Host will have one youth and one adult daytime workshop by each OHIO CHAUTAUQUA scholar. Hosts schedule these ten programs throughout the five days that OHIO CHAUTAUQUA is in the community. Please remember that these activities are workshops presented by the scholars; they are NOT in-character living history performances.
Unless otherwise indicated in the program descriptions, youth programs are intended for audiences age 8 and above. If you have any questions about these programs or would like to talk about scheduling options, please call Fran at 800-293-9774.
Thomas Edison was once asked at an award ceremony if he had ever received such a lovely medal. He answered, “Yes, I have quarts of them.” Hank does not have that problem, but he has had some interesting experiences. He appeared for General Electric at their Nela Park Laboratory Ninety Year Celebration; he performed as Edison at the New York Stock Exchange in a program sponsored by Con Edison; in New Jersey, he performed at an international conference honoring Edison’s 150th birthday, sponsored by the National Parks; and this past January, Hank was cast in a Hollywood film that featured Thomas Edison.
Hank says, “The Chautauqua audiences are the best. They appreciate the effort we have put into our performances and ask penetrating questions that challenge our scholarship.” This is Hank’s seventh season with OHIO CHAUTAUQUA. He will also be performing as Edison this summer in Missouri and Colorado.
Becoming EdisonThis workshop begins by briefly exploring some issues and problems experienced by those who present historical characters, then quickly moves to theatre games that teach students how to be comfortable on stage. Hank talks about research and body language. Students learn how to give the audience clues about the character they are pretending to be through gestures and movement. In the second half of this presentation, students help Hank apply makeup and add last-minute costume pieces to become Edison. We discuss the differences between Hank the actor and Edison the character. Hank then takes student questions as Edison for a few minutes. If time allows, Hank shows slides of Edison’s most popular inventions and his family.
So You Too Want to be a Chautauqua Performer
Many audience members dream of bringing a favorite historical person back to life. In this interactive presentation, Hank discusses his approach to put the kick back into history. He points out research methods, how to get good readers and directors, how much theatre is too much, and - most importantly - why the research is never done. Hank emphasizes the importance of costumes, props, finding the right movement and voice, how to weave controversy into your script while avoiding confrontation, and how to avoid “wishful-thinking” history. The participants will be encouraged to ask questions and, if time permits, Hank will conduct a theatre game that emphasizes body language.
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Edison: The Past at Present
The chautauqua scholar is supposed to know the truth about the character he resurrects during his performance. But the only real truth is that there is no real truth. The facts about any historical figure are as contradictory and elusive. Scholars tend to uncover proofs that confirm what they already believed, and audiences often demand a rendering that reinforces myths and ignores uncomfortable ambiguity. Yet, we still cherish the notion that the past can enlighten our present and guide us to a wiser future.
In this interactive workshop, Hank will attempt to peel the proverbial onion that is the heart and soul of Thomas Edison. With historical slides and discussion, Hank hopes to prove that the search to understand the past is always more fulfilling than any conclusion by itself.
Dorothy Mains Prince is the founder of Sojourns LLC, an enterprise designed to bring the lives of outstanding African American women to students and community organizations across the country. Prince holds BA and MA degrees from Emerson College and a MA from Teachers College, Columbia University in New York.
For more than twenty years, she has been teaching, directing, and performing throughout the New England area. Prince began her study and performance of the women appearing in the African American Women of Distinction series as a Chautauqua Scholar for the Tulsa Humanities Council in 1995. Included in the series are Phillis Wheatley, Frances E.W. Harper, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Mary McLeod Bethune, Zora Neale Hurston, and Gwendolyn Brooks.
Dorothy Prince thrilled audiences across the state when she presented Zora Neale Hurston as part of OHIO CHAUTAUQUA: THE ROARING 20S in 2004 and 2005. We are delighted to have her back in Ohio again.
A Day at the Daytona Normal and Industrial SchoolThis workshop is for students of all ages. Participants should come prepared to visit Mary McLeod Bethune during the early years of the school. Students will become acquainted with Mrs. Bethune’s philosophy of education and will spend the day at the school enjoying her favorite songs and poetry. Mrs. Bethune says, “Learning is ‘fun’ but ‘education is Greek and a toothbrush.’” Come prepared to work!
Mary McLeod Bethune and the Black Women’s Movement
This workshop traces Mary McLeod Bethune’s involvement in the Women’s movement. Bethune was not only passionate about education and the youth of America, she spent her life fighting for equality and the rights of all women. The workshop will examine her rise to leadership, the founding of the National Council of Negro Women, and finally her work with Eleanor Roosevelt and the National Council of Women. This workshop is an insightful examination of the issues that were facing women during the early 20th century and beyond.
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Mrs. Bethune & the Roosevelt Administration
Here we briefly examine Bethune’s appointment as Director of Minority Affairs for the National Youth Administration. As a member of Roosevelt’s Black Cabinet, Bethune was recognized as one of the most influential Black leaders of the period. It was the first time in history that a black woman filled a national federal position with an “open-door” policy to the President. What are some of her accomplishment and some of her failures?
George P. Dauler is a retired Presbyterian pastor and marriage and family counselor. He served churches in Indiana, Ohio, and Illinois, in addition to being a mental health therapist and the director of an adolescent counseling service in Ohio. His education includes a BS from Indiana University; M.Div. from McCormick Theological Seminary and a Master's in Social Work from the Western Reserve University in Cleveland.
