Arts & Business as Normal at CHQ. Institution
By Judy Shuler
Caption: The 4,400-seat, open-air Chautauqua Amphitheater will return to 100% capacity in 2022. The Amphitheater’s summer season opens June 25 with a concert by violinist Joshua Bell and his wife, opera soprano Larisa Martínez. It closes with a week of concerts, including The Avett Brothers, Punch Brothers, Rhiannon Giddens, and Emmylou Harris and Mary Chapin Carpenter.
“Chautauqua is back!” The way it felt in 2019, pre-pandemic, that’s the way it will feel this summer, says Jordan Steves, director of strategic communications.
The 2020 season was entirely online, 2021 was in-person supplemented by online programming. Last year people who came to Chautauqua Institution for only one week found they could experience the entire season through the online presence, he says. And even those who spent all season on the grounds could catch up with programs they might have missed.
“We continue to refine how they work together,” he says of in-person and online programming. Planning for the mosaic that is a summer season typically begins a year and one-half in advance, with each week built around a theme. “We will always talk about the important things—politics, education, foreign policy—but we also realize people are coming to Chautauqua on vacation.”
While subjects may be weighty, there has to be something that offers hope and solutions they can take home with them. “We also want to introduce some fun.”
Unlikely theme for Week Six is After Dark: The World of Nighttime. Still “we’re really taking a look in a very scholarly way.” Topics include the science of dreams and the substantial portion of the GDP that transpires while most are asleep.
In another unexpected twist, Nick Offerman, best known for his role in Parks and Recreation, is coming not to act but to lecture. He will talk about his book, Where the Deer and the Antelope Play: The Pastoral Observations of One Ignorant American Who Loves to Walk Outside during Week Two, The Wild: Reconnecting with Our Natural World.
Sometimes weekly themes become even more relevant than anticipated. A Week Seven panel on author Salman Rushdie’s More Than Shelter: Redefining the American Home will be narrated by Henry Reese, co-founder and president of City of Asylum in Pittsburg, “even more important when many people are fleeing.”
Some 15-20 weekly themes are proposed for each year, then market tested with surveys from the Chautauqua community, who provide “fantastic feedback” to whittle them down to nine. Themes for the 2023 season are currently being market tested, he says, and final themes will be announced in June.
The Amphitheater’s summer season opens June 25 with a concert by violinist Joshua Bell and his wife, opera soprano Larisa Martínez. It closes with a week of concerts, including The Avett Brothers, Punch Brothers, Rhiannon Giddens, and Emmylou Harris and Mary Chapin Carpenter.
Three of the artists, Giddens, Chris Thile of the Punch Brothers, and Scott Avett, will also speak during 10:45am lecture platforms about their art making, roots of folk music, and the tradition they are moving forward. The final week will also include the Chautauqua Food Festival.
The Ukrainian Chorus Dumka of New York City, which appeared on Saturday Night Live, will perform on July 18.
Week Five will include a special program in partnership with the National Comedy Center, “Carl Reiner at 100: Celebrating a Comedy Legacy, featuring Reiner’s children and comedy legend Mel Brooks.”
The 4,400-seat, open-air Chautauqua Amphitheater will return to 100% capacity in 2022. Any vaccine, testing or other COVID-19 requirements for concert attendees will be announced as summer approaches.
The Chautauqua Opera Company will perform Tosca and Thumbprint in Norton Hall and The Mother of Us All in the Amphitheater.
Chautauqua Theater Company will return to Bratton Theater with “Indecent”, “Animals Out of Paper” and “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf”?
Concert schedule for the Chautauqua Symphony will be announced soon, according to Steves, and the Special Studies catalog of community education classes should be ready in about a month, both in print and online. Information about the entire season, including visual arts, can be found at chq.org