FORKS — The New Old Time Chautauqua comes to La Push and Forks on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
The New Old Time Chautauqua consists of 60 to 70 touring members including jugglers, magicians, aerialists, humorists, hula-hoopists and a 25-piece band showcasing musicians able to harness a diverse range of music, according to its website.
The group will set up camp Sunday.
On Monday, it will participate in a parade and perform a show at the Akalat Center in La Push, and host workshops and a potluck at Bogachiel State Park, 185983 U.S Highway 101, south of Forks.
On Tuesday, the entertainers will move to the Rainforest Arts Center, 35 N. Forks Ave., to provide workshops and an additional show. There also will be a second parade.
On Wednesday, the group will return to La Push for a baseball game and a swing dance.
Collaboration
The New Old Time Chautauqua and the Washington State Parks System are collaborating to bring live entertainment, free workshops and other community events to state parks and their neighboring towns in July and August.
During the summer tour, the group will partner with the local communities near each park offering community shows at senior centers, prisons and hospitals. There also will be parades through town, more than 25 workshops and a museum exhibit on Chautauqua and Washington State Park history.
It will all be capped off with a Vaudeville extravaganza featuring their 25 piece band and nationally known acts.
It is the mission of this collaboration to bring new understanding, knowledge, and excitement to the connection of communities and their nearby parks, organizers said.
Revival
The New Old Time Chautauqua is a revival chautauqua based on an adult education movement that flourished in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, according to historians.
Chautauqua originated in upstate New York in the 1870s and flourished until the mid 1920s.
During this time, hundreds of touring chautauquas presented lectures, dance, music, drama and other forms of “cultural enrichment,” according to the group’s website.
In rural America, big tents served as temporary theaters for these productions. Lectures by author Mark Twain, suffragette Susan B. Anthony, or a production of “The Tale of Two Cities” are the kinds of entertainment one could expect at a chautauqua show.
The first Chautauqua was held in 1874 at Lake Chautauqua, N.Y. — hence the name.
For more information, visit chautauqua.org.
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Features Editor Chris McDaniel can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56650, or cmcdaniel@peninsuladailynews.com.
