WWI History Comes Alive -- Evergreen Cemetery Walk Begins This Weekend

The annual cemetery walk that brings together the McLean County Museum of History, Illinois Voices Theatre and Bloomington's Evergreen Cemetery is almost here. In the past, the walk has centered on the Civil War and Illinois State University, but this year, eight characters from Bloomington-Normal history will be brought alive to tell about their involvement with World War I. That includes soldiers and nurses as well as those who supported the Great War on the homefront.

On the walk, you'll meet Ethel Hamilton Hanson and Julia Holder, both active with the Red Cross and other important volunteer war efforts in McLean County, along with nurse Carolyn Schertz Geneva, who served at home and abroad, including joining an Army medical unit that was sent to England during the war.

Jennifer Maloy will play Hanson, Abby Scott will take on Holder, and Ann White will play Geneva. All three actors are joining the cemetery walk for the first time, although they are familiar faces to local audiences.

You will also see three military men who faced great challenges just to serve. Brothers Edward and Lincoln Bynum fought together to great acclaim in an African-American unit in France, while Roland Read, rejected multiple times by the United States Army because of his poor vision, ended up serving with French and Serbian forces to do his part.

The Bynum Brothers will be portrayed by Emmanuel Jackson and Timothy Jefferson, with Brian Artman as Roland Read. And they, too, are newcomers to the walk with a variety of credits in local theaters.

Prominent members of local society Carl and Julia Scott Vrooman will round out the parade of World War I participants. Both were actively involved in the war effort, Mr. Vrooman as Secretary of Agriculture under Woodrow Wilson and Mrs. Vrooman as the driving force behind a jazz band put together to entertain troops in Europe.

Dean and Cyndee Brown will portray the Vroomans this time out. Cyndee Brown has performed in this program before, but her husband Dean is a first-timer. Carl and Julia Vrooman were last portrayed in 2008.

If you would like to take part, you have a choice of group tours beginning at 11 am and 2 pm on Saturdays and Sundays for the next two weeks. This is a walking tour and you will be on your feet for approximately one-and-a-half to two hours. Some wheelchairs and walking canes are available at the cemetery, but the number is limited and it is much wiser to bring your own if you need one.

The dates for tours are September 30 and October 1, and October 7 and 8, with, again, start times at 11 am and 2 pm.

Because this is a popular event, you are advised to buy your tickets ahead at the Museum of History or Casey's Garden Shop in Bloomington or the Garlic Press in Normal.

For more information, including bios, pictures and a map, click here.

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.

3rd Annual HISTORY MAKERS GALA on Thursday June 19

The McLean County Museum of History will showcase local movers, shakers and influential people Thursday with its third annual History Makers Gala at the Brown Ballroom in the Bone Student Center on the Illinois State University campus. This year's honorees include Carol Reitan, a major influence on the Bloomington-Normal arts scene, who passed away last month at the age of 83.

Carol Reitan

Reitan served as mayor of Normal from 1972 to 1976, making her the only woman to hold that office in the town's history. She ran a consulting firm for energy efficient home design, acted as the director and CEO of Mid Central Community Action, and chaired the Normal 2015 Committee that set goals for Normal's next 25 years, plus she co-founded Collaborative Solutions Institute, Inc., a not-for-profit which provides counseling and mediation for at-risk youth and adults, worked to establish Habitat for Humanity of McLean County, the Community Foundation of McLean County, which has become the Illinois Prairie Community Foundation, and she created the coalition that found a way to open Neville House, a shelter for victims of domestic violence.And she also founded Heartland Theatre, along with Phil Shaw and Rita Kohn, back in 1986.

Her fellow honorees include entrepreneur, community leader and contractor Pat Wannemacher, the first-ever female president of the McLean County Chamber of Commerce, who passed away in 2013; Margot Mendoza, former president of both the Bloomington-Normal Symphony Guild and the McLean County Arts Council who also spearheaded the Latino History Project at the McLean County Historical Society; and John and Joanne Maitland, a power couple that balanced public service and politics with volunteerism and work in health, education and agriculture.

Doors open for the Gala at 5:30 pm on June 19, with the program beginning at 6:15. The program referred to includes a performance from Illinois Voices Theatre actors and singers to celebrate the honorees' lives and give some sense of how they influenced McLean County.

For all the details, including how to contact the Museum of History, click here.

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.

"Truly Irish" Poetry at the Museum

Next Tuesday there will be a little reading of the green at the McLean County Museum of History. "Truly Irish: A Poetry Reading," with guest poet Eamonn Wall, will take place at the Museum's Governor Fifer Courtroom for a poetical performance -- free and open to the public -- scheduled to begin at 7:30 pm.

Guest poet and scholar Eamonn Wall will appear in conjunction with "Kirkshop the Workshop," poet Kathleen Kirk's poetry group. Wall will join the Kirkshop poets as part of the Museum's continuing series highlighting poetry with a historical bent.

The history involved in "Truly Irish" is, of course, Irish, or "the Irish-American experience, Irish heritage in the U.S. and poetry inspired by the Museum's current exhibit The Greening of the Prairie: Irish Immigration and Settlement in McLean County."

If you need more information on the event, you are asked to call the Museum's Education Department at 309-827-0428 or email education@mchistory.org.

You can also see the Museum's calendar of events 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.

