As part of the Hastings Chautauqua event this summer, the Hastings Museum of Natural and Cultural History is hosting a film series in the Lied Super Screen Theatre. The series will continue on Thursday, June 26 with the film, The Grapes of Wrath. A "dessert and discussion" will take place at 6:00 p.m., followed by the film at 7:00 p.m.
In stark and moving detail, John Steinbeck depicts the lives of ordinary people striving to preserve their humanity in the face of social and economic desperation. When the Joads lose their tenant farm in Oklahoma, they join thousands of others, traveling the narrow concrete highways toward California and the dream of a piece of land to call their own. Each night on the road, they and their fellow migrants recreate society: leaders are chosen, unspoken codes of privacy and generosity evolve, and lust, violence, and murderous rage erupt.
A portrait of the bitter conflict between the powerful and the powerless, of one man's fierce reaction to injustice, and of a woman's quiet, stoical strength, The Grapes of Wrath is a landmark of American literature and film, one that captures the horrors of the Great Depression as it probes into the very nature of equality and justice in America. Winner of two Academy Awards®, The Grapes of Wrath stars Henry Fonda and Jane Darwell.
Chautauqua began as a summer school for Sunday School teachers in Chautauqua, New York in 1874. By the turn of the twentieth century, Chautauqua had developed into a nationwide traveling educational and entertainment program. Theodore Roosevelt called Chautauqua "the most American thing in America." Traveling Chautauquas in the late 1800s and early 1900s brought the world to rural communities across the nation, including those in Kansas and Nebraska.
Chautauqua combined programs of political oratory and lectures about health, science, and the humanities with entertainment, such as opera singers and stage performances of Shakespeare. Well known speakers and politicians such as William McKinley, Rutherford B. Hayes, William Howard Taft, and William Jennings Bryan toured the Chautauqua circuit. Audiences heard about national issues and discussed their views with their neighbors. For many rural Kansas and Nebraska towns, Chautauqua week was the most important week of the year.
The Kansas Humanities Council and Nebraska Humanities Council rekindled their states' Chautauqua traditions in 1984 with modern Chautauquas that use public forum and discussion to focus on a particular historical era. Rather than use contemporary speakers, the modern-day Chautauqua features history professionals portraying famous figures from the past. In the spirit of the original traveling Chautauquas, the Kansas and Nebraska Humanities Councils have brought their programs to rural and remote communities that may not have direct access to humanities or cultural centers.
Chautauqua provides an introduction to public humanities programs for rural audiences, creates lasting partnerships between the state councils and the towns that host events, and fosters long-term interest in the humanities among their citizens.
Seating for the The Grapes of Wrath is on a first come, first served basis and seating in the Lied Super Screen Theatre is limited to 211. For more information about the Chautauqua, visit www.knchautauqua.org or call the Adams County Convention and Visitors Bureau at 1-800-967-2189.
