Environmentalists featured at this year's Chautauqua

For a few hours next week, history professor Doug Mishler will transform into Theodore Roosevelt.

He will talk, dress and act like the former president, transporting the audience at Montgomery College's sixth annual Chautauqua back in time.

Mishler is one of several re-enactors who will bring history alive under a big top tent at the Germantown campus Tuesday through July 9. The program's theme, "The American Environment: Voices and Choices," will also feature actors portraying Rachel Carson and Henry David Thoreau.

A Chautauqua is a living history event based on a 19th-century educational tradition of traveling lecturers and actors. In its modern incarnation, scholars impersonate historical figures and answer audience questions. This year's theme focuses on the environment.

Montgomery College professor John Hare, co-coordinator of the program, called it a great form of community outreach.

"It's a great blend," he said. "It's got entertainment, it's got education ... a lot of time it's got humor. It's just an extraordinarily pleasant way to spend a summer evening."

Chautauqua events will be held at six community colleges across Maryland next week. The programs are a collaboration between the schools and the Maryland Humanities Council. The council chooses the theme and schedules the characters, while the colleges provide the facilities and host the event.

Between 600 and 800 people turned out for last year's program at Montgomery College.

"We're going to need a bigger tent soon," Hare said.

Mishler said the event appeals to many types of audiences.

"It's for everyone," he said. "That's the beauty of it. You don't need a Ph.D. in American history to understand it. You don't need any previous exposure. So that's what I like about it."

Margaret Burke, the executive director of the Maryland Humanities Council, said the re-enactors know their characters "backwards and forwards."

"It's more than a performance," she said. "It's a dialogue with the audience. After the character gives his or her monologue, he or she answers questions from the audience from a period of time, and then they step out of character into their present-day persona and answer questions they couldn't have back then."

When it's time to choose the performers, Hare said the council is "very picky."

"They really find the best ones," he said. "Most of them can sell you on the idea that you really are hearing the person they're portraying."

For the performers, the audience's enthusiasm justifies the intense preparation.

"The first time I did it, I realized how powerful it could be in teaching people about America and our culture," Mishler said. "It's very appealing to audiences."

Mishler has performed at Montgomery College twice before, as Roosevelt and William Lloyd Garrison. He said Roosevelt is his favorite historical figure to impersonate.

"He's just so big and larger than life," Mishler explained. "I'm looking forward to performing as him again."

Mishler, a professor at the University of Nevada, performs characters 50 to 60 times a year. He has traveled to Oklahoma, Arkansas and Colorado for Chautauquas in the last few weeks.

Kevin Radaker, an English professor at Anderson University in Indiana, will become Henry David Thoreau at next week's performance.

"Thoreau has been increasingly identified as America's first environmentalist prophet," Radaker explained.

He has performed as Thoreau more than 300 times.

"I hope that the audience leaves having found themselves challenged and inspired, cajoled and moved," Radaker said. And Hare agreed.

"I hope people will think," he said. "It's not so much learning. People do learn -- I go away every year knowing things I never knew before -- but the important thing is for people to go away thinking."

Residents of the upcounty should be particularly aware of the issues, Hare stressed.

"We have so much growth taking place, and so many environmental decisions are being made," he said.

To attend

The Chautauqua will be held at 7 p.m. July 6-9 under a tent at Montgomery College's Germantown campus, 20200 Observation Drive. Each night's free performance will be preceded by live music. Rachel Carson will be the subject on Wednesday, followed by Henry David Thoreau on Thursday and Theodore Roosevelt on Friday.

On Tuesday, an environmental program created by the Maryland State Forest and Park Service will highlight the state's birds and reptiles. Naturalists will have live animals on hand.

In case of rain, outdoor performances will be moved to Globe Hall. For information, call 301-353-7746.