts, Sebastian Lockwood shows Caesar as a man who clearly saw his destiny and fulfilled that destiny with the help of remarkable women – Cleopatra amongst them. A poet, historian, linguist, architect, general, politician, and engineer, was he truly of the Populi party for the People of Roma? Or a despot and tyrant? This performance shows Caesar as a remarkable genius who transformed his world in ways that still resonate today.
Presenter: Michael Francis
The Starry Messenger, presented by Michael Francis, is a dramatic fun-filled adaptation of Galileo's short treatise "Siderius Nuncius." Galileo (dressed in 17th-century costume) arrives to present a public lecture on his most recent discoveries made using his newly-devised spyglass. As he describes those discoveries, Galileo's new method of observation and measurement of nature become apparent. Throughout the presentation audience members are actively involved in experiments and demonstrations. After the lecture, Galileo answers questions about his experiments, his life, and his times.
Presenter: Sebastian Lockwood
Using the well known scenes of The Odyssey, Sebastian Lockwood delivers the passion and intensity of the great epic that deserves to be heard told as it was by bards in the days of old. Lockwood says, "The best compliment is when a ten-year-old comes up and says, 'I felt like I was there.'" That is the magic of the performance that takes students and adults alike back into the text. The following Q & A can focus on translations and the storytelling techniques used by Homer.
Presenter: Steve Blunt
The year is 1876, and New Hampshire's own John Hutchinson sings and tells about his famous musical family "straight from the horse's mouth." Originally from Milford, NH, the Hutchinson Family Singers were among America's most notable musical entertainers for much of the mid-19th century. They achieved international recognition with songs advancing social reform and political causes such as abolition, temperance, women's suffrage, and the Lincoln presidential campaign of 1860. In this living history program, Steve Blunt portrays John Hutchinson. He tells the Hutchinsons' story and shares their music with lyrics provided. Audience members are invited to sing along on "The Old Granite State," "Get Off the Track," "Tenting on the Old Campground," and more.
Presenter: Sally Mummey
Raised in a slaveholding family, Mary Todd Lincoln evolved into an advocate for abolition. The intellectual equal of well-educated men, she spoke her mind openly in an era when a woman's success in life was measured by marriage and motherhood. Against her family's wishes, she married the man she loved and partnered with him to achieve their goal of becoming President and First Lady. Sparkling with humor and insight, Sally Mummey as Mary Lincoln shares stories of their life and love, triumphs and challenges, and life in the White House during the tumultuous years of the Civil War.
Presenter: Judith Black
In this first-person interpretive program, Judith Black introduces American Lucy Stone, the first woman hired by the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society as a public speaker and the "Shining Star" of the Abolition and Women's Rights Movements. The presenter dispels well-worn platitudes about the antebellum North by interjecting historic and personal truths about these social reform movements. Her presentation also paints a dynamic and detailed picture of what it takes to change the world you are born into. Follow Lucy as she makes her case for tax resistance, her challenges to marriage laws and motherhood, and her pro-Emancipation response to the Civil War. Go with her to The American Equal Rights Association Convention in May 1869, where she eloquently supports the 15th Amendment, which gave African-American men the vote.
Presenter: Sharon & Steve Wood
Sarah Josepha Hale, a Newport, NH native, tells the story of her 30-year effort to have Thanksgiving declared a national holiday. President Abraham Lincoln enters at the end of her tale to read his 1863 Thanksgiving proclamation. Sharon Wood portrays Hale and Steve Wood portrays Lincoln in a living history presentation following background about their characters and the times.
Presenter: Jackson Gillman
Rudyard Kipling was the most internationally-celebrated author of his day. The first four years of his marriage and fatherhood were spent in New England where he built his dream house - Naulakha in Dummerston, Vermont - now preserved as a Landmark Trust property. It was there that he penned The Jungle Book and other classics. These were productive and happy years for the young literary giant, but eventually deeply troubled. Although Kipling was an intensely private individual, Jackson Gillman's sensitive portrayal provides an inside look at the writer's experience in New England and some of the controversy surrounding this complex man. Part lecture, part living history, part storytelling, Jackson's presentation includes a selection of the classic Just So Stories.
Presenter: Sebastian Lockwood
This is our earliest epic. It is at least four thousand years old, but in performance we discover a dynamic and thrilling tale of heroes, friendship, battles with a monster, and death, followed by a journey to the other world to meet Utnapishtin, whom we know as Noah. Gilgamesh will ask him about life and death and he will come home with a great story. In the Q&A after the performance, Sebastian Lockwood can tell the tale of how the tablets were found in Iraq and how scholars broke the code to reveal the story and its Biblical parallels.
Presenter: Stephen Collins
This program opens with the elderly Whitman on the evening of his seventieth birthday. The audience is a visitor in his room as he prepares for his birthday celebration. Whitman begins to reminisce during the telling. He transforms into his young vibrant self and we begin to trace back with him the experiences that led to the creation of Leaves Of Grass, his lifetime work. The first part of the performance explores Whitman's preoccupation with the self and his resolve to write with "free and brave thought..." In the second part of the performance, Whitman's life is changed forever by the Civil War. It is here that he finds "the most important work of my life," nursing the wounded soldiers in the hospitals. Through Stephen Collins' recitation of poetry and readings of actual letters, we experience Whitman's movement from selfishness toward selflessness and his growth into a mature artist who is at peace about "himself, God and death."
Presenter: Judith Black
This first person interpretive presentation brings alive our nation’s most notorious and effective labor and union organizer, Mary Harris Jones (1830-1930). Mother Jones, as the working people called her, traveled though-out this nation, with nothing more than a small satchel on her back and organized mill and mine workers to stand up for “Their god given rights.” As a female, radical, and labor organizer she broke every mold of her era and laid the groundwork for a workers movement that would effect this nation profoundly for the next seven decades.
Presenter: Andrew Pinard
Jonathan Harrington (1811-1881) was one of the earliest American magicians. Born in Boston, Harrington began his performing career as a ventriloquist in 1826, and subsequently added fire resistance, conjuring, mimicry, and exhibitions to his performances, eventually focusing on magic. He toured annually and was well-known throughout New England and beyond. His success allowed him to purchase the New England Museum where he presented shows and exhibitions. Andrew Pinard transforms into Harrington through character and period costume to present mysteries and wonders from the nineteenth century with the help of audience members. This presentation on Jonathan Harrington will reveal new information about a performer that had an impact for decades after his passing, including a demonstration of a piece that Harrington likely performed. This is a presentation with demonstration in costume and character, not a full magic show.
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