​Chautauqua Opens Season 15 with General George Patton
 
Mount Vernon –On Thursday January 27, the Chautauqua Series opens its 15th season, with Ken Hammontree as General George Patton, describing his experiences at the Battle of the Bulge. The program will be at the Grand Hotel (12 Public Square in downtown Mount Vernon) at 7 PM. The Chautauqua Series is brought to you with the help of a grant provided by the Ariel Foundation and is donation based with all monies collected going to the performers.
 
For those unfamiliar with the Chautauqua format, these programs present historical figures in first person portrayals, dressed in the clothing of the era. Ken will, for all intents and purposes, be General Patton. He will give his presentation then take questions from the audience. The programs are intended for families, students and all who wish to know more about history in a family friendly, entertaining manner.
 
Opening the program will be Chris Petee, singing songs popular during World War II era. Chris is an accomplished singer, has opened many Chautauquas with music and has also presented many Chautauqua characters.
  
NOTE: masks are required and will be provided and hand sanitizer will be available.
 
Upcoming programs include:
 
February 24 – Robert and Barbara Blugler as President and Mrs. Abraham Lincoln
March 24 – Julia Geiger as Roseanna McCoy of the Hatfields and McCoys fame
April 28 – Steve Ball presenting the music of The Carter Family
May 26 – Susan Kahrl portraying Erma Bombeck
 
For more information about these programs, visit www.elixirpresents.com. If you would like to receive a “Gentle Reminder” on the Sunday before each program contact Mike Petee at elixir_petee@hotmail.com. 

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MOUNT VERNON - The 10th annual Foodstock concert to benefit Food for the Hungry will be held on Monday Dec. 6 at 7:00 PM (doors open at 6:30PM) at the Knox Memorial Theater, located at 112 E. High Street, Mount Vernon, Ohio.
 
This year the program will be called FolkFest and will pay tribute to the folk music of the 1960’s including the songs of Peter, Paul & Mary, Joan Baez, Bob Dylan and others. The performance will feature Sarah Goslee Reed, Bob Ford & Chris Noon, and Chris Petee, Jeff Putnam and Mike Petee with upright bass provided by Bill Miller playing the music of Peter, Paul & Mary. To read more about the performers, go to www.elixirpresents.com.  
 
The concert is family friendly and the cost is by donation of food items, cash or check. Each dollar raised provides $8.50 of buying power at the Central Ohio Food Bank. For information on needed food items or if you are unable to attend but would like to donate, go to www.elixirpresents.com for details. All proceeds go to the Food for the Hungry campaign.
 
If you are unable to donate we ask invite you and your family to come to this event, as a Christmas gift to you from the musicians of Knox County and surrounding communities.
 
Foodstock is made possible through the efforts and support of Elixir Presents, the Ariel Foundation and the Mount Vernon Arts Consortium.
 
For more information, visit www.elixirpresents.com or call 740-392-3018.
 

​Mount Vernon –On Thursday November 18, the first person in history to accomplish the feat of receiving the Nobel Prize in two different disciplines will be the featured speaker at the Chautauqua Series. That person is Marie Curie and she will be portrayed by Tammy Souhrada, a seasoned Chautauqua performer. The program will be at the Grand Hotel (12 Public Square in downtown Mount Vernon) at 7 PM and is brought to you on a donation basis, with all monies going to the performers.
 
Learn of the fascinating life of the only woman to ever win two Nobel Prizes, physics and chemistry. She also developed a portable x-ray machine to help on the battlefield during World War I. Tammy will bring Marie Curie to life and into the world of Madam Curie.
 
Opening the program will be Bill Miller and his many acoustic instruments, playing and explaining music you though you knew about but now will learn so much more.
  
The Chautauqua Series is sponsored in part by a grant from the Ariel Foundation, The programs are intended for families, students and all who wish to know more about history in a family friendly, entertaining manner. Audiences will be able to ask questions at the end of each program.
 
NOTE: masks are required and will be provided and hand sanitizer will be available.
 
The remaining program for 2021:
 
December 6 – FOODSTOCK  (at the Knox Memorial Theater – Folk Fest – featuring the music of Peter, Paul & Mary, Joan Baez and music of the era)
 
For more information about these programs, visit www.elixirpresents.com, or you can call 740-392-3018. If you would like to receive a “Gentle Reminder” on the Sunday before each program contact Mike Petee at elixir_petee@hotmail.com. 
 

