Submitted by Patti Hoff:
Media Alert! Voices of the Valley This Week
The second annual Voices of the Valley Chautauqua will feature historically significant authors from the past, portrayed by nationally renowned professional Chautauqua scholar-performers on Friday and Saturday, July 29-30, beginning at 6 p.m. On the Colorado State University-Pueblo campus under the Chautauqua tent, Brian “Fox” Ellis and Kevin Radaker will portray four famous authors who have left a lasting impression on the world’s ideologies: Charles Darwin, C.S. Lewis, Henry David Thoreau and Walt Whitman. Everyone is invited to bring a picnic dinner to eat during the Chautauqua performances. Beginning Monday, July 25, movies to complement the Chautauqua will be shown on three consecutive nights in the InfoZone of Robert Hoag Rawlings Library, Pueblo.
Today’s Chautauqua is the first-person portrayal of historical figures performed by scholars who have researched their characters and times, and crafted monologues and costumes to bring the figures to life for audiences under a big tent in the open air, a tradition harking from New York State’s Lake Chautauqua region of the early 1800s. A question and answer period follows the monologue, during which the Chautauquan will interact with the audience in the character of their Chauatauqua portrayal, and also as themselves with their modern-day perspective.
Kevin Radaker, whose Henry David Thoreau will enter the Voices of the Valley tent at 6 p.m. on Friday, July 29, is a professor of English and chair of the English department at Anderson University, Anderson, Ind. Since 1991, Radaker has portrayed Thoreau — an author and poet, abolitionist, naturalist, historian and philosopher — more than 350 times throughout the United States. At 6 p.m. on Saturday, July 30, Radaker will return to the Chautauqua tent to portray C.S. Lewis, author of more than 30 books, including “Shadowlands” and “The Chronicles of Narnia” series.
Brian “Fox” Ellis, of Fox Tales International, is a renowned storyteller, author and naturalist from Peoria, Ill. He has developed more than a dozen first-person monologues during his tour of the world since 1980 as a performer and educator. At 7 p.m. on Friday, July 29, he will bring us Charles Darwin, whose hypothesis of how evolution works is now the unifying theory of biological sciences explaining the diversity of life. At 7 p.m. on Saturday, July 30, Ellis will portray the man often called the father of free verse, Walt Whitman, who wrote “Leaves of Grass” and the eulogy “Oh Captain, My Captain” for his hero, Abraham Lincoln.
To complement the Voices of the Valley Chautauqua, movies will be shown earlier in the week at 6:30 p.m. on three consecutive nights in the InfoZone on the 4th Floor of the Robert Hoag Rawlings Public Library at 100 East Abriendo Avenue, Pueblo.
From director Jon Amiel, “Creation,” the 2009 biographical story about the life and love of Charles Darwin will be shown at the library on Monday, July 25. Two Disney and Walden Media feature films based on the Narnia stories by C.S. Lewis will also be shown at the library, “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” on Tuesday, July 26, and “Prince Caspian” on Wednesday, July 27.
All Voices of the Valley Chautauqua events, including the three movies, are free and open to the public.
Voices of the Valley Chautauqua is sponsored by Colorado Humanities, Pueblo City-County Library District and Colorado State University-Pueblo.
For more information, contact Midori Clark, director of community relations for the Pueblo City-County Library District, at (719) 562-5605 or e-mail midori.clark@pueblolibrary.org.
Events Listing for Voices of the Valley Chautauqua
All events are free and open to the public
Monday, July 25, 6:30 p.m.
“Creation” The 2009 biographical story about the life and love of Charles Darwin. Robert Hoag Rawlings Public Library InfoZone, 4th Floor 100 East Abriendo Avenue, Pueblo
Tuesday, July 26, 6:30 p.m.
“The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” A 2005 Disney and Walden Media film based on the C.S. Lewis novel “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.” Robert Hoag Rawlings Public Library InfoZone, 4th Floor 100 East Abriendo Avenue, Pueblo
Wednesday, July 27, 6:30 p.m.
“Prince Caspian” A 2008 Disney and Walden Media film based on the C.S. Lewis novel “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.” Robert Hoag Rawlings Public Library InfoZone, 4th Floor 100 East Abriendo Avenue, Pueblo
Friday, July 29, 6 p.m.
Voices of the Valley Chautauqua Presenting:
Henry David Thoreau
A Chautauqua monologue presented in costume and in character by professional scholar-performer Kevin Radaker. A question and answer period with “Thoreau” will follow the monologue. The public is welcome to bring a picnic to eat during the performance. Under the tent on the west side of the CSU-Pueblo campus, Pueblo.
Friday, July 29, 7 p.m.
Voices of the Valley Chautauqua Presenting:
Charles Darwin
A Chautauqua monologue presented in costume and in character by professional scholar-performer Brian “Fox” Ellis. A question and answer period with “Darwin” will follow the monologue. The public is welcome to bring a picnic to eat during the performance. Under the big tent on the west side of the CSU-Pueblo campus, Pueblo.
Saturday, July 30, 6 p.m.
Voices of the Valley Chautauqua Presenting:
C.S. Lewis
A Chautauqua monologue presented in costume and in character by professional scholar-performer Kevin Radaker. A question and answer period with “Lewis” will follow the monologue. The public is welcome to bring a picnic to eat during the performance. Under the big tent on the west side of the CSU-Pueblo campus, Pueblo.
Saturday, July 30, 7 p.m.
Voices of the Valley Chautauqua Presenting:
Walt Whitman
A Chautauqua monologue presented in costume and in character by professional scholar-performer Brian “Fox” Ellis. A question and answer period with “Whitman” will follow the monologue. The public is welcome to bring a picnic to eat during the performance. Under the big tent on the west side of the CSU-Pueblo campus, Pueblo.
Up Next! Aug. 2-6, 2011 High Plains Chautauqua: Visionaries at Home and Abroad For anyone interested in fully experiencing community Chautauqua offerings in Colorado this summer, a second opportunity comes up Aug. 2-6 in Greeley when the annual High Plains Chautauqua (HPC) will take place. Unique to this year, the week-long festival will kick-off on Aug. 1 with the one-day symposium “Visions of Weld County & Northern Colorado,” from 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., to be held in honor of Weld County’s 150th anniversary. The symposium is free, including lunch and the evening social hour, but seating is limited and pre-registeration by July 29 required. For more information about HPC, see coloradohumanities.org. To register for the symposium, contact the Greeley Convention and Visitors Bureau at (970) 352-3567.
About Colorado Humanities (CH), the only Colorado organization exclusively dedicated to support humanities education for adults and children statewide. 160 local program partners help CH design and implement 15 programs to fit the needs of their communities. With its mission to inspire the exploration of ideas and appreciation of Colorado’s diverse cultural heritage, CH’s goals are to improve education, strengthen cultural institutions and enrich community life by providing school-based and community programs, forums for public discourse, teacher institutes, lectures, historical character portrayals (Chautauqua), symposia and media productions. An independent nonprofit organization, CH is nationally affiliated with the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Library of Congress Center for the Book, Letters About Literature, Motheread®, Inc., River of Words and the Smithsonian Institution. Visit coloradohumanities.org and Facebook.
