Bloomington's Past Comes Alive Once More

For 20 years, Evergreen Cemetery in Bloomington has come alive in the fall, bringing back to life an array of characters from the area's past in the annual Discovery Walk. Those characters are based on real people who once lived and worked around here, from luminaries in politics, show business or sports to regular old folks like a carriage driver, a miner or a beekeeper. And whether they spent their lives in their own back yard or played on a national stage, they were all buried (or scattered) at Evergreen Cemetery.

Charles "Old Hoss" Radbourn

This year, in honor of the 20-year milestone and the fact that longtime director Judy Brown, who helms Discovery Walk collaborator Illinois Voices Theatre, is retiring after this year, the characters portrayed are popular favorites, brought back from previous Walks. You'll see Bloomington's favorite son, Adlai Stevenson II, complete with the worn patch on the sole of his shoe; its favorite baseball player, cantankerous Hall-of-Famer Charles "Old Hoss" Radbourn (seen at right); and one of its favorite opera singers, Marie Litta, who died young after an illustrious but stressful career. They will be joined by Belle Blue Claxton, an NAACP supporter who worked tirelessly to desegregate the beaches at Bloomington's Miller Park; Celestia Rice Colby, a writer, suffragist and abolitionist; Asahel and Mary Gridley, the rich couple whose constant battles proved that money can't buy love; and cigar man Adam Guthrie, who ran a popular Bloomington hangout for tall tales and conversation.

Five of the eight actors in this year's cast are familiar faces from their past performances at Evergreen Cemetery, like Don Shandrow, who is back as Adlai Stevenson (seen at left), and Rhys Lovell, who returns to the role of Hoss Radbourn, which he also played last year in a full-length play at the McLean County Museum of History. Gabrielle Lott-Rogers plays Belle Blue Claxton this time out, while Todd Wineburner takes on Adam Guthrie and Kathleen Kirk is the female half of the Gridley war.

Kirk is joined by actor, director and scenic designer Jeremy Stiller in his first Discovery Walk, with fellow newcomers Jessie Swiech, who appeared as Eliza Doolittle in Prairie Fire's recent My Fair Lady, as Marie Litta; and Bridgette Richard, one of the Pigeon Sisters in Community Players' The Odd Couple, as Celestia Rice Colby.

The Discovery Walk at Evergreen Cemetery, a collaboration among Illinois Voices Theatre, the McLean County Museum of History and the cemetery, enjoyed record-breaking crowds last weekend even in terrible weather. That means this weekend, which is supposed to be nicer, should really pack 'em in. You are advised to pick up tickets in advance at the Museum, Evergreen Cemetery, the Garlic Press or Casey's Garden Shop or call the Museum at 309-827-0428 for more information. Tours are scheduled for 11 am and 2 pm on Saturday and Sunday October 11 and 12, 2014.

Tickets Now on Sale for Annual Discovery Walk

Every October, the McLean County Museum of History and Illinois Voices Theatre stage a Discovery Walk at Bloomington's Evergreen Cemetery, with local actors portraying area citizens from days past. Volunteer tour guides lead groups around the cemetery, stopping to hear from characters like Judge David Davis and Jesse Fell, real people who once made waves around here and were laid to their eternal rest at Evergeen Cemetery at least 25 years ago.

Harry Green, one of the Flying LaVans

Neither Davis nor Fell nor any member of their families are on the program this year, but you will get a chance to meet the Flying LaVans, AKA Fred and Harry Green, daring young men on the flying trapeze; Maria Sophia Bach, who made trousers for the troops while her husband served in the Union Army; Henry L. Brown, who fought against discrimination his entire life; civic leader Ruby Edwards; parade enthusiast Lloyd Eyer; Civil War veteran and McLean County Sheriff James Goodheart, and Alice Orme Smith, a World War I Red Cross nurse who reinvented herself as a landscape architect when her war service was done.

Alice Orme Smith

I know the most about Alice Orme Smith at the moment, because I will be portraying her! Last time I did the Discovery Walk, I was another member of the Orme family, Alice's aunt, Lucy Orme Morgan, who was a charter member of the McLean County Red Cross, a philanthropist, and a major proponent of women's suffrage. Strong ladies in the Orme family!

Alice served on the frontlines with the Red Cross in France, and then achieved a great deal of success with her landscape designs, including designing the Main Vista and the Garden of Religion at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York and the grounds of the American Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford, Connecticut.