Mount Vernon – Mark your calendars. Thursday November 11, Amelia Earhart will make a rare appearance, gracing the Chautauqua Series stage at The Grand Hotel (12 Public Square – Mount Vernon, Ohio). The program is brought to you by Elixir Presents and will feature Amy K. Stoner as Amelia Earhart, performing first person living history. The program is presented on a donation basis with all monies going directly to Amy and her opening act – Bob Ford, a musician that will teach you, entertainment and make you laugh. Not necessarily in that order.
 
Amy K. Stoner is no stranger to the Chautauqua stage, having made many appearances in roles ranging from Helen Keller to Gilda Radner to Aubrey Hepburn to Pocahontas. She is a director, actor and current President of the Mount Vernon Players.
Amelia Mary Earhart was an American aviation pioneer and author. Earhart was the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She set many other records, wrote best-selling books about her flying experiences.
 
  
The Chautauqua Series is sponsored in part by a grant from the Ariel Foundation, The programs are intended for families, students and all who wish to know more about history in a family friendly, entertaining manner. Audiences will be able to ask questions at the end of each program.
 
NOTE: masks are required and will be provided and hand sanitizer will be available.
 
The remaining programs for 2021 are as follows: 
November 18 – Marie Curie (Tammy Souhrada) 
December 6 – FOODSTOCK  (at the Knox Memorial Theater – Folk Fest – featuring the music of Peter, Paul & Mary, Joan Baez and music of the era)
 
For more information about these programs, visit www.elixirpresents.com, or you can call 740-392-3018. If you would like to receive a “Gentle Reminder” on the Sunday before each program contact Mike Petee at elixir_petee@hotmail.com. 

​Mount Vernon – “The People of mid-Ohio’s Pleasant Valley went on with their normal lives that cold and rainy spring of 1896, not knowing that young Ceely Rose was brooding.  She’d been told to forget her obsession with handsome Guy Berry. She’d been told about the danger of Rough-on-Rats poison. She’d heard about murdering those who stand in the way of love. By the time she was done, her family would be dead and others threatened.” So starts the description on the back cover of Mark S. Jordan’s new book, “The Ceely Rose Murders at Malabar Farm”.
 
For those familiar with the play “Ceely” that Mark wrote and directed, this story is familiar but now Mark has expanded the story with extensive research and gives as thorough an investigation into the murders as is possible in this day and age.
 
On Thursday, October 28, just in time for Halloween, Mark will enthrall the audience for this Chautauqua Series program. The presentation will occur at the Grand Hotel (12 Public Square in downtown Mount Vernon, Ohio). Jordan will present the findings of his research starting at 7 PM. There will be no opening musical act for this presentation.
 
Mark Jordan is a familiar face at the Chautauqua Series, having portrayed Orson Welles and Georg Friedrich Handel as well as sharing his research on an unsolved murder that occurred in Mount Vernon in the early 1900’s. He is an entertaining and dramatic speaker and is sure to leave the audience with a lot to think about in regard to Ceely Rose.
  
The Chautauqua Series is sponsored in part by a grant from the Ariel Foundation, The programs are intended for families, students and all who wish to know more about history in a family friendly, entertaining manner. Audiences will be able to ask questions at the end of each program. Each show is donation based, with all monies collected going to the performers. 
 
The schedule for 2021 is as follows: 
November 11 – Amelia Earhart (Amy K. Stoner) 
November 18 – Marie Curie (Tammy Souhrada) 
 
For more information about these programs, visit www.elixirpresents.com, or you can call 740-392-3018. If you would like to receive a “Gentle Reminder” on the Sunday before each program contact Mike Petee at elixir_petee@hotmail.com. 

Chautauqua Series Features Elizabeth Cady Stanton 
 
Mount Vernon – The Chautauqua Series continues on September 30 at the Grand Hotel (12 Public Square in downtown Mount Vernon) at 7 PM with Susan Kahrl portraying Elizabeth Cady Stanton - author, lecturer, and chief philosopher of the woman’s rights and suffrage movements and formulated the agenda for woman’s rights that guided the struggle well into the 20th century. Opening the program will be Gerry Rensel. 



