With the arrival of Covid-19 vaccines, Chautauqua is rescheduled the History Comes Alive Festival “Reinventing America” for September 3 – 12 2021. Specific performance locations and times will be posted in April. Virtual programming will continue through the end of August.

The Festival will have outdoor performances at night and at mid-morning during the day. There will also be some additional virtual events. All of our incredible performers have agreed to return. So yes, you will be able to meet and ask questions of Ben Franklin, Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla, Hedy Lamarr and Rosa Parks. Exactly when and where is being negotiated.

Little did we know when Chautauqua chose the theme of Reinventing America, that at this time we would be literally holed up in our homes or valiantly battling an invisible foe in our hospitals. We have had our lives turned upside down. Yet we are coming up with amazing ways to cope with this disaster. This is what Americans do. We improvise, adapt, adjust, find ways to live through. We reinvent ourselves. As the Covid-19 virus challenges our American ingenuity and perseverance, more then ever we will need Ben Franklin’s “science and reason,” Thomas Edison’s “perspiration,” Nikola Tesla’s “inspiration,” Hedy Lamarr’s “ceiling crashing,” and Rosa Parks’s “grit.” And come this September at the History Comes Alive Festival, we’ll have our own stories of Reinventing America to share.