History Comes Alive Festival: Interactive Theater

Justice in America

What does that mean? What does that look like?

In 2027, the Greenville Chautauqua, along with you, will explore both the nature of justice and the nature of injustice in America. From its earliest days, the people of our great nation sought to set right the wrongs they observed. But they also turned their eyes away from and refused to consider many wrongs that Americans today would never tolerate.

Each generation in American history produced citizens who saw the ignored but omnipresent wrongs and chose to speak out and act out so the injustices could be set right. Patriots arose to break away from the shackles of British control, especially taxation without representation. Religious leaders spoke out and acted out to expose the sin of slavery and abolish the profound moral evil. In addition to these injustices, was it fair that women were treated as chattel by their fathers, their husbands and the laws of the land?

In our exploration of American Justice we began our journey in February with a surprising, perhaps unexpected individual: Al Capone.

In June, we will meet these five notable individuals and explore their relationship to our theme:

Lizzie Borden - an upperclass woman tried and acquitted of the axe murders of her father and stepmother. A hundred years later she still could have heard children sing, “Lizzie Borden took an axe and gave her mother 40 whacks, and when she saw what she had done, she gave her father 41.”

Clarence Darrow - defense attorney immortalized in the play Inherit the Wind. He fought against a law that forbade teachers from teaching children established scientific principles that some objected to. But Darrow's career in law was far more than that.

J. Edgar Hoover - first Director of the FBI and legendary gangbuster, the first G-man. His position in the corridors of American justice altered the relationship between the nation and the criminals who preyed on the public.

Thurgood Marshall - the first African American justice of the Supreme Court. An attorney who worked tirelessly to achieve racial equality under the law, he won legal battles for civil rights and changed the nation long before he became a highly respected Supreme Court judge.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg - a lawyer who saw that American women should have the same freedoms and rights as American men. She fought to end gender discrimination and founded the Women's Rights Project. For 28 years she served as a justice on the Supreme Court.

So, our examination of American justice will consider those who were convicted and those who were acquitted; those who prosecuted and those who defended; and those of different races, religions, and genders who worked with and against “the System” to guarantee all Americans equality under the law.

Lizzie Borden portrayed by Leslie Goddard

On an August morning in 1892, well-to-do businessman Andrew Borden and his wife Abby were found hacked to death in their Fall River, Massachusetts, home. Suspicion soon settled on Andrew’s 32-year-old daughter, Lizzie, who displayed an unusually calm demeanor and gave inconsistent replies when questioned. Her arrest for the murders set off a media frenzy. Readers scoured newspapers for details about her clothing or demeanor that might prove her guilt or innocence. Children soon began chanting a famous (and wholly inaccurate) rhyme beginning “Lizzie Borden took an axe.” Even after her sensational trial ended in acquittal, Lizzie remained forever linked to the crimes. She lived the rest of her life in Fall River, largely ostracized from the community. The case was never solved and even today, more than 135 years after the murders, she remains the subject of intense interest and speculation. Was Lizzie a desperate and unbalanced woman who resorted to murder? Or was she an innocent woman who could never escape the tragedy that destroyed her life?

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Leslie Goddard, Ph.D., is an award-winning historian who has been presenting programs on topics in 20th century American history and women’s history for more than twenty years. She holds an interdisciplinary Ph.D. from Northwestern University as well as master’s degrees in both museum studies and in theater. A former museum director, she is the author of three books on Chicago history and currently works full-time as a public speaker, actress and scholar. Her presentations have been seen by audiences in more than thirty-five states, including scores of universities, museums, libraries, festivals, and civic organizations.

Clarence Darrow portrayed by Kevin Treu

Clarence Darrow was the lawyer America called when the case looked unwinnable. Gruff, unpolished, and never afraid to be the lone voice in the room, Clarence Darrow spent half a century standing between the powerless and the full weight of the state – defending and championing the cases of coal miners, union men, the poor, the condemned. He saved two confessed killers from the gallows by putting the courtroom itself on trial. He squared off against a former presidential candidate in a sweltering Tennessee tent, defending a schoolteacher's right to think for himself. Wherever the law claimed to have the easy answer, Darrow showed up to ask the hard question instead.

Step into a courtroom with one of the great trial lawyers of American history, a man as comfortable provoking a jury as he was unsettling a nation. Equal parts cynic, idealist, and showman, Darrow built a career out of doubting easy verdicts – and became a physical embodiment of the phrase “and justice for all”.

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Kevin Treu has been a Professor of Computer Science at Furman University since 1992 and has served as chair of the Department of Computer Science since 2004. In 2026 he was honored with the Alester G. Furman and Janie Earle Furman Meritorious Teaching Award.

Away from Furman, Kevin has been an actor, director, and playwright in the local upstate theatre community for nearly as long. He has played “Iago” and “Col. Jessep” among other roles and directed productions such as I Or You at Centre Stage and Hank Williams: Lost Highway at the Spartanburg Little Theatre. He debuted with the Chautauqua Festival in 2025, portraying Babe Ruth.

He has been the head coach of the Devenger Dolphins summer league swim team for over 20 years, and regularly competes in open water swim races all over the country.

