Gordon in the News: last updated 04/28/2009

Time Travel Days: Local History Festival Brings the Past to Life with Fun, Food and Performances

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 27, 2009
 
MEDIA CONTACT
Jo Kadlecek
978.867.4752

 
SALEM, MA--Record your favorite memory of Salem. Listen to Nathaniel Hawthorne. Play a 17th-century version of badminton or a game called "Hunting a Deer in My Lord’s Park." Drink some flavored "shrub." It’s all part of Time Travel Days at Salem’s Old Town Hall, a new local history festival sponsored by the Gordon College Institute for Public History. The family-friendly festival--which takes place Saturday, May 2nd and Sunday, 3rd, 2009, from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. at the Old Town Hall, Derby Square--is FREE and open to audiences of all ages.
 
“This festival gives us a chance to celebrate Salem’s rich history and to provide something new at the Old Town Hall,” said Kristina Stevick, director of the Gordon College Institute for Public History. “We’re hoping people who don’t know the building will be inspired to spend some time in it, to learn about its history and have fun playing with the past.”
 
Performers will include The Commonwealth Vintage Dancers, Essex Harmony, Pastimes Entertainment, Empire Theatre Company, Gordon theatre arts professor Norman Jones as Nathaniel Hawthorne and others. There will be food, music, games, theatre and activities representing a variety of eras.
 
One of the activity options will be to record a favorite Salem memory, courtesy of LampPostMedia.net. This “memory project” footage will be used as part of an exhibit planned for 2010 on the ground floor of the Old Town Hall.
 
In addition to the fun, attendees will be able to vote at a portable polling station for the Old Town Hall to win $100,000 in preservation funding from The National Trust for Historic Preservation and American Express. New England Technologies Group, a Cambridge based company with ties to Salem, has been designing the specialty booth for Time Travel Days.
 
The Old Town Hall is one of twenty-five sites in the greater Boston area competing for the funds. The winner is based on popular votes which are tabulated daily. The city-owned, Gordon College-managed building is currently tied for first place.
 
The additional votes gathered at Time Travel Days, especially if those people continue to vote daily, could push the property solidly into first place ensuring structural repairs and upgrades which will increase the buildings usage and public benefit.
 
For more information about Time Travel Days or any of the other programs and events sponsored by the Gordon College Institute for Public History, please contact Kristina at 978.867.4767 or . For information on College Communications, please contact Jo Kadlecek at 978.867.4752.
 

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History Alive! is committed to the production of new plays and theatrical scenarios based on true stories from the past. Emphasis is given to interactive theatre so that actors and audience together, through a playful and dynamic way of engaging with history, might broaden their understanding of the present and gain a fresh sense of purpose within their own era. The company functions as a training program for actors entering theatre as professionals and seeks to invigorate the local economy by designing activities which connect the community and its visitors to a distinct, local history.
 
Gordon College is a Christian college of the liberal arts and sciences on Boston's North Shore. The College offers majors in 37 fields and has graduate programs in education and music education. Leading the way in Christian college merit, Gordon is nationally ranked for its excellence in academics and its role in character building. These achievements recognize Gordon as one of the nation's top Christian colleges.


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