Ashland Chautauqua 2023 highlighting 'History’s Real Action Figures' in five-day event

Ashland Times-Gazette
·3 min read

The term “action figures” may call to mind comic books, special-effects movies or fierce looking toys. Ashland Chautauqua’s 2023 theme, “History’s Real Action Figures,” is a reminder real people had lives just as innovative, exciting and action-packed as any fictional character.

Ashland Chautauqua’s 24th year features scholars portraying five historic people who were “actionfigures” in unique ways. The scholars are:

Larry Bounds
Larry Bounds

  • Brian “Fox” Ellis portraying Meriwether Lewis, famous for co-leading the Corps of Discovery, better known as the Lewis & Clark Expedition

  • Karen Vuranch portraying Jackie Cochran, a fearless record-breaking pilot in the early days of aviation

  • Becky Stone portraying Pauli Murray, an activist motivated by her own experiences of racism and sexism

  • Joey Madia portraying Samuel Bellamy, an English seaman who became a pirate captain leading his crew with a strict moral code of conduct

  • Larry Bounds portraying Harry Houdini, who may arguably be the greatest magician and escape artist of all time.

Joey Madia
Joey Madia

Daytime workshops and evening performances

The traditional five-day event, featuring evening first-person performances and daytime workshops will beheld July 11-15. Evening performances are at the Guy C. Myers Band Shell in Ashland’s Brookside Park at8 p.m., with opening musical acts starting at 7 p.m.

Daytime workshops are held at venues around Ashland and in the Loudonville Public Library. The schedule ofadult and youth workshops is available at www.ashlandchautauqua.org and on Facebook. Theworkshops will be led by the Chautauqua scholars, with topics relating either to their character or moregenerally to the context of their character’s life and times.

This year’s theme will highlight a variety of action-oriented true-life stories. Audience members will no doubt leave the week of performances with a couple of realizations − fictional characters are not “larger-than-life” because life itself can be very large, and history is filled with adventure and action.

Three of the scholars have appeared in earlier Ashland Chautauqua events. Ellis portrayed John James Audubon in 2019. Vuranch has portrayed a wide range of characters, among them Grace O’Malley, Mother Jones, Clara Barton, and Julia Child. Most recently, in 2021 she portrayed Gertrude Bell. Stone has appeared in Ashland as Rosa Parks in 2017 and Maya Angelou in 2019.

Joey Madia and Larry Bounds are experienced scholar/performers but new to Ashland Chautauqua. Both have personal interests that prepare them well for portraying their characters: a pirate captain and a showman of consummate skill in mystifying an audience.

Coffee with the Scholars mornings at FLAC building

The popular informal discussions, Coffee with the Scholars, will be back on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 8:30 a.m. These will be held in the FLAC building, 107 E. Main St., downtown Ashland.

All Ashland Chautauqua events are free and open to the public. The evening performances and workshops are at accessible locations.

Ashland Chautauqua is supported by Ohio Humanities, the Ohio Arts Council, the City of Ashland’s Parks & Recreation Department, Explore Ashland, local businesses and organizations and by residents. Ashland Main Street is the fiscal agent. Ashland Chautauqua programming is planned and implemented by a committee of local citizen volunteers.

This article originally appeared on Ashland Times Gazette: Houdini, Meriwether Lewis, Sam Bellamy being portrayed at Chautauqua