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Pleasanton’s Museum on Main has unveiled the lineup for its 2024 Ed Kinney Speaker Series, nine performances that will bring education and entertainment to the Firehouse Arts Center stage starting next month.
The popular performances see scholar-actors embody historical figures from head to toe in the Chautauqua style, presenting a scripted biography and answering audience questions in character before separating themselves at the end for a closing Q&A out of character.Â
This is the 15th year that the museum has hosted the program, known by its event name “An Afternoon or Evening with …” And 2024 promises to be the most representative series to date.
“This year’s series feels extra special to us because our goal was to assemble a more diverse range of female historical voices,” said Rachel Brickell, the museum’s director of education and the coordinator of the speaker series.
“Some of these figures are less known, but their stories are equally important to history,” Brickell added in her season announcement press release. “For example, our line-up includes Chautauqua actors who portray the first woman to summit Mt. Everest and a Pan Am stewardess from the golden age of travel. There are also some notable names such as the civil rights leader Coretta Scott King and the American Red Cross founder Clara Barton.”
Sarah Schaefer, executive director of the museum, pointed to the Chautauqua presentations as particularly engaging, a “unique way for people, young and old alike, to engage with history.”
“The performance style links acting and scholarship together to bring historical characters to life on stage. One of the best parts,” Schaefer said, “is the Q&A portion following the monologue. The audience is always surprised by what they learn or experience in those unscripted moments.”
Performer Jeremy Meier will kick off the season on March 26 portraying the late Apple co-founder and CEO in “An Afternoon or Evening with Steve Jobs”. Show times will be 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. that day. The museum is also bringing back the virtual viewing option for all performances one week later via the BigMarker webinar platform – the Jobs recording can be watched April 2.
The Clara Barton performance will follow on April 23, with series favorite Karen Vuranch returning to portray the Civil War-era battlefield nurse, teacher and former president of the American Red Cross.
In May, Chautauqua scholar Rebecca Jimerson will play Coretta Scott King, the American civil rights leader who stood in partnership in the movement with her husband Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
The story of Junko Tabei, the first woman to reach the top of Mount Everest and the Seven Summits, will arrive at the Firehouse on June 11. Scholar-actor Bowen Lee will share about that achievement, plus recount Tabei’s work with the Fukushima earthquake and tsunami relief programs.
Learn about the early commercial aviation boom with “An Afternoon or Evening with Pan Am ‘Betty'” on July 23, featuring educator Leslie Goddard. “Fasten your uniform buttons and get ready to travel back to the golden age of air travel. In the 1960s, when jets were new, the stewardess was an all-American fantasy: hostess, nurse, cook, therapist and even sex symbol,” museum officials said.
Popular Chautauqua performer Doug Mishler will be back in August portraying Ernest Shackleton, the famed Antarctic explorer.
First Lady Edith Galt Wilson, the second wife of President Woodrow Wilson, will be the subject of September’s show. Played by actress Gay Storm, Wilson’s story will include her efforts to support her husband after he suffered a serious stroke during his time in the White House.
On Oct. 8, scholar Roopa Mohan will portray Kasturba Gandhi, the wife of India civil rights icon Mahatma Gandhi, in a performance that will “bring Kasturba to life, capturing her trials and triumphs in her journey from child bride to freedom fighter, in South Africa and India,” museum officials said.
Closing out the 2024 season will be James Armstead presenting on Nov. 19 as Gen. Benjamin O. Davis Jr., who commanded the World War II Tuskegee Airmen squadron of African American fighter pilots during his storied military career.
Tickets are now available for museum members, and they’ll go on sale to the general public starting Feb. 20. Get online as soon as you can because seats tend to go fast. Could make for a good Valentine’s Day gift, if you’re still looking…
Editor’s note: Jeremy Walsh is the editorial director for the Embarcadero Media Foundation’s East Bay Division. His “What a Week” column is a recurring feature in the Pleasanton Weekly.
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