They were American presidents and famous artists, influential generals, iconic authors and great thinkers.
They were also fathers. And this Father's Day, a readers' theatre program at the Durango Arts Center will celebrate men like Theodore Roosevelt, Ansel Adams, George Patton and J.R.R. Tolkien – and fatherhood in general – with two performances of “Love, Dad” at the Durango Arts Center.
The show will feature five actors – all men – performing staged readings of letters famous fathers have written to their children. The pieces range from jovial to stern, with fathers counseling their offspring on marital fidelity and character, expressing their love and offering the occasional scoldings.
“Love, Dad” is free, but it is a fundraiser for Hospice of Mercy; organizers will accept donations at the door.
The show is part of the series “Honoring our Mothers and Fathers,” which was compiled by Judy Hook and falls on the heels of a mom-centric companion reading put on for Mother's Day.
“The first goal is a celebration and honoring of fathers and mothers on their special days,” Hook said.
She has put together 27 letters for the actors to read – most of which she condensed for stage. Brian McAleer, Stephen Bowers, Gordon Thomas, John Heavenrich and Ted Holteen will read the letters from men like John Steinbeck, Albert Einstein and Ronald Reagan, and Hook and Judity Reynolds will narrate the show.
Hook said the letters express the complexity of love between a father and child and also offer a glimpse into a different side of men who are better known for shaping American policy and developing the theory of relativity than rearing children.
“There are things in their letters that aren't in the history books,” she said.
She mined websites and books for the letters and said she came across several surprises during her research. She found a lengthy and delightfully humorous letter George H.W. Bush wrote to his children. A heartbreaking note Carl Sandburg wrote to his epileptic daughter. And a letter Jack London wrote to his daughter that was appalling in its cruelty.
“There's a real variety in the emotional mood of them,” Hook said. “What I aimed for was a mixture of humor and serious advice. Most of the letters are advice, because that's what it seems dads write about.”
The only father she used three letters from is Roosevelt, she added, “because they were just so wonderful.”
There also is a wide variety in the time periods in which the letters were written. The show will reach all the way back to the time of Hamlet (Polonius speaking to Laertes) up to the late 1990s (Bush to his children).
Hook said the letters are fascinating enough on their own, and watching them come to life on stage by the actors has been exciting. Readers' theatre, she stressed, is “much more lively than sitting there mumbling from a book.”
Money raised during “Love, Dad” will go toward Hospice of Mercy, which provides hospice care to patients in La Plata, Archuleta and parts of Montezuma counties.
kklingsporn@durangoherald.com
If You Go
The readers' theatre program “Love, Dad,” will be performed at 3 p.m. Sunday and 7 p.m. June 17 at the Durango Arts Center, 802 East Second Ave. The program is free, but donations will benefit Hospice of Mercy. For more information, visit www.durangoarts.org.
