Dr. Doug Watson, professor of English at Oklahoma Baptist University, will be among the presenters and scholars at Chautauqua 2000 -- The Evolution of the West: Myth and Reality. The event will be held June 6-10 at OSU-Tulsa, 700 N. Greenwood, Tulsa. It is free and open to the public.
Watson will portray Will Rogers, noted humorist and Oklahoma's native son, at 8 p.m. Saturday, June 10. Watson will present a children's workshop about the role of the cowboy in developing the West on Friday, June 9, and a workshop about Rogers' role as a humorist on Saturday, June 10. Both workshops will be at 2 p.m.
For the ninth year, Tulsa, the only American city with its own annual Chautauqua, will serve as host to scholars and students who will use this 19th-century teaching and entertainment tool to make American history come alive by impersonating major historical figures from the frontier West.
Other figures to be portrayed at Chautauqua 2000 are Angie Debo, Oklahoma historian; Theodore Roosevelt, 26th president of the United States; Owen Wister, author of "The Virginian"; and Charles Goodnight, Texas rancher. All portrayals will be held outdoors under a tent at 8 p.m. All workshops will be in the OSU-Tulsa Conference Center.
Suzan King, assistant professor of English and developmental studies at Tulsa Community College, will portray Debo on Friday, June 9. She will present a workshop about Debo's only novel, "Prairie City," at noon Saturday, June 10.
Debo, who spent part of her childhood in a covered wagon in Oklahoma Territory, wrote several books about Oklahoma and Native American history and received the John H. Dunning Prize from the American Historical Association in 1934. The Dunning Prize, named after the Columbia University scholar and noted historian, is awarded biannually by AHA for an outstanding book about American history.
Known as "the premiere historian of the Southwest," Debo, who received a master's degree from the University of Chicago and a doctorate from the University of Oklahoma, was a professional historian, a reviewer for the New York Times, and an associate professor at Oklahoma State University.
She was selected one of the 50 most influential Oklahomans by Oklahoma Today magazine. A portrait of Debo hangs in the Oklahoma State Capitol Rotunda.
Roosevelt will be portrayed by Dr. Jerome Tweton, Charles Fritz Distinguished Professor Emeritus of History, University of North Dakota, on Tuesday, June 6.
Tweton, senior consultant for the North Dakota Humanities Council, will discuss Roosevelt's four-volume work, "The Winning of the West," at noon Wednesday, June 7. He will focus on Roosevelt's changing views on American Indians and federal policy, at 10 a.m. Friday, June 9.
Dr. John Gentile, professor of performance studies and communication, Kennesaw State University, Atlanta, will portray Wister on Wednesday, June 7.
The author of "Cast of One: One Person Shows from the Chautauqua Platform to the Broadway Stage," Gentile will present a workshop on the role of the Chautauqua in the settlement of the West at 10 a.m. Saturday, June 10. He will discuss Wister's books and travel journals at noon Thursday, June 8.
A lawyer, musician and writer, Wister spent several summers in the West during the late 1800s to restore his health. The journals of those visits that he kept and encouragement from his friend and Harvard University classmate, Roosevelt, led to Wister's first story about the West. It was published in Harper's.
Wister's only novel about the West, "The Virginian: Horseman of the Plains," is the story of a modest, late 19th-century Wyoming cattle ranch foreman and hero. It quickly became popular, has been filmed by Hollywood three times, and was the subject of a television series in the 1960s. Wister later wrote two other novels, including a biography of Roosevelt, and several children's books.
Dr. Paul Christensen, professor of modern literature and writing at Texas A&M University, will portray Goodnight on Thursday, June 8. He will compare the nomadic lifestyles of cowboys, the American Indians, and pre-historic bison hunters -- all inhabitants, at one time in history, of the West -- at noon Friday, June 9.
Christensen, who annually directs the Provence Writers Workshop in Buoux, France, has received numerous state and national awards for his prose and poetry and founded the public radio talk show "Poetry Southwest."
Goodnight, along with Oliver Loving, created two major cattle trails in the West and developed the concept of a cattle drive. Both ideas facilitated the movement of cattle from Texas to north-central United States in the late 19th century. "Lonesome Dove" is loosely based on true accounts involving Goodnight and Loving.
Three Tulsa Carver Middle School students will also portray major American historical figures, as part of a pilot student Chautauqua program organized by Janet Thomas, Carver Middle School American Studies teacher and 1999-2000 Tulsa Parent-Teacher Association Teacher of the Year.
Trey Johnson will portray Frederick Douglass on Wednesday, June 7. Johnny Fisher will portray Washington Irving on Thursday, June 8. Ashlee Dorsey will portray Sojourner Truth on Friday, June 9.
Once the pilot project is completed, several middle schools in Tulsa Public Schools will participate in a future competition for the student Chautauqua roles.
For more information about Chautauqua 2000, call (918) 594-8303 or (918) 584-3333, ext. 31.