This Weekend It's All About Abe

How many Lincolns can you handle? There will be at least four live and in person this weekend, as Bloomington celebrates its 4th annual Lincoln's Festival (AKA Lincoln's Bloomington Fest & Civil War Days) with events in and around downtown Bloomington, the McLean County Museum of History, the David Davis Mansion, Burr House, the Bloomington Public Library, the BCPA, Franklin Park and the Illinois Wesleyan University Quad.

The four Lincolns I'm counting are John Bowen, playing Abe during his lawyer days in "The Affray," a production of Illinois Voices Theater performed at the courthouse inside the McLean County Museum of History; Max Daniels as President Lincoln, meeting children and overseeing a military ball with Mrs. Lincoln (Donna Daniels) at the David Davis Mansion; Lincoln reenactor Chris Hotz scheduled to appear in Franklin Park with Frederick Douglass (portrayed by Bob Thurmond); and Dick Benach appearing as Abe the family man in a later piece also at Franklin Park.

Plus, of course, there's always the bronze statue on the bench outside the McLean County Museum of History, ready and willingto share a picture with you; and the Lincoln-Fell-Davis statue called "Convergence of Purpose" in Lincoln Park outside the BCPA.

Although "The Affray" opens tonight, the other programs are centered on Saturday and Sunday. They range from Civil War era crafts demonstrations to battle reenactments, a scavenger hunt and a coloring contest for kids, speeches and historical presentations, military maneuvers and demonstrations, music, food, and tours. The Downtown Bloomington Association offers a nice run-down of events here, with a big poster pulling everything together here.

Last I heard, Sunday's performance of 'The Affray" was sold out, and tonight's was getting perilously close. If you want to nab a ticket to the Friday or Saturday shows, you'd better act fast and get a reservation in at the Museum at 309-827-0428. John Bowen takes on the role of Abraham Lincoln as a savvy defense attorney trying his best to get an acquittal for a client accused of murder, with Todd Wineburner as the prosecutor on the other side of the courtroom, Nick McBurney as defendant Peachy Quinn Harrison, and David Flanders, James Keeran and Rhys Lovell among those playing witnesses and personnel at the trial.

Abe and His "Affray" Return to the McLean County Museum of History

"The Affray," the Robert Bray/Jared Brown play about Abraham Lincoln's last trial before he was nominated for the Presidency, will return to the McLean County Museum of History next month. It sold out its run last July, plus seating is limited, so you are well-advised to get your tickets now if "The Affray" is something you want to see.

Tickets went on sale on Monday for this production, which is a collaboration between the McLean County Museum of History and Judy Brown's Illinois Voices Theatre. "The Affray: Lincoln's Last Murder Case" is Bray's and Brown's dramatization of The People of of the State of Illinois v. Peachy Quinn Harrison, a trial in which Lincoln acted as counsel for the defense. Harrison was tried for the murder of a man named Greek Crafton, who was stabbed at a drugstore in Pleasant Plains. Harrison was clearly the one who did the stabbing, but Lincoln's defense claimed self-defense. He used dramatic testimony of a dying declaration from Crafton to a Methodist minister, who happened to be Peachy Quinn Harrison's grandfather, that Crafton knew he himself was responsible for the drugstore scuffle. It was apparently a spirited and shrewd defense, demonstrating just how good a lawyer Abe really was under his folksy railsplitter exterior.

"The Affray" is scheduled for three performances at the McLean County Museum of History. The first, on Friday, July 20, at 7 pm, will be a fundraiser for the Museum, with tickets priced at $25.The remaining performances will be Saturday, July 21, at 7 pm, and Sunday, July 22, at 1 pm, with tickets priced from $10-12.

If you are interested in seeing "The Affray," you are advised to reserve tickets NOW, given how quickly the show sold out in 2011. To buy now, call 309-827-0428 or visit the Museum in person. if any tickets remain, they will be available at the door on the day of performance.

For more information, you may contact the Museum's Education Department at the phone number above or email education@mchistory.org

Add Your Voice to Protest Songs at the McLean County Museum of History

Do you play the guitar, banjo, mandolin or harmonica? (Harmonica is not specifically included, but seems likely to fit. How can you do protest songs without Bob Dylan, and how can you do Bob Dylan without a harmonica in the room? I'd even allow a fiddle if it were me.)

The McLean County Museum of History is holding a Protest Songs Hootenanny from 7 to 9 pm on Wednesday, February 29, in the Governor Fifer Courtroom on the third floor of the Museum. They're inviting anybody who wants to better understand American history as told through protest songs to join Illinois State University Distinguished Professor Emeritus Mark Wyman and friends in the courtroom on Wednesday. You can celebrate protests past or practice for protests future just by adding your voice (or your guitar, banjo, mandolin or harmonica -- maybe even fiddle) to this rousing, always timely art form.

No mention so far of what Mark Wyman and friends plan to sing, but if they're taking requests, I'd ask for "When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again," 'Bread and Roses," "Ohio," and Josh White's "Trouble." I wouldn't be at all surprised to hear the classic folk and protest songs like "If I Had a Hammer," "The Times They Are A-Changin'," "A Change Is Gonna Come," "Blowing in the Wind," and "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?"And just to thumb our collective nose at CBS, maybe "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy." But maybe that just reflects my age. There's a lot more to protest songs than just the 60s!