DHF welcomes our new speakers Donna Aviles, Allyson Good, Nancy B. Lynch, Gene Pisasale, and Rena Tobey. Read on to find out about the exciting new talks they present through DHF.

Additions to both the Speakers Bureau and Visiting Scholars Programs:

Allyson Good:

Shakespeare to You!

Experience Shakespeare in a new and inviting way through discussion of visceral themes and by discovering clues which Shakespeare put in his scripts to help people bring the plays to life as he intended. Ms. Good will discuss key themes that affect current times as well as Elizabethan times and will engage participants through simple exercises, scene study and scene portrayal using any play being studied.

Nancy B. Lynch:

Mime Through the Ages

Participants will learn the history of the silent actor from ancient times through Commedia dell'arte, the French mime tradition, Marcel Marceau, and the familiar street mime, during a colorful slide show. After a short pantomime performance by the presenter, a veteran stage director, theatre educator and performer, they will then enjoy active mime games and learn some pantomime illusions.

Ms. Lynch offers additional interactive programs, Conflict and Character: The Art of Writing a Monologue and Shel Silverstein is Alive and Well. 

Rena Tobey:

Dancing on the Boundary: American Women Artists Negotiate Two Worlds

With the Industrial Revolution, the lives of American men and women shifted dramatically-for the first time, paid work moved out of the home and into a separate business sphere, creating two different worlds, public and private. Professional women artists found themselves in the singular position of having to navigate both the public world of men and the domestic sphere deemed most appropriate for women. In this interactive session, participants closely examine paintings by six American women artists to uncover changing roles, values, and economic realities during a pivotal growth period in American history.

Contemporary Art: Language of American Innovation

After 400 years of European-dominated art, after World War II, the cultural world turned its attention to the United States. With radical breakthroughs in how art was made and even defined, contemporary artists, centered in New York, began a 30-year trajectory of visual and cultural innovation. In this highly interactive session, participants will learn the language of and influences on the different contemporary art movements, gaining literacy and appreciation of the New.

Be sure to read the descriptions of Ms. Tobey's other programs, Clothes Make the Country: Fashion History and American Colonial Portraits and Japonisme-Cross-Cultural Greetings: American Artists Embrace Japanese Art and Culture.

Additions to the Speakers Bureau:

Donna Aviles:

The Orphan Train Movement of 1854-1929

Learn the history of this seventy-five year "social experiment"--now recognized as our country's first Foster Care System--which transported an estimated 250,000 homeless children from the streets of East Coast cities to farming communities of the Midwest in search of stable homes. This presentation includes the first person account of orphan train rider Oliver Nordmark who traveled in 1906. It concludes with a discussion of the importance of journaling one's own story, through oral history or personal narrative, as a means of preserving social history.

Gene Pisasale:

Marquis de Lafayette, "Founding Son" of the American Revolution

The talk highlights the little known role that Marquis de Lafayette played in America's war for independence, including his participation at the Battle of the Brandywine. His ongoing support, both monetary and political, helped win the war against Great Britain and earns him some recognition as a "Founding Son" of our country.

Here are titles of new talks by our current speakers (we encourage you to see the catalogs for full descriptions!):

Additions to both the Speakers Bureau and Visiting Scholars Programs:

Mike Dixon:

Unlocking the History of an Old House

Cause for Alarm: Protecting Delaware from Fire

Exploring Your Family History Through Genealogy

Ed Okonowicz:

Delaware History through Memorials, Monuments and Markers

Delaware's Medal of Honor Recipients and WWII Hero George Welch

Additions to the Speakers Bureau:

Dr. Richard Davison:

A Visit with F. Scott Fitzgerald

A Visit with Ernest Hemingway
A Visit with John Steinbeck

A Visit with J.D. Salinger

A Visit with John Updike

Evelyn Swensson:

Two additions to her Famous Women series:

Kay Swift

Mary Martin

Kim Burdick:

Seized in September: Revolutionary War Comes to Delaware