Chautauqua Institution

Twelve Step Meeting
2026-07-22 12:15, 2026-07-24 12:15, 2026-07-26 12:15, 2026-07-29 12:15, 2026-07-31 12:15, 2026-08-02 12:15, 2026-08-05 12:15, 2026-08-07 12:15 (America/New_York) and 1 more date | Hurlbut Marion Lawrance

CHQ Dialogues
2026-07-22 12:30, 2026-07-28 12:30, 2026-07-29 12:30, 2026-08-04 12:30, 2026-08-05 12:30 | Presbyterian House, Presbyterian House

Guided Kayak Historic Tour
2026-07-22 12:45, 2026-07-29 12:45, 2026-08-05 12:45 | Sports Club, Waterfront
Enjoy paddling while learning about historic sites along the shores of Chautauqua Institution during this hour-long guided kayak tour. The tour begins and ends at the Sports Club. The cost is for rental of single or tandem kayak plus $12 per person for the tour guide. Limited spots so please reserve one day before the event. For more info, please contact sportsclub@chq.org.

English Lawn Bowling Tips
2026-07-22 13:00, 2026-07-23 13:00, 2026-07-24 13:00, 2026-07-27 13:00, 2026-07-28 13:00, 2026-07-29 13:00, 2026-07-30 13:00, 2026-07-31 13:00 and 6 more dates | Sports Club, Lawn Bowling Green

Rita Nakashima Brock
2026-07-22 14:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Rita Nakashima Brock is a scholar, editor and writer. From 2017-2025, she was senior vice president and director of the Shay Moral Injury Center at Volunteers of America and the co-author of Soul Repair: Recovering from the Moral Injury after War with Gabriella Lettini.
In 2012 she co-founded, with Col. (Chaplain) Herman Keizer, Jr., and directed the Soul Repair Center at Brite Divinity School. She is the co-author, with Rebecca Ann Parker, of Proverbs of Ashes: Violence, Redemptive Suffering and the Search for What Saves Us and Saving Paradise: How Christianity Traded Love of This World for Crucifixion and Empire.
From 2005-2008, she was senior editor in religion at The New Press book publisher in New York. Her first book is Journeys By Heart: A Christology of Erotic Power and her second, with Susan Thistlethwaite, is Casting Stones: Prostitution and Liberation in Asia and the U.S. She is also author of many essays and blogs.

UU Cultural Ethics Series: J. D. Stillwater, President of Religious Naturalists Unitarian Universalists
2026-07-22 15:30 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy

Islam 101 Khalid and Sabeeha Rehman
2026-07-22 15:30 | Hall of Christ: Sanctuary
“Shia-Sunni Sects and Religious Hierarchy”

CHQ Dialogues
2026-07-22 15:30, 2026-07-29 15:30, 2026-08-05 15:30 | Catholic House, Catholic House

MARY OLIVER: SAVED BY THE BEAUTY OF THE WORLD
2026-07-22 15:30, 2026-07-22 20:30, 2026-07-23 18:00 | Chautauqua Cinema, Chautauqua Cinema
If poetry had a pop icon, Mary Oliver would be it. Celebrated best-selling poet, Pulitzer Prize-winner, lover of dogs and long walks in the woods, openly queer but intensely private, Oliver was America’s unlikely contemporary mystic, stalking the ponds and forests of Cape Cod for nearly fifty years in order to open herself—and her readers—to the known and unknowable world. “[Sacha] Waters’s documentary will set one pondering, then reaching for the bookshelf, or perhaps walking out into the woods.” -Zachary Barnes, Wall Street Journal (NR, 91m)

Play CHQ: Bottle Bubble Blower
2026-07-22 16:00 | Miller Park, Miller Park

CHQ Mystic Heart - Therapeutic Gong Meditation with Kim Hehr
2026-07-22 16:45, 2026-07-29 16:45, 2026-08-05 16:45 | Hall of Christ: Sanctuary
Kim Hehr is a lifelong Chautauquan and a certified level 2 teacher of Kundalini Yoga and Meditation. She has been a yoga and meditation practitioner for 30 years and has been teaching Kundalini Yoga and Meditation for 25 years. A retired hospice nurse, she is presently the coordinator of the CHQ Mystic Heart Meditation Program. Kim specializes in healing addictive patterns through yogic technology. Passionate about teaching meditation, performing Gong Baths, and pranayama (breath work), her objective is to help others with their anxiety and everyday stress. Her goal is to facilitate bringing more peace and self-acceptance into people’s lives.

Chautauqua Opera Company Operalogue: The Music Shop / A.E. Reverie / Ida by Lamplight
2026-07-22 17:00 | Smith Wilkes Hall, Smith Wilkes Hall

Chautauqua Theater Company Presents Best for Baby
2026-07-22 18:00, 2026-07-23 14:00, 2026-07-23 19:30, 2026-07-24 16:00, 2026-07-26 14:00, 2026-07-26 19:30, 2026-07-29 14:00, 2026-07-29 19:30 and 5 more dates | Bratton Theater, Bratton Theater
WORLD PREMIERE
By Sharyn Rothstein
Directed by Oliver Butler
Bratton Theater
Best for Baby and its devilishly funny emcee takes audiences inside Johnson & Johnson’s decades-long and still evolving baby powder scandal. A Big American Play ripped straight from the headlines, this world premiere is equal parts showbiz spectacle and intimate human storytelling, brought to you by a sensational comedic ensemble of professional guest artists — featuring Broadway actor Crystal Dickinson — alongside members of CTC’s beloved conservatory.
Best for Baby is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

