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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. More Chautauquas appeared and began to tour the nation. The content broadened, as 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 President Theodore Roosevelt. This form of outreach all but died out with the advent of film.
The New Old Time Chautauqua 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. It once again brought shows (in the form of modern vaudeville) and education (in the form of workshops) to rural and remote communities which, when it comes to live entertainment, are often under-served. It's a new approach to an old idea, bringing the past to the present. For decades, our ALL VOLUNTEER troupe has staged 3 to 6 week long Summer Tours in regions throughout Oregon, Washington, Idaho, western Montana, southern and coastal British Columbia and southern Alaska. Numerous other New Old Time Chautauqua Regional Shows and events occur, spanning the fall through spring seasons of each year, throughout the above territory and northern California. Additional efforts have reached as far as Louisiana and Mississippi, where we supplied some post-Katrina relief. New Old Time Chautauqua has provided training, encouragement, and opportunities-to-perform for many new variety acts and has thereby 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
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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
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New Old Time Chautauqua •
• 615 54th Street, Port Townsend, WA 98368 •
• Phone: 360/ 385-2212 •
• Email: info@chautauqua.org •