|
H
i s t o r y
|
||
|
|
To learn a great deal about the Chautauquas of old, and about fellow contemporary organizations carrying on the Chautauqua tradition, visit our Links below. To learn a very basic Chautauqua history and more about our present-day Chautauqua, read on. Chautauqua is a community-based, cultural and social movement that started in the 1870's and flourished in America until the mid 1920's. During this time there existed hundreds of touring "Chautauquas" that presented lectures, dance, music, drama, and other forms of "cultural enrichment." The movement is named for a lake in upstate New York that was the site of the first Chautauqua, which consisted of Sunday school teachers lecturing outdoors about the moral issues of the day. Eventually it broadened and organizers brought in great orators, added music, and later theater. It is a popular belief that this type of information exchange was the origin of the current adult education movement. Performing in tents across the country, Chautauquas were once called "the most American thing in America" by Teddy Roosevelt. This form of outreach all but died out with the advent of film.
The New Old Time Chautauqua (NOTC) was founded in 1981 by a group of performers, health care practitioners, and educators as a vehicle for reviving the spirit of the old Chautauquas and for once again bringing entertainment and educational workshops to rural and remote communities which, when it comes to live performance, are often otherwise overlooked. It's a new approach to an old idea, bringing the past to the present. For over 20 years, our ALL VOLUNTEER troupe has staged 3 to 6 week Summer Tours in regions throughout Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, British Columbia and Alaska. Numerous other NOTC Regional Shows and events occur, Fall to Spring each year, throughout the above territory and California. NOTC has played a vital role in the renaissance of vaudeville.
To view current plans for both Regional Shows and Summer Tours, please visit our Schedule page.
L
i n k s
Other Chautauquas: Chautauqua
Institution Colorado
Chautauqua Association Florida
Chautauqua Center Jewish
Chautauqua Society Kansas
Chautauqua Kentucky
Humanities Council Chautauqua Nebraska
Chautauqua Nevada
Chautauqua New
Hampshire Humanities Council Chautauqua Ohio
Humanities Council Chautauqua
Oklahoma
Humanities Council Chautauqua
Waxahachie Chautauqua
Resources for historical information about Chautauquas:
Traveling
Culture - Circuit Chautauqua in the Twentieth Century Records
of the Redpath Chautauqua University
of Iowa Libraries Virtual
Vaudeville
|
|
•
New Old Time Chautauqua •
• 615 54th Street, Port Townsend, WA 98368 •
• Phone: 360/ 385-2212 •
• Email: info@chautauqua.org •