Greenville – This summer from June 7 – 18 iconic characters from antebellum America to the Golden West, will be portrayed on stage and brought to life. This season’s theme is “Image or Truth?” Chautauqua’s 2024 History Comes Alive Festival will feature well-known characters, such as Charles Dickens, and Maria von Trapp. Amazing performers give first-person monologues dressed in costume, followed by questions and answers in Greenville, Mauldin, and Spartanburg, as well as the Brevard Library. The full schedule can be found at https://historycomesalive.org/history-comes-alive-festival-june-7-16-2024/. The shows are free, some indoors and some outdoors, which may require you to bring lawn seating. Only Spartanburg events require reservations; other indoor events have limited seating.
In years past these colorful presentations could be found closer to home—at Ferguson Auditorium on the AB Tech campus, in a tent at the Smith McDowell House, Warren Wilson College, and Buncombe Library locations. The format is based on cultural tent shows that traveled around the country in the early 20th century. Hopefully, the shows will be returning to this area in the future.
We live in an age when it is increasingly difficult to discern rumor from fact and story from history. With the recent advent of artificial intelligence (AI) tools, we can duplicate anyone’s voice or image to falsely create “proof ” of words and deeds with realistic recordings. But this problem is not at all a new one. Time and again it has been shown that history is written by the victors who may suppress or “lose” stories or alter them for the benefit of the teller.
This year’s History Comes Alive Festival will visit figures from history who will share their light of truth about themselves and the world they inhabited. They will challenge us to compare the image we hold of their lives and their times with the reality of the lives they experienced. Historical interpreters, dressed in costume, will bring important people from our past to life and speak in the character’s own words. The audience can then question the character, delving more deeply into the issues that have been raised. The replies will be historically authentic, based on research using letters, diaries, journals, and published writings. Finally, the interpreter will step out of character and answer audience questions from a critical, modern perspective.
This Year’s Performances
The person of Charles Dickens will be portrayed by Larry Bounds, who has presented an assortment of historical figures including Churchill, Einstein, and Cronkite over the past twenty years. Dickens of course created some of the world’s most memorable characters – Ebenezer Scrooge, Oliver Twist, and David Copperfield and exposed the quirts and failings of English Society with humor and pathos.
Elsa Wolff brings Maria von Trapp’s life to the stage. She has been performing, teaching, singing, and storytelling since 1997. Elsa, also known as “The Guitar Lady,” performs for elementary-age children as well as senior citizens throughout the Denver area. In 1965 The Sound of Music won five Academy Awards and captured the hearts of America. Maria von Trapp boldly led her family as refugees to escape Austria when the Nazis invaded; the family became an internationally known singing group in America and around the world.
Asheville’s own Becky Stone will portray Stagecoach Mary Fields. Becky presented her first Chautauqua character, Pauli Murray, in 2003 for Greenville Chautauqua. She was an attorney and priest who challenged Jim Crow laws in the courtroom. Becky has since developed Rosa Parks, Harriet Tubman, Maya Angelou, and Josephine Baker. Stagecoach Mary Fields was an enslaved woman who after emancipation worked on a riverboat, and served in a convent and an Indian school before becoming a private carrier for the US Postal Service. She battled outlaws and became a Western legend! Fields earned everyone’s love and respect.
Angel Vigil will portray El Vaquero, the Spanish colonial cowboy. He is an award-winning author, performer, stage director, teacher, and a Colorado Heritage Artist storyteller. The stories of El Vaquero explain the origins of the most powerful and enduring American myth: the cowboy on his horse, riding tall in the saddle, his self-reliant, independent spirit representing all that is good in the American character. They explain the origins of the most powerful and enduring American myth: the cowboy on his horse, riding tall in the saddle, his self-reliant, independent spirit representing all that is good in the American character.
Karen Vuranch will take the audience to the swinging ‘60s and ‘70s and allow one to visit with one of the most iconic voices of the pop music movement – Cass Elliot. She won a Grammy with her group, The Mamas & The Papas, and also released five solo albums. The Age of Aquarius has been much glorified; now one of its most glorious performers will tell us what it was really like from the inside.