Chautauqua volunteers prepare Osage Community Centre site

Beads of sweat dripped from their foreheads as the workers hammered, hauled rope and raised beams.

Why were these sane people toiling in 90-degree weather behind the Osage Community Centre? Because Monday was the kick off to Chautauqua, a traveling festival that brings history to life through reenactments and asks each community it visits to take part in the act.

"This is like the cultural circus coming to town," said Dr. Frank Nickell, director of the Center for Regional History at Southeast Missouri State University and a member of the planning committee. "Chautauqua has the atmosphere of a Saturday afternoon before a college football game. There is something of the festival and celebration about it."

The 25 local people who showed up to help erect the 30 foot by 30 foot-sized tent which can house approximately 100 were ready for the weeklong festival. Nickell said the event historically thrives by attracting a cross-section of the community and hopes the Cape Girardeau version will be no different.

"Look around out here, we have professors, retired people, owners of a bed and breakfast, housewives, children, all coming together," he said. "We hope today will whet people's appetite for what we have coming the rest of the week."

One young man who has already had his imagination captured by Chautauqua is 10-year-old Benjamin Dordoni. He did a report earlier this year on Teddy Roosevelt and is anxious to learn about the other historical figures that will soon come to life.

"I just checked out a book from the library on peanuts so I'm learning some things about George Washington Carver," he said. "It's pretty amazing what he's done with peanuts. He's made cheese, milk, linoleum, all kinds of stuff. I definitely want to see him."

Benjamin's mother, Iris Dordoni, is glad the event is coming to town. "The kids are excited about it," she said. "Over supper we talked about the tent-raising tradition and how this is a little like a town revival."

Local historical reenactors Linda and Randy Royce also said the event is right up their alley. "Anything historical we like to get involved in," said Linda Royce. "This is living history, and we just see it as a great chance to learn."

The event, which continues through Saturday evening, will feature historic reenactors giving lectures during the day and one-person, interactive performances in the evening under the tent. The nightly performances will be preceded by a musical act.

Nickell pointed out that at its height in 1924 Chautauqua took place in approximately 12,000 towns nationwide and was called by Teddy Roosevelt "the most American thing in America."

Part of what excited Roosevelt was the free-flow of ideas between performers and small town citizenry. That tradition carried on in a small way Monday when, as the tent was going up, workers were encouraged to come to the microphone and tell their best jokes.

Ten-year-old Benjamin decided the venue was perfect for his Mark Twain impersonation. "A guy walks into a bar and the bartender asks him, 'What would you do if you had all the whiskey in the world?' And the guy says, 'I'd ask for a sarsaparilla.' 'Why?' 'Because if I had all the whiskey in the world I wouldn't be able to say sarsaparilla.'"

Monday morning, 23 people attended the opening Chautauqua event at Cup 'N' Cork. Doug Mishler, who portrays Roosevelt at the historical festival, gave a presentation on the life of the 26th president of the United States. Mishler was not dressed in full costume -- that's reserved for the nighttime events -- but Mishler's Roosevelt impersonations surfaced throughout the hour-long program.

"Theodore Roosevelt was a giant kid who went through life embracing every minute of it. He was an incredible character," Mishler said of the former president.

One of the youngest presidents in our nation's history, Roosevelt was an educated man with strong moral beliefs, Mishler said. He wrote 32 books and read a minimum of one book per day.

"Every time he stopped moving, he was reading," Mishler said. "It's very surprising he was able to read so much because he never stopped moving."

Although Roosevelt considered himself a failure as a man and as president, he did win the Nobel Peace Prize for mediating the Russo-Japanese War. Some of his other greatest achievements were in conservation, Mishler said. Of the 170 national parks in the country, Roosevelt reserved 148 of them for public use.

Speaking from Roosevelt's perspective, Mishler said if the former president met either President George Bush or former President Bill Clinton, he would probably "punch or spank them."

"Clinton for what he did that was morally wrong, and Bush for the Iraq war," Mishler said. "I think Roosevelt would have similar feelings Bush has on the war -- that we can't leave now. But he would have some problems with Bush changing his mind about our reasons for being there," Mishler said.

jfreeze@semissourian.com tgreaney@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 246 335-6611, extension 245