J. Edgar Hoover portrayed by Jeremy Meier

Few figures in American history wielded power as quietly—or as completely—as J. Edgar Hoover. Feared by suspects and respected by presidents, he held a position of authority for nearly five decades. Convinced that the survival of the United States depended upon eternal vigilance, Hoover built the Federal Bureau of Investigation into a modern investigative force. He prided himself as a guardian of American law and order during the tense years of the Cold War. But what happens when the pursuit of security threatens to strain the very liberties it strives to protect? Through reflections on communism, surveillance, and the expanding reach of federal power, Hoover’s complicated legacy is brought to a modern audience and challenges it to consider where the line between justice and control truly lies.

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Jeremy Meier serves as the Chair of Creative Arts & Media at Owens Community College in Northwest Ohio. Greenville Chautauqua audiences have seen Jeremy in his portrayals of Charles Chaplin (2025), Steve Jobs (2023), and Robert F. Kennedy (2022). Meier holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theatre from Central Michigan University and a Master of Fine Arts in Acting from the Ohio State Check out his work at www.jeremymeier.com

Thurgood Marshall portrayed by Jim Armstead

Thurgood Marshall, the future Federal judge, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court and Solicitor General of the United States, was born on July 2, 1908 in Baltimore Maryland. He grew up in that city in a Black working class household that valued education and hard work which pushed both sons to achieve college educations and learned professions. Even before beginning his career Marshall personally experienced discrimination and racial segregation: He attended law school at Howard University after being summarily denied admission to the University of Maryland Law School with the notation on his application "but for his race he would be otherwise qualified to be admitted to study law. Young Turgood would not be denied. He was graduated in 1933 from Howard and began a general practice of law but within a short time after graduation he developed an intense interest in civil rights work which led to his former professor, Charles Hamilton Houston offering him a position at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund where he remained for more than 25 years, eventually becoming known throughout Black America as "Mr. Civil Rights". During his busy legal career he argued hundreds of cases including 32 cases before the Supreme Court, winning 29 of them. Some of these cases changed important legal doctrines and expanded civil rights for all Americans. He was a principal strategist in the focus on discrimination in education, winning the Brown vs Board of the Education case.

President Kennedy appointed Marshall to the Federal bench as an appellate judge on the 2nd Circuit in New York. Marshall remained on the bench until being appointed Solicitor General by President Lyndon Johnson in 1964. In 1967 he was appointed to the Supreme Court where he played an important role as a justice, noted particularly for expanding and protecting defendant's rights while writing for the majority. As the balance of the court changed he wrote several strong descents in his efforts to protect constitutional rights of our citizens.

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Jim Armstead is a retired professor of international law and national security affairs who has also performed almost 50 historic figures for Chautauqua audiences in the United States and for foreign audiences for more than 30 years. He graduated with a BS in history and anthropology from the University of Illinois in 1968. He then served as a tank officer and in general staff assignments in the United States Army and later received his law degree in 1975 from De Paul University. He practiced law with 3 Federal Agencies and served as a prosecutor at state and federal levels. He was awarded PhD in international relations from Pacific Western University in 1981, having written his dissertation at the Rand Corp. Jim has served on 19 university faculties in the U.S., Europe and Africa and has been awarded 3 Fulbright visiting Professorships over the years by the U.S. Dept of State. He edited the Treaty of Rome which established the ICC while serving with the UN Secretariat and is currently advising the Ukraine Foreign Ministry. He negotiated several treaties for the U.S. and has published numerous articles on public policy, international affairs and international law. So far this year he has already published front page 3 op-Ed’s in the San Francisco Chronicle and is a frequent expert guest on US and international radio and tv programs. Jim resides in the Sierra Nevada mountains in Northern California.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg portrayed by Anne Pasquale

Ruth Bader Ginsburg March 15, 1933 – September 18, 2020 was a passionate advocate for justice. A Jewish American lawyer, she served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1993 to her death in 2020. During her time on the Supreme Court, she leant her voice and pen to cases that made lasting changes for so many Americans. Two notable Supreme Court opinions she authored are United States v. Virginia, which struck down the Virginia Military Academy’s male-only admissions policy, and Olmstead v. L.C. in which the Court ruled that mental illness was a disability covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. She dissented in the Court’s decision on Ledbetter v. Goodyear, paving the way for the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. Due to her tenacious dedication and relentless fiery fight for civil rights and gender equality, she is often referred to by her supporters as The Notorious R.B.G.

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Anne Pasquale (actress & playwright) trained at LAMDA and the New York School of the Arts. Ms. Pasquale creates and tours her repertoire of Living History Programs for audiences of all ages in venues along the East Coast. Ms. Pasquale is a member of The Actors Studio, and a founding member of the Accidental Repertory Theatre (ART). NY Off Broadway credits include Martha in Virginia Wolf, Serafina Della Rosa in The Rose Tattoo, Emma Goldman in The Haymarket Chronicle and Kristina Linde in Variations on a Doll’s House. She is the recipient of the 2015 Broadway World Rhode Island Best Writer and Best Performer awards for her solo show, BOB. You can find out more about Anne @ annepasquale.com

History Comes Alive Festival