PORT TOWNSEND — The New Old Time Chautaqua performing group will depart Port Townsend for a three-week tour of state parks at 7 a.m. Sunday.
The NOTC bus will leave Port Townsend from the Haines Place Transit Center park and ride, 440 12th St.
After a successful tour in 2016, NOTC and Washington State Parks are reuniting to bring the same mix of family fun and community engagement to three areas of the state outside of the North Olympic Peninsula.
“The idea of the Chautauqua-Parks partnership is to renew ties and to foster goodwill between nearby towns and their local state parks,” said Paul Magid, founding member of the NOTC and The Flying Karamazov Brothers.
“The New Old Time Chautauqua and Washington State Parks share common goals — to promote community through education and experience by being a catalyst for cultural and creative exchange surrounded by the beauty of nature.”
New Old Time Chautauqua events include entertaining and educational workshops in parks and towns, a community potluck in each state park, live music, speakers and a grand parade — with community participation encouraged — through the town.
Each Chautauqua visit culminates in a grand finale performance featuring Broadway stars, a big band, aerialists, comedians, jugglers and more.
Participants can join in the tours and learn how to juggle, play the ukulele or fold a fitted sheet. Park rangers, tribal members and local residents will share their knowledge of the area’s history or botany.
Visitors and community members are invited to lead their own learning session, host a crafts table or bring a musical instrument.
This year, NOTC and State Parks will work with the Confederated Tribes of Colville and the Lummi Nation to include Native American voices in re-shaping the stories of state parks as part of the State Parks Folk and Traditional Arts Program.
The New Old Time Chautauqua tours begin this Thursday and run through June 30. The general schedule is:
• Dry Falls State Park, June 14-20.
• Pearrygin Lake State Park, June 22-26.
• Birch Bay State Park, June 28-30.
Chautauquas once were the most popular form of summer diversion in America, according to a news release.
President Theodore Roosevelt once said that chautauquas were “the most American thing in America.”
When a traveling chautauqua came to town, all normal activity stopped as citizens dedicated a week of their lives to engage with the issues facing their communities, experience nature and enjoy music, theater and food with their families and neighbors.
NOTC, a nonprofit of some 60 volunteers, was founded in 1981 by the Flying Karamazov Brothers and Dr. Patch Adams.
For more information, go to: http://www.chautauqua.org.