Note: due to the continued COVID-19 surge - masks will be required to attend performance. Masks and hand sanitizer will be available at the event.
 
For those who are unfamiliar with the Chautauqua Series, it features first person living history portrayals. The performers dress as a person from history and present an evening based on research of the featured character.  
 
The Chautauqua Series is sponsored in part by a grant from the Ariel Foundation, The programs are intended for families, students and all who wish to know more about history in a fun, entertaining manner. Audiences will be able to ask questions at the end of each program. Each show is donation based, with all monies collected going to the performers. 
 
The schedule for 2021 is as follows: 
September 30 – Elizabeth Cady Stanton (Susan Kahrl) 
October 12 (NOTE: TUESDAY) – General George Patton (Ken Hammontree)  
October 28 – Ceely Rose Book (presented by Mark Jordan) 
November 11 – Amelia Earhart (Amy K. Stone) 
November 18 – Marie Curie (Tammy Souhrada) 
 
For more information about these programs, visit www.elixirpresents.com, or you can call 740-392-3018. If you would like to receive a “Gentle Reminder” on the Sunday before each program please contact Mike Petee at elixir_petee@hotmail.com. 
 

​Chautauqua’s Return with Woodstock Presentation
MOUNT VERNON – For nearly a year and a half, the Chautauqua Series has been on-hold due to the outbreak of the Covid-19 virus. The Series will resume on Thursday September 9 at 7 PM at the Grand Hotel (12 Public Square in Downtown Mount Vernon). Masks will be required to safeguard our audience.
The first program will take the audience to Woodstock with a slide presentation showing the organizers planning the event, take the audience on the road to Woodstock, put the audience in the crowd, then present a mini-concert featuring songs played at the event. The audience will experience the aftermath of the concert, photos of bands then and now, and couples, then and now, who met at Woodstock, married and are still married today.
The Chautauqua Series is organized and presented by Elixir Presents with the support from the Ariel Foundation, KPAC and the Grand Hotel. The programs are donation based with funds collected going to the performers and everyone is welcome as long as they are willing to wear a mask.
The Chautauqua Series in its 14th season has been recognized by the Ohio Humanities Council as the only year round monthly Chautauqua Series in the United States and was nominated for an Ohio Governor’s Award in 2019.
For more information about this program and upcoming presentations, please visit www.elixirpresents.com or call 740-392-3018. To receive a “Gentle Reminder” email on the Sunday before each program, contact Mike Petee at elixir_petee@hotmail.com.

​Chautauqua Series Returns in September
 
Mount Vernon – The Chautauqua Series is returning in September. Put on hiatus due to the Covid-19 outbreak in 2020, the series resumes its 14th season on September 9 at the Grand Hotel (12 Public Square in downtown Mount Vernon).
 
The Knox County Health Department has approved the re-opening barring an unforeseen surge in Covid-19. If you are feeling sick, please don’t attend, if you wish to wear masks, please do so and we will be supplying hand sanitizer.
 
For those who are unfamiliar with the Chautauqua Series, it features first person living history portrayals. The performers dress as a person from history and present an evening based on research of the featured character.
 
The series also presents historically based programs known as Lyceums. The first program will be this type discussing Woodstock. It will include slides of the people from Woodstock, then and now, couples who met at Woodstock and are still together today and a mini-concert of Woodstock songs played by Bill Carpenter, Jeff Putnam and Mike Petee.
 
The Chautauqua Series is sponsored in part by a grant from the Ariel Foundation, The programs are intended for families, students and all who wish to know more about history in a fun, entertaining manner. Audiences will be able to ask questions at the end of each program. Each show is donation based, with all monies collected going to the performers.
 
The schedule for 2021 is as follows:
September 9 – Woodstock Revisited (Bill Carpenter, Jeff Putnam, Mike Petee)
September 30 – Elizabeth Cady Stanton (Susan Kahrl)
October 14 – General George Patton (Ken Hammontree)
October 28 – Ceely Rose Book (presented by Mark Jordan)
November 11 – Amelia Earhart (Amy K. Stoner)
November 18 – Marie Curie (Tammy Souhrada)
 
For more information about these programs, visit www.elixirpresents.com, or you can call 740-392-3018. If you would like to receive a “Gentle Reminder” on the Sunday before each program please contact Mike Petee at elixir_petee@hotmail.com.