Your PUD
News Release
Wenatchee museums present living history program Feb. 15-16
Chelan County PUD
News Release
1/30/2008
Wenatchee Valley history will come alive on Friday evening and Saturday afternoon, Feb. 15 and 16, at “Personal Encounters with People of Our Past.” The living history program will be presented simultaneously at the Wenatchee Valley Museum & Cultural Center and Chelan County PUD’s Museum of the Columbia at Rocky Reach Visitor Center. The program is free.
Eight local actors will portray people from the Wenatchee area’s past, appearing in costume and giving brief monologues describing their characters. Visitors will be invited to interact with the characters.
“Our goal is to provide factual information about our region’s history in an entertaining way,” said Wenatchee Valley Museum & Cultural Center education coordinator Michelle Loudon. “By engaging with a specific character, visitors will have a personal experience that will help them remember the person’s role in our history and the culture that surrounded him or her.”
Four actors will appear at the Wenatchee Valley Museum & Cultural Center (WVMCC) and four at the Museum of the Columbia on both dates. Guests may choose to visit one museum Friday night and the other on Saturday afternoon, or visit both museums in one trip.
The program will be presented from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Friday and from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday.
The Rocky Reach Café will serve a five-course gourmet dinner Friday evening; reservations, which are required, may be made by calling (509) 661-4949.
The actors at WVMCC will be Jake Lodato, portraying aviator Clyde Pangborn; Rod Molzahn as Wenatchee’s first orchardist, Philip Miller; Merry Roy as early businesswoman Rose Reeves Mann; and Mark Behler as Alfred B. Hensel, a survivor of the deadly 1910 Wellington avalanche,
Appearing at the Museum of the Columbia will be Bill Layman, portraying steamboat captain Alexander Griggs; Andrew Munro as logger W.O. Burgess; Joan Tucker as Ieetum, a member of the P’squosa/Wenatchi band; and Sue Lawson as wheat grower Augustana Ruud.
Images of the actors in character are available in the PUD’s Media Room photo gallery.
The Wenatchee Valley Museum & Cultural Center is located at 127 South Mission Street in Wenatchee. The Museum of the Columbia is located at Rocky Reach Visitor Center, seven miles north of Wenatchee on Highway 97A.
In addition to WVMCC and the Chelan County PUD, “Personal Encounters with People of Our Past” is supported by Humanities Washington.
***
For more information, contact Michelle Loudon at (509) 888-6240 or Rocky Reach visitor services department manager Debbie Gallaher at (509) 661-4960.
Christy Shearer
Communications Audio-visual Specialist
Chelan County PUD
509.661.4258 office
509.421.4258 cell
509.661.8133 fax
christy.shearer@chelanpud.org