Ohio Chautauqua, which arrives in Geauga County in two weeks, is honored to announce that Jason Nicholas, NewsChannel5 Emmy-winning meteorologist and host of the long running program, Academic Challenge, will serve as opening Master of Ceremony.
Nicholas will make an appearance Tuesday, July 3, for the first of five evenings of cultural entertainment under the Ohio Chautauqua tent. Other notable personalities and local officials, including Geauga County Common Pleas Judge Forrest W. Burt and Geauga County Commissioner Tracy Jemison, will fill the MC role each evening.
The 2012 Ohio Chautauqua, sponsored and presented by the Ohio Humanities Council, is a five-day festival that combines music, drama, and other entertainment to focus on the time “When Ohio was the Western Frontier.” The festival’s trademark red-and-white-striped tent will go up on the grounds of Geauga Historical Society’s Century Village Museum July 3-7.
The Ohio Chautauqua tent will serve as the central location for five free evening performances by renowned humanities scholars who assume the costume and personality of historical figures: Iroquois leader Chief Logan on July 3; Oliver Hazard Perry, hero of the Battle of Lake Erie, July 4; York, a Lewis and Clark Expedition member, July 5; frontier aristocrat Margaret Blennerhassett, July 6; and pioneer naturalist Johnny Appleseed, July 7.
Throughout the week, these same scholars will come out of character to present ten additional daytime programs on varying topics at five other venues around the county. Five of these programs will be aimed at younger audiences, and five will be geared toward adults.
Geauga County is one of only five sites throughout the state chosen for the privilege of hosting the 2012 Ohio Chautauqua, which is as much a social and educational movement as it is an event. All of the Ohio Chautauqua-Geauga performances and workshops are free of charge and will be held on schedule rain or shine. Please visit Ohio Chautauqua for more information and a schedule of events.
The 2012 Ohio Chautauqua is a unique cultural and educational opportunity for the communities of Geauga County and would not be possible without generous donations from The Geauga County Library Foundations, the trustees of Geauga Park District Foundation, Geauga County Rotaries, Great Lakes Cheese, Kent State University at Geauga, Middlefield Bank, Preston Chevrolet, The William T. & Margaret R. Clark Charitable Foundations and Xanterra Parks and Resort-Punderson.