You can read more about Alice and the Flying LaVans and this year's other featured characters at the Museum's new website here, and then get tickets at the Museum, the Garlic Press, Casey's Garden Shop, or at Evergreen Memorial Cemetery. If you have questions, please call the Museum at 309-827-0428.

The 2013 Discovery Walk will take place on Saturdays and Sundays, October 5 and 6 and 12 and 13, with tours beginning at 11 am and 2 pm each day. And if you see me out there, be sure to call me Alice. Or maybe Miss Smith.

Who's at the Discovery Walk, Part II: Kirk, Smith, Sutliffe andWickart

It's been a week and a bit since we looked at four of the actors in this year's Discovery Walk at Evergreen Cemetery. I have been remiss in filling in the blanks, but there's still time to fill you in on the remaining four actors before the Walk starts up again on Saturday for four more rounds of performances.

The Discovery Walk is, of course, the annual celebration of Bloomington's past put together by Illinois Voices Theatre, the McLean County Museum of History, and Evergreen Cemetery. Judy Brown, who directs the actors who present real people who lived and worked and made an impact in our town, has chosen some veterans, like Rhys Lovell and Gwen de Veer, and some newcomers, like
Leola Bellamy and John Bowen, as we discussed last time.

The last four actors are that same mix, with two returnees in Kathleen Kirk and Kevin Wickart, and two actors trying out the Discovery Walk experience for the first time in Marcus Smith and Cathy Sutliff.

Kirk has, of course, performed as part of this event many times. She's a well-known local actress and poet with plenty of appearances on local stages. This year, she's portraying Georgina Trotter, a tireless advocate for education and the public library in Bloomington. In the Museum's biographical material linked under Trotter's name, they note that "The Pantagraph called her 'one of the most remarkable women Bloomington has ever claimed as a citizen.'" Kirk will also be playing Georgina Trotter in the dinner-and-drama salute to educators called "Spirit of Educators Past" coming later in October.

Marcus Smith and Cathy Sutliff co-starred in Heartland Theatre's Superior Donuts last spring, and they're both making their Discovery Walk acting debuts this year. Smith is playing Ike Sanders, a local entrepreneur who started the Workingman's Club, a popular restaurant that served miners and railroad workers in downtown Bloomington. Sanders was the first African-American to own and operate a restaurant (he actually had three of them over the years) in town.

Sutliff is the current president of the Area Arts Roundtable and former president of the board at Community Players. A 25-year resident of Bloomington-Normal, she is also an experienced costumer, and has acted as costumer for the Discovery Walk before. Her role is Charlotte Ann Perry Scott, the wife of Judge John M. Scott, a character whose script I wrote for the Discovery Walk in 2002.

Rounding out the cast is Kevin Wickart, who's been seen recently at Heartland in Mauritius, at Eastlight in Les Miz, and in Prairie Fire's Damn Yankees. Last year, he played John Roeder, the wild-eyed soldier who served with the Union Army hunting down "bushwhackers" in Missouri, and this year, he's taking a very different turn with Benjamin "Trott" Funk, the seventh of ten children born to Isaac and Cassandra Funk, founders of Funks Grove. Trott was a respected politician who served five terms as mayor of Bloomington, making welcome improvements to city sewers and streets and the water supply.

Tours begin at 11 am and 2 pm on Saturday and Sunday, and tickets are available at the McLean County Museum of History, the Garlic Press, Casey's Garden Shop and Evergreen Cemetery. For more information on the characters in Discovery Walk 2012, click here. For ticket information and general details, click here.

Who'll Be at the Discovery Walk, Part 1: Bellamy, Bowen, de Veer and Lovell

The McLean County Museum of History is gearing up for next weekend's Discovery Walk at Evergreen Cemetery, organizing all the volunteers and rehearsing the actors and getting out all the signs and programs and tables and chairs and... Well, all the details they have to add up every single year.

As part of that Getting Ready effort, the Museum is also releasing the names and bios of the actors who will be playing Bloomington-Normal's historic personages this year. So far, we've seen four of them, which is half of the acting corps required to get this show on the road. Or in the cemetery.

So who's who this year?

