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Pearl Harbor Children
Presents three accounts of December 7, 1941: one of a young American girl, living on O’ahu, whose father is a civilian dock worker (Sarah Walker); another is by the daughter of Mitsuo Fuchida, Japanese flight commander for the Pearl Harbor attack (Miyoko Fuchida); and the third is by a fictional nissei, Japanese-American daughter of a Japanese farmer, living in Hawaii with his Japanese picture bride and daughter, who is interned as a prisoner-of-war (Yuriko Ito.) The three stories intertwine as we learn the facts about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and its consequences. There are musical transitions using authentic music from the period.
Character Traits utilized: courage, patriotism, citizenship, fairness, respect for others, kindness, cooperation, self-respect, self-control, compassion, tolerance, diligence, generosity, cheerfulness, patience, loyalty, perseverance, virtue
Buttons For General Washington
Buttons is for young audiences of elementary age, who have some knowledge of the colonial period and Revolutionary War. Set in the Revolutionary War, covering the time frame of October, 1777 through late summer of 1778, this is a spy story of one Quaker family, the Darraghs of Philadelphia, who sent secret messages in code, in buttons sewn on a son’s coat. Seen through the eyes of daughter/sister Anne, who, because of her older brother John’s illness, must deliver the buttons to brother Charles, aide de camp for General George Washington. 40 minutes with question and answer period and some discussion about spying through the ages.
Character Traits utilized: courage, patriotism, citizenship, honesty, cooperation, diligence, patience, loyalty, perseverance, virtue, respect for creator
Clara Barton: Angel of the Battlefield
Special request only
This one-woman portrayal of Clara Barton, called by soldiers and surgeons the Angel of the Battlefield, is designed for grades 6-12. With Ms. Barton dressed in her famous black silk dress, patterned after the one pictured in the famous Matthew Brady photograph, this show is performed as a lecture, given by Ms. Barton immediately after the Civil War, about her battlefront nursing experiences. Ms. Barton was very popular on the lecture circuit after the war, conducting more lectures than Ralph Waldo Emerson and Walt Whitman. Known for her fervor when talking about “her boys” and her poignant reflections about her experiences on the front, her lectures moved and inspired her audiences. 45-60 minutes with a question and answer session and some Civil War medical artifacts.
Character Traits utilized: courage, patriotism, citizenship, fairness, respect for others, kindness, cooperation, self-respect, self-control, compassion, tolerance, diligence, generosity, cheerfulness, patience, loyalty, perseverance, virtue
Letters to Lincoln
Available only by special request
From the eyes of Helen Nicolay, daughter of John George Nicolay, Abraham Lincoln’s personal assistant, we view life at the Lincoln White House, as her father so fondly remembered it. Helen assisted her father and John Hay during their 30 year project: the ten volume biography of Abraham Lincoln. Nicolay and Hay alone were permitted to look at the Lincoln papers (or the Lincoln mailbag), so carefully guarded by Robert Lincoln, only surviving son of the former president. Helen shares some of the letters from the mailbag, which demonstrate how Lincoln was the people’s president, and how much he valued the "public opinion bath". With letters that are humorous, revealing, shocking, historical and hysterical, this show is a fascinating look at the all- wise, much revered, troubled Civil War president--a truly self made man. 40-45 minutes, for middle and high school audiences.
Character Traits utilized: courage, patriotism, citizenship, honesty, fairness, respect for others, kindness, cooperation, self-respect, self-control, courtesy, compassion, tolerance, diligence, generosity, respect for creator, patience, loyalty, perseverance, virtue.
Turn Homeward, Hannalee
First in the series of one-woman shows by Cathy Kaemmerlen, Hannalee is a dramatic presentation of the plight of one of the 400 Roswell Mill workers who were arrested under orders of General William Tecumseh Sherman in July of 1964, charged with treason for making cloth for the Confederate States of America, and shipped to Louisville, KY to live in refugee warehouses, until work as servants, farmhands, or mill workers could be found. The one woman play is loosely based on the historical fiction juvenile novel by Patricia Beatty. The play documents the horrors and realities of war, particularly civil war; family devotion, love, and perseverance, that can provide strength in times that are "hilly, bumpy, and stumpy;" and it portrays the good and bad characteristics of both sides who fought in the Civil War. Hannalee Reed is a fictitious twelve year old girl, who worked as a bobbin girl in the Roswell Mill until she was arrested. She promises her mother that she will return home. The play covers the nine month period from July, 1984, through April, 1865, the final months of the Civil War, and Hannalee’s adventures, including serving as an eyewitness to the Battle of Franklin, KY, as she turns homeward. 45 minutes. Grades 4 on up.
