By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
St. Joseph history will step off the pages during the Voices of the Past early next month.
The theme of this year’s event is Now That's Entertainment, featuring actors portraying well-known entertainment figures of the past, including one many might not know has a connection to St. Joseph.
Jerrad Hardin with St. Joseph Museums will play John Wilkes Boothe at the Wyeth Tootle Mansion to start the evening, with a story of a night he was trapped in St. Joe during a snowstorm.
"This is actually before the great tragic event that we’re all familiar with about Booth, just about a year and a half before,” Hardin tells KFEQmunnity host Brent Martin. “He is in St. Joe in 1864, it’s a cold January, he had a show in Leavenworth and laid over here for almost a week, that’s kind of how Booth fits in, he’s not buried at Mt. Mora, but that’s how he fits into our story.”
Hardin, who is with St. Joseph Museums, says in a way, due to the theme of the performance, it sheds a light on who Booth was as an actor
"His family, I have come to learn, was famous for hundreds of years actually,” Hardin explains. “So famous that when John Wilkes Booth went to acting school he actually dropped the Booth name so that it didn’t interfere with his experience, so he just went by John Wilkes which I think is interesting, it’s also interesting that he was I mean maybe 25, 26, when he assassinated the president, so when he’s here he was 24, 25.”
Performances will take place at 6, 7 and 8pm on October 2nd and 3rd. The event will feature actors portraying several historical entertainment figures with the theme Now That's Entertainment.
Hardin says the stories will focus on some of the more tragic aspects of these entertainers’ lives.
"So, we’re going to talk about entertainers but really like some more specific stories,” Hardin says. “You know and that kind of is how Wilkes Booth gets put into this role, he is a tragedy and Shakesperean actor, always performing those styles, and so that kind of sets the tone for the rest of the show.”
Costumed interpreters will portray figures such as Fred Hamm, Cordilia Hawkins, and Hugh McNutt
Tickets are $30 for general admission or $27 for St. Joseph Museum and Mount Mora Preservation members.
You can follow Matt on X @KfeqMatt and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.