Fresh off her performance in New Route Theatre's Fabulation, Leola Bellamy will be joining the Discovery Walk in the role of Sophia Huggins, a psychic who advised a variety of clients in the late 19th Century, when spiritualism was all the rage across the country. Bellamy is new to the Discovery Walk, although she is involved with several area theaters. She's also a mother and grandmother and a member of the World of Life Ministries. She describes herself as "a passionate performer who hopes to pursue a career in theatre."

John Bowen is also happy to be performing with the Discovery Walk for the first time. He notes that the script for the role he will be playing -- fashionable man about town William C. Handy -- was written by Michael Pullin, to whom this year's Walk is dedicated. Bowen is a familiar face on area stages -- you may've seen him as the preacher in Heartland Theatre's The Diviners, or as Charles Lindbergh in Hauptmann at Community Players.

Gwen de Veer is returning to the Walk for the second straight year. Last year, she played Frances Ela, a young wife anxious to get her husband home from the Civil War. This time out, she will again be in a paired scene, as her character, Madame Annette, a pseudonymous columnist for the Daily Bulletin, will interview Leola Bellamy's supposedly clairvoyant "Aunt Sophia" Huggins. Gwen has most recently been seen in Electra in Chicago, and she did Sirens and Proof (opposite John Bowen) at Heartland Theatre before that.

And the fourth actor just revealed to be back in the Walk is Rhys Lovell, who has played a variety of characters over the years, ranging from injured Civil War vet Lewis Ijams to baseball great Hoss Radbourne. This year, he'll be Jerry Wunderlich, a dashing race car driver who became a stuntman in Hollywood and cozied up to movie stars. Did he secretly marry the screen siren who starred opposite Rudolph Valentino in "The Sheikh"? Maybe. Maybe not.

Lovell is currently teaching and directing at Eureka College, where his production of Harold Pinter's Other Places opens in November.

If you'd like to see Bellamy, Bowen, de Veer and Lovell and get acquainted with the colorful characters they're portraying, you have a choice of 11 am and 2 pm performances on Saturdays and Sundays, September 29-30 or October 6-7.  The Walk part of the name means it is a walk, and you should be prepared to be on your feet for about two hours as you follow a tour guide among the eight actors stationed throughout Evergreen Cemetery.

For more information on the characters in Discovery Walk 2012, click here. For ticket information and general details, click here.

Actors Assigned for Discovery Walk 2012

Judy Brown, Artistic Director of Illinois Voices Theatre, which collaborates with the McLean County Museum of History and Evergreen Memorial Cemetery to present the Discovery Walk every year, has announced casting for this year's celebration of historical figures from Bloomington's past.

Brown wrote, "Welcoming back Kathleen Kirk, Rhys Lovell, Kevin Wickart, and Gwen de Veer and wishing our newbies Marcus Smith, Leola Bellamy, Cathy Sutliff, and John Bowen a terrific acting experience unlike any other that I am familiar with."

Kathleen Kirk and Rhys Lovell have appeared in this historical reenactment event often, most recently as Southern sympathizer Martha Rice and wounded Union soldier Lewis Ijams in the 2011 Discovery Walk. Gwen de Veer and Kevin Wickart were also present last year; she played Frances Ela, half of a sweet young couple divided by war, while he was John C. Roeder, a German immigrant who became a raider to catch Confederate outlaws.

Kathleen Kirk as a ghostly Martha Rice in Discovery Walk 2011

You may've seen Marcus Smith and Cathy Sutliff, both newcomers to the Walk, in Heartland Theatre's production of "Superior Donuts" last spring, while John Bowen was on stage with Heartland in "Proof" and "The Diviners" in 2011 and at Community Players in "Hauptmann" earlier this year. Leola Bellamy is part of the cast of New Route Theatre's "Fabulation, or the Re-Education of Undine," which begins August 28 at their theater tucked inside the Bloomington YWCA.

Rhys Lovell as Lewis Ijams

Brown did not make mention of which actor is matched to which role, but we've seen the list of personages represented this year.

A few I know:  Gwen de Veer and Leola Bellamy are playing Madame Annette, the pseudonymous newspaper writer who interviewed local celebs, and fortune-teller Sophia Huggins, while Marcus Smith will take on Ike Sanders, owner of the Workingman's Club restaurant.

And we only have two female characters other than Annette and Huggins, so that means Kathleen Kirk and Cathy Sutliff will divide Georgina Trotter, a "dynamo," and Charlotte Scott, wife of prominent judge John M. Scott, between them. I'll go with Kirk for Trotter and Sutliff for Scott, just as a wild guess.

