History’s Best Come To Life At Nic Forum

Teachers and performers are pulling out wigs and frilled blouses, fake mustaches and foreign accents for North Idaho College’s convocation series next week.

The free weeklong symposium will offer the public a chance to “meet” some of the world’s greatest men and women. Time is no obstacle. The speakers range from Confucius to Susan B. Anthony, Greek and Roman philosophers to Mark Twain.

“What makes this particular year nice is no matter what discipline you’re in, there’s a program you can go to,” said Tony Stewart, coordinator of the series.

Stewart wants people to chat with the figures and ask questions.

The fun begins at 9 a.m. Monday in Schuler Auditorium with Clay Jenkinson as Thomas Jefferson. An instructor at the University of Nevada, Jenkinson has portrayed Jefferson more than 1,000 times.

Frederick Krebs will take the stage as Galileo at 11 a.m. Krebs is a professor of Western and Eastern civilizations at a Kansas community college.

Former Green Bay Packers guard and Super Bowl champion Jerry Kramer will speak as himself at 12:30 p.m. Panels of “characters” will put the solo performances into historical perspective later in the day.

On Tuesday, actress Melinda Strobel will portray suffragist Susan B. Anthony at 9 a.m. in Schuler Auditorium.

History professor Carl Richard will take on the roles of Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, Cicero and other Greek and Roman philosophers at 10:30 a.m. Richard wrote “The Founders and the Classics: Greece, Rome and the American Enlightenment.”

The afternoon panels that follow will feature such figures as Florence Nightingale, Ben Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt.

Wednesday’s speakers will begin at 9 a.m. with Louis Schultz portraying industrialist W. Edwards Deming. Deming coined the Total Quality Management Theory. Schultz is a business executive and author.

Actress Kathryn Woods will fill the role of slave and abolitionist Sojourner Truth at 11 a.m. Woods has taken her Truth portrayal around the world and sprinkles her presentation with spiritual music.

Response panels will follow at 1 p.m. for the Deming and Truth presentations and include such characters as Peter Drucker, Abraham Lincoln and Gen. Colin Powell.

Thursday’s performances will start at 9 a.m. with NIC symphony and chorale director Todd Snyder portraying Beethoven and Mozart.

At 11 a.m., NIC English professor and author Virginia Tinsley Johnson will play 18th century woman’s rights activist Mary Wollstonecraft. At noon, historian Jeanne Eder will portray Sacajawea.

The afternoon response panels for Thursday’s presentations will include such historical notables as Virginia Woolf, Henry David Thoreau, Georgia O’Keefe and Nellie Garry of the Spokane Tribe.

On Friday, George Frein will fill the role of author Mark Twain at 9 a.m., and Aloysius Chang will play Confucius at 10 a.m.

Frein is a historian and theologian who has specialized in historical characterizations for 10 years. Chang is a linguist at Washington State University.

Response panels later in the day Friday will feature Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Emily Dickinson and St. Thomas Aquinas.

On Tuesday, V. Spencer Page of Moscow will present his original play, “Show the Rifle,” at 2:30 and 7 p.m. in Schuler Auditorium. The solo performance tells the story of the Nez Perce War of 1877.

The week’s activities also will include an opportunity for the public to role-play. On Wednesday at 3 p.m., anyone playing any historical character may gather in NIC’s student union to chat with other historical characters.

, DataTimes MEMO: Cut in the Spokane edition.

This sidebar appeared with the story: PARKING INFORMATION No visitor parking permits are necessary on campus during convocations week.