Dangberg opens summer festival with visit from Eleanor Roosevelt

Chautauquan Susan Marie Frontczak will portray diplomat, activist, and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt in “This is My Story,” 6:30 p.m. June 15. The presentation is set in 1937, during Franklin D. Roosevelt’s second term as president. By that time Eleanor Roosevelt was working to advance minimum wage, maximum hours, and child labor laws. In addition, she was working to advance women’s rights, women’s representation in government, world peace, civil rights, and other progressive causes. She continued to advance her causes while often serving as her husband’s “eyes and ears” by inspecting factories, tenements, military camps, and coal mines across the U.S.

Susan Marie Frontczak’s deeply researched living history programs are the center of her repertoire. In Frontczak’s programs as Marie Curie, Mary Shelley, Eleanor Roosevelt, Irene Castle, Erma Bombeck and Clara Barton, she melts, stretches, and reforms the boundaries between theatre, storytelling, and public speaking.  She has presented over eight hundred living history programs in both the United States and abroad since 2001. 

Chautauqua tickets are $15 for adults and are available on-line starting June 5 at dangberg.eventbrite.com. Members of the non-profit Friends of Dangberg can purchase discounted tickets at $10 each and should contact the park directly to make arrangements. Youth 16 and younger enter for free when accompanied by a ticketed adult.

This and other Chautauqua programs at the park in 2022 are funded in part by a grant from Nevada Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

The first concert of the season is 6:30 p.m. June 16, and features Old West Trio. Old West Trio is celebrating over twenty years of performing Western-themed music, from classic Sons of the Pioneers and Gene Autry tunes to contemporary Americana. The trio is the recipient of the 2011 Western Duo/Group of the Year and a top-five nominee for 2014 Western Duo/Group of the Year by the Academy of Western Artists. 

Members of Old West Trio are Steve Ide on rhythm guitar and vocals, Leslie Ide on upright bass, backing vocals and commentary, and Steve Johnson on lead guitar and vocals.

Concert tickets are $20 for adults and are available on-line starting June 5 at dangberg.eventbrite.com. Members of the non-profit Friends of Dangberg can purchase discounted tickets at $15 each and should contact the park directly to make arrangements. Youth 16 and younger enter for free when accompanied by a ticketed adult.

Funding in support of the Dangberg Summer Festival has been provided by Douglas County, Frances C. and William P. Smallwood Foundation, Carson Valley Accounting, D & B Cabinets, Tru North Wealth Management, Carson Valley Chamber of Commerce, Douglas Disposal & Recycling Service, Edward Jones Investments - Tim Cleveland, Hone Company, and Kaiser Genoa Property, LLC.

Upcoming events for the festival season include The Sierra Sweethearts playing bluegrass music, Thursday, June 30; Lacy J. Dalton playing country-western music, Thursday, July 7; and Dangberg Chautauqua Showcase featuring graduates of Dangberg’s 2021 Chautauqua Workshop, Saturday, July 9.

The full 2022 Dangberg Summer Festival event schedule is available at Dangberg.org.