George Dauler has performed first-person historical characters for decades, beginning with Ulysses S. Grant more than 35 years ago. He began developing the Andrew Carnegie program in 2002 and has since presented Andrew at libraries, retirement communities, and historical societies in Ohio and Michigan. After traveling the state as U.S. Grant for OHIO CHAUTAUQUA 2001: BUCKEYES IN THE CIVIL WAR, George is delighted to bring his latest character to life under the red and white striped tent.
George and his wife, Susanne, have two grown children and six grandchildren. They have enjoyed traveling in all 50 states and from Europe to the Far East. When they aren't traveling, they serve as regular volunteers at the City Mission in Cleveland.
Making and Using SteelThis workshop will have two sections. The first will discuss what steel is, how it is made, and what raw materials are necessary to make it. A videotape filmed in a steel mill will show the various processes of steel production. The second part of the workshop will look at how steel has changed modern lives and ask what our world would be like without it. Not only would skyscrapers not exist, but automobiles, bridges, tools and farm implements depend on the use of steel. Young people in this workshop will learn why Carnegie called steel “the eighth wonder of the world.”
The Gospel of Wealth, According to Carnegie
In 1889 Andrew Carnegie wrote an interesting pamphlet called, “The Gospel of Wealth.” This workshop will use Carnegie’s writings to examine the question “what is philanthropy?” Carnegie says that good came from the accumulation of wealth by those who had the ability and energy to produce it and he described a “proper mode” for administering that wealth. We will review Carnegie's specific suggestions to his fellow millionaires as to how they should use their assets most effectively. We will look at the Charitable Trust as Carnegie's choice for planned giving. We will explore how these strategies can be useful to us today, even if we are not millionaires.
Paxton, who has a master’s degree in public policy from the University of Michigan, has been a legislative intern in Washington, DC and has presented workshops on diversity in the workplace. From September 2003-September 2004, he resided in the English West Midlands and studied at the University of Birmingham as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar. While there, he was on staff at The Drum, the UK's largest arts centre devoted to the promotion of African, Afro-Caribbean, and Asian arts and culture. Paxton received his second master's degree from the University of Birmingham in July 2005. Williams resides in Diamond, Missouri, where he is executive director of the George Washington Carver Birthplace Association, a 501 c-3 non-profit organization started with George Carver’s support in the early 1940s to continue his legacy.
The Plant DoctorThis interactive presentation examines Dr. Carver’s childhood on the Carver Homestead, explains why he couldn’t go to school in his youth, mentions his hobbies, his love of nature, his creativity (such as making paints from berries), and his goals. Participants share their own hobbies and goals. The workshop also addresses the importance of acceptance and education.
How to Educate and Motivate the Dr. Carver Way
This talk illustrates what made Dr. Carver such a successful educator and motivator. Carver showed genuine interest in his students and stressed the importance of working as a team. He related to the students creatively, always beginning the education process by demonstrating what the students already knew. He encouraged students to believe in their own efficacy. This workshop will examine how these and other attributes of Dr. Carver made him a very successful teacher.
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Dr. Carver’s Contemporaries
This talk chronologically travels through Dr. Carver’s life, exploring his interactions with and effect on numerous contemporaries from Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt to John Hope Franklin, Henry Ford, and the people of the Belgian Congo.
Dr. Michael Hughes is a member of the art and history departments and American Indian Studies program of East Central University in Ada, Oklahoma. He teaches courses in art history, U.S. history, and in Chickasaw and other Indian cultures. His own tribal ancestry is Cherokee. He arrives in Ohio this summer by way of the Maya region of Mexico. Michael’s wife, Dr. Eril Hughes, is a professor of English and a regional leader in Habitat for Humanity.
Hughes has given more than 125 historical and dramatic presentations funded by state humanities councils, state historical societies, and the Library of Congress. He also delivered the Civil War 125th anniversary address at the Ohio Historical Center. His previous Chautauqua characters in Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Texas have been Alexander Graham Bell, Jim Bridger, Michelangelo Buonarotti, William Lloyd Garrison, Judge Isaac C. Parker, Ernie Pyle, Chief John Ross, Marshal Bill Tilghman, Orson Welles, and Bob Wills. He performed for two years in the Ashland Chautauqua, and was also part of the troupe in OHIO CHAUTAUQUA 2006: WAR AND PEACE.
Children and Grandchildren at the Table with Mr. BellAlexander Graham Bell did not believe in isolating children from the “adult table.” He also advocated the use of hands-on education and of scientific experiments for children. In this workshop, children (and adults) will experience a typical after-dinner time with Mr. Bell. This will include a sample of Bell’s jokes and family stories, Bell’s telling of the “continuing adventures of the amazing Rubber Man,” and a set of scientific experiments improvised from material on the dinner table.
Mothers of Invention
When we think of the “golden age of American invention” we usually think of men such as Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell. But when Bell first demonstrated his telephone at the 1876 Philadelphia Exposition, the greatest number of awards for invention at the fair were actually won by American women. This workshop will examine the overlooked achievements—from the elevator to the space shuttle—and fascinating lives of some of America’s “mothers of invention.”
In addition to their living history presentations under the tent, the OHIO CHAUTAUQUA 2008 scholars will present these entertaining daytime programs that further explore history, the CHAUTAUQUA experience, or INVENTORS & INNOVATORS. Plan to join us for some of these exciting "behind the scenes" programs! (Please call Fran at 800-293-9774 for scheduling information.)