That leaves John Bowen, Rhys Lovell and Kevin Wickart unaccounted for. I'm going to predict Bowen gets Jerry Wonderlich, the racecar driver/Hollywood Romeo, but I haven't got a clue who's who between charismatic politician "Trott" Funk and W.C. Hobbs, the Beau Brummell of Bloomington-Normal. Lovell for Funk and Wickart for Hobbs?

I could be on target here, or I could be absolutely wrong for everyone!  I expect a few of the actors to set me straight soon enough, but for the total picture, I will clearly need to show up for the Discovery Walk (September 29-30 and October 6-7) to find out.

Tickets will be available after September 4 at the Garlic Press in Normal, Casey's Garden Shop in Bloomington, Evergreen Cemetery, or the McLean County Museum of History. They range from $4 for kids to $10 for Museum members and $14 for the general public.

Photo credits: Dana Colcleasure

Characters Set for 2012 Discovery Walk at Evergreen Cemetery

The Discovery Walk, bringing "history to life through costumed actors assuming the intriguing characters of McLean County’s ancestors," comes to Bloomington's Evergreen Cemetery every fall. As a collaboration among the McLean County Museum of History, Illinois Voices Theatre and Evergreen Cemetery, the event offers a unique perspective on the people who helped form the Bloomington-Normal community we currently enjoy.

Actress Jennifer Rusk portrays Eliza Esque in the 2011 Discovery Walk

Photo credit: Dana Colcleasure

It's also a huge production, with actors, writers, designers, museum staffers, and a whole lot of volunteers working behind and in front of the scenes to keep it running smoothly. After the new year's characters have been chosen, Judy Brown, Artistic Director of Illinois Voices, commissions scripts from area writers, and then auditions and rehearses actors, gets a costumer, and puts the pieces together.

So which curious characters from our communal past will be portrayed this year? From the Museum's list:

Madame Annette
Mystery woman. The name is a pseudonym from the Daily Bulletin, for which she did interviews with "a wide variety of McLean County luminaries." Who was she really, behind the pseudonym? Nobody knows, apparently not even the people she interviewed!

Benjamin Franklin Funk (1838-1909) 
Visionary. Politico. As one of the ten children of Isaac and Cassandra Funk, who founded (and gave their name to) Funk's Grove, he had to try hard to set himself apart. He did just that, with service as mayor of Bloomington, president of the board of trustees at IWU, and a term in the U.S. Congress.

W. C. Hobbs (1800-1861)
Fashionable Man About Town. Hobbs was a bit of a dandy who set the bar for other fashionable gents and ladies, as Bloomington attempted to be a bit more civil and cultivated than other small towns in the Midwest.

Sophia Huggins (1831-1903)
Fortune teller. For the purposes of the Discovery Walk, she will speak to Madame Annette about some of the people she offered predictions and psychic counsel to.

Isaac "Ike" Sanders (1878-1929)
Driver. Restaurateur. After a stint as driver for Adlai Stevenson I (he left the job when "he felt disrespected by Mrs. Stevenson") Sanders ran a restaurant called the Workingman's Club that catered to a clientele that included both black and white miners and railroad workers.

Charlotte Ann Scott (1831-1917)
Wife. Historian. Scott was married to Judge John M. Scott, previously portrayed in the Discovery Walk, and she kept a lively record of life in Bloomington's early years.

Georgina Trotter (1836-1904)
"A power in the education affairs of Bloomington." Trotter is descibed as "a dynamo of energy" who worked as a nurse during the Civil War, and then ran a successful coal, grain and lumber business with her brother John. A big supporter of local libraries, she was also the single mother of an adopted daughter and the first woman elected to the local board of education.

Gerald "Jerry" Wonderlich (1889-1937)
Racecar driver. Hollywood Romeo. Wonderlich was a famous racecar driver with two starts in the Indy 500 (1922 and 1924). He turned his driving prowess into a career as a stunt driver in Hollywood, where he made tabloid headlines with rumors of a romance (and a secret marriage?) with movie star Agnes Ayres, star of "The Sheik."

The 2012 Discovery Walk is scheduled for September 29 and 30 and October 6 and 7. Tickets will be available beginning September 4.