The Chautauqua troupe includes, left to right, Hank Fincken as Henry Ford, Dorothy Mains Prince (Zora Neale Hurston), Jeremy Meier, seated (John Dillinger), Debra Conner (Zelda Fitzgerald) and Gene Worthington (Babe Ruth). Photo courtesy of the Ohio Humanities Council. Photo by Mary Rathke.

The ‘20s come alive at Ohio Chautauqua 2005

John Dillinger. Zelda Fitzgerald. Henry Ford. Zora Neale Hurston. Babe Ruth. Five icons of the 1920s come alive at BGSU Firelands and other sites throughout Huron and Sandusky Wednesday-Sunday (June 22-26), when “Ohio Chautauqua 2005: The Roaring Twenties” arrives in Erie County.

The five-day artistic extravaganza features 15 free events and is sponsored and presented by the Ohio Humanities Council and Ohio State University’s Humanities Institute. The event is funded in Erie County by the Lange Trust of Sandusky Library. Admission to all events is free.

“Ohio Chautauqua 2005: The Roaring Twenties” will feature 10 morning and afternoon adult and youth workshops at the Sandusky State Theatre Community Arts Centre, Harlequins Sandusky Community Theatre, Huron's Fabens Park, Huron Public Library, EHOVE Career Center, the Huron Chamber of Commerce, the BGSU Firelands Cedar Point Center, the Sandusky Library, and also in Sandusky, the Boys and Girls Club Teen Center and the Museum of Carousel Art and History.

Workshops are not performances but smaller sessions, often with limited seating, in which the scholars/historians present and discuss topics such as early baseball, the art of the 1920s, bigotry, mental illness, the Harlem Renaissance and the assembly line. Reservations are recommended for the daytime workshops.

Four evening performances will be held nightly at 7:30 p.m. Wednesay-Saturday under the Chautauqua tent at BGSU Firelands. The final tent performance will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday in the same location. The tent performances feature each actor in character portraying a period or event in the character’s life.

Food will be available for a small charge or for a donation to the local service group providing it.

Entertainment will be presented by the OSU Alumni Band, the South Shore Four, Special Delivery, the Lyme Village Pioneers and the Ebenezer Baptist Church Choir. The Huron Historical Society is sponsoring the event’s musical performances.

“Chautauqua” is a word with many meanings. It is a lake in New York, a religious and cultural institution that provided the first extension education in the United States, a company of canvas tents that toured the American heartland in the early 1900s, and a forum for oratory by the likes of William Jennings Bryan, Mark Twain, Teddy Roosevelt, and Clarence Darrow. During its heyday about 100 years ago, a chautauqua was a forum for political oratory, high-quality dance, theatre and music, and a venue for public discussions of issues such as race relations, prison reform and educational planning.

Locally, the event is organized by a committee representing BGSU Firelands, the Huron Chamber of Commerce, the Huron Historical Society, the Huron Public Library and EHOVE Career Center, with special assistance provided by Diane Ernst of the Lange Trust.

The Ohio Chautauqua events in Erie County include:

Wednesday, June 22
Workshop 1 (Youth), Jeremy Meier’s “A Story of 1,000 Words,” 10:30 a.m., Sandusky State Theatre Community Arts Center
Workshop 2 (Youth), Debra Conner’s “The Art of the 1920s: Melting Clocks and Square Oranges,” 2 p.m., Harlequins Sandusky Community Theatre
Music by the OSU Alumni Band, 7 p.m.
Evening Performance, Hank Fincken as Henry Ford, 7:30 p.m., Chautauqua tent at BGSU Firelands

Thursday, June 23
Workshop 1 (Youth), Gene Worthington’s “Our Early Ball Games” at Field #1, 10:30 a.m., Fabens
Park, Huron
Workshop 2 (Adult), Debra Conner’s “The Crack Up,” 2 p.m., Huron Public Library
Workshop 3 (Youth), Hank Fincken’s “The Automobile: A Driving Force in America,” 4 p.m., EHOVE Career Center, Milan
Music by South Shore Four, 7 p.m.
Evening Performance, Jeremy Meier as John Dillinger, 7:30 p.m., Chautauqua tent at BGSU Firelands

Friday, June 24
Workshop 1 (Youth), Dorothy Mains Prince’s “Crayon Enlargements of Life: Stories in the Folk Tradition,” 10:30 a.m., Huron Chamber of Commerce (former Wileswood Country Store)
Workshop 2 (Adult), Gene Worthington’s “Fields of Dreams,” 2 p.m., BGSU Firelands Cedar
Point Center
Music by Special Delivery, 7 p.m.
Evening Performance, Debra Conner as Zelda Fitzgerald, 7:30 p.m., Chautauqua tent at
BGSU Firelands

Saturday, June 25
Workshop 1 (Adult), Jeremy Meier’s “Locked Away on Film–Dillinger, Baby Face and Bonnie and Clyde,” 10:30 a.m., Sandusky Library. Reservations are required for this workshop. Call 419-625-3834, option 7.
Workshop 2 (Adult), Dorothy Mains Prince’s “Zora & Langston: Children of the Renaissance,” noon, Boys and Girls Club Teen Center, Sandusky
Workshop 3 (Adult), Hank Fincken’s “Bigotry: Back Seat Driver—Yesterday and Today,” 2 p.m., Museum of Carousel Art & History, Sandusky
Music by Lyme Village Pioneers, 7 p.m.
Evening Performance, Gene Worthington as Babe Ruth, 7:30 p.m., Chautauqua tent at
BGSU Firelands

Sunday, June 26
Afternoon Performance, Dorothy Mains Prince as Zora Neale Hurston, 2 p.m., Chautauqua tent at
BGSU Firelands
Music by the Ebenezer Baptist Church Choir immediately following tent performance

To obtain a free companion reader for the "Ohio Chautauqua 2005: The Roaring Twenties,” or for more information, contact Lesley Ruszkowski, BGSU Firelands assistant director of college relations, at
2-0613 or lesleyr@bgnet.bgsu.edu, or Fran Tiburzio, director of public relations for the Ohio Humanities Council, at 614-461-7802 or toll-free in Ohio at 800-293-9774, or frant@ohio>frant@ohiohumanities.org.

Visit http://www.ohiohumanities.org/chaut/host_05.htm for complete details.