Character Traits utilized: courage, honesty, kindness, cooperation, self-respect, compassion, tolerance, diligence, generosity, cheerfulness, respect for creator, patience, creativity, loyalty, perseverance, virtue
Rachel Carson: A sense of Wonder
Ecology / Earth Day
A one woman portrayal of marine biologist/ecologist/writer Rachel Carson, immediately after publication of her controversial book, SILENT SPRING, which took a look at the dangers of unlimited uses of the pesticide DDT. This 45 minute program is a tribute to the woman credited as the first “ecologist” of note, to her spirit and love for the natural world. In between biographical segments, are sense of wonder segments, designed to make us take a look at some of the wonders that surround us. For middle and high school grades. Adapted to elementary grades with emphasis on developing a sense of wonder and a caring love for our precious environment.
Character Traits utilized: courage, citizenship, honesty, respect for others, self-respect, compassion, diligence, respect for environment, respect for creator, patience, perseverance, virtue
New Manchester Girl
The true story of Scynthia Catherine Stewart of New Manchester, Georgia, during and immediately after the Civil War. Scynthia, as well as others in the mill town, was charged with treason against the United States government for making cloth for the Confederate cause. AFter the Yankee soldiers burned the textile mill, she was sent to Louisville, Kentucky, along with her mother and siblings, as prisoners of war. There they were miraculously reunited with their father. AFter the war, they returned home to their ghost town to find wild strawberries growing in their yard, their manna from heaven that helped them survive that first post-war year.
Character traits utilized: courage, honesty, diligence, respect for creator, patience, perserverance, virtue, compassion
Sacajawea Speaks
A 45 minute program to celebrate the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark expedition and the contributions that Sacajawea made to the expedition that opened the Northwest Passage. Through costume, props, visual aids, the audience will use their imagiantions to aid them through this 18 month expedition that covered 11 states and thousands of miles by land and sea. With smaller audiences, Sacajawea invites the audience to sit on "listening blankets" to hear stories about her trip and allegories (teaching stories) that she told her infant son, Pomp, who accompanied her on the journey. Some stories included: the silver tipped grizzly bear, overturned pirogue, near fatal flash flood, the Buffalo jump, reunion with her native trip the Shoshones, bartering for horses, and many others. Ideally designed for audiences of 100 or less, for upper elementary grades.
Character traits utilized: courage, honesty, respect for others, respect for environment, loyalty, perserverence, patience
Pilgrim Courage: From Mayflower to First Harvest
Follow the story of the courageous pilgrim voyage of 1620 from England to the New World, continuing through the first year at Plimouth Colony, as told through the eyes of Mary Allerton, 4 years old at the time of the pilgrimage and the last living survivor of the Mayflower voyage. Hear first hand what it was like to spend 65 days at sea; the struggle to start a new settlement and survive the first winter; the impact of the Mayflower Compact; making peace with area Indians; and the first harvest feast. Performed as a first person narrative, in authentic period costuming: "One small candle may light a thousand...out of small beginnings greater things have been produced." Designed for upper elementary social studies curriculum.
Anne Frank: A Patch of Blue
Commissioned by the Teaching Museum North, Fulton County, Georgia, Cathy appears as Anne Frank. Through a series of flashbacks, Anne comes to life as she tells stories from her diary, of the 25 months she spent in hiding with seven others in the back annex of her father's business in Amsterdam. Anne's spirit comes to life through these excerpts and stories from her famous diary that documents the horror of the Holocaust instigated by Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime. Anne always maintained that there is good in all of us. In the end the Nazi terror could not silence her voice. Specially designed for upper elementary, middle and high school social studies curriculum.