POWER BALLAD
2026-07-22 18:00, 2026-07-23 15:30, 2026-07-23 20:30 | Chautauqua Cinema, Chautauqua Cinema
When Rick (Paul Rudd), a past-his-prime wedding singer, meets fading boy-band star Danny (Nick Jonas) during a gig, the two bond over music and a late-night jam session. But when Danny turns one of Rick’s songs into the hit that reignites his career, Rick sets out to reclaim the recognition he believes he deserves. Writer-director John Carney (Sing Street, Begin Again, Once) brings us “another catchy valentine to the transcendent properties of music…full of native wit, warmth and generosity, play it on repeat.” -Ian Freer, Empire Magazine “A little bit familiar, a little bit unexpected and utterly, thrillingly satisfying.” -Angie Han, The Hollywood Reporter (R, 98m)

CVA Lecture Series: Elizabeth Mooney, School of Art Faculty
2026-07-22 18:30 | Hultquist 101, Hultquist 101
Elizabeth Mooney is a visual artist that explores the construct of landscape through painting, printmaking, and kinetic sculpture. She received her MFA in Painting and Drawing from California College of the Arts, and her BFA from the Art Institute of Boston. Elizabeth was a Visual Artist Fellow at the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center, and has received grants from the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council, the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation, the Sustainable Arts Foundation, and the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Elizabeth is currently an Associate Professor at Massachusetts College of Art and Design, where she teaches painting and printmaking.

Unity's Positive Path for Spiritual Living
2026-07-22 18:30, 2026-07-29 18:30, 2026-08-05 18:30 | Turner Conference Room, Turner Conference Room
Programmed by Unity of Chautauqua

CHQ Dialogues
2026-07-22 18:30, 2026-07-24 12:30, 2026-07-29 18:30, 2026-07-31 12:30, 2026-08-05 18:30, 2026-08-07 12:30 | Lutheran House, Lutheran House

Chautauqua Opera Company presents: The Music Shop / A.E. Reverie / Ida by Lamplight
2026-07-22 20:00 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
THE MUSIC SHOP / A.E. REVERIE / IDA BY LAMPLIGHT
Three operas light up the Amphitheater stage on July 22, bringing both side-splitting laughter and heart-melting nostalgia. In Richard Wargo’s zany one-act The Music Shop (last seen at Chautauqua where it premiered in 1993) Dmitri and Masha try to help the hapless Ivan remember the title of the song his wife must sing at a royal wedding, while visions of her haunt and strike fear in him. This four-character, 60-minute farce promises a lively romp in the Amphitheater! Two installments from The Summer Place round out the evening. A.E. Reverie, which received its world premiere at Chautauqua in 2024, reflects on Amelia Earhart’s 1929 lecture at the Amphitheater, and how it inspired another young woman’s dream of flight. To close out the evening, the world premiere of Ida by Lamplight takes us back to the Chautauqua Literary and Science Circle’s early years, celebrating Ida Tarbell and Kate Kimball, whose pioneering work galvanized Chautauqua Institution’s mission. Commissioned by Chautauqua Opera Company, Ida by Lamplight celebrates the 150th anniversary of The Chautauquan Daily in 2026. Stage Director Ned Canty (The Mikado, Don Giovanni, and Love and Longing by the Lake) brings everything to life in a celebration of Chautauqua which you will not want to miss.

CHQ Mystic Heart - Bhante Chipamong Chowdhury, Theravada Buddhism / Mindfulness Meditation
2026-07-23 07:45, 2026-07-24 07:45 | Presbyterian House, Presbyterian House
Originally from Chittagong Hill Tracts (Bangladesh), Bhante (Chipamong Chowdhury) is a contemplative teacher, researcher, storyteller and monastic activist. He became a monk at the age of 6 and received traditional Buddhist education, monastic training and meditation in Sri Lanka and Myanmar (1998-2006). He also studied at the University of Toronto Canada, Naropa University Colorado, Arizona State University, and was a Fellow at the Columbia University NY. He taught courses on Contemporary Buddhism Universities in Europe and US. He is a co-editor of the book: Human Dignity: Practices, Discourses, and Transformations. His essays and writings have appeared in the Harvard Divinity Bulletin, Journal of Contemporary Buddhism, Buddhist Studies Reviews, and Journal of Religion and Popular Culture, among other publications. Defining himself as a nomad monk or/ a global citizen, he travels extensively in North America, Europe and Asia, teaching nomad mindfulness, inner resources, active care, and human dignity. Bringing his experience as a Theravāda/nomad monk in South and Southeast Asia, besides daily mindfulness meditation, Bhante will be offering various aspects of Theravāda Dhamma reflecting on empathy, hopes, loves, forgiveness, healings, emotional intimacy, anger, and compassionate actions, among other topics.

Episcopal Holy Eucharist
2026-07-23 07:45, 2026-07-24 07:45, 2026-07-26 07:45, 2026-07-26 09:00, 2026-07-27 07:45, 2026-07-28 07:45, 2026-07-29 07:45, 2026-07-30 07:45 and 12 more dates | Chapel of the Good Shepherd, Chapel of the Good Shepherd

Daily Word Meditation
2026-07-23 08:00, 2026-07-24 08:00, 2026-07-27 08:00, 2026-07-28 08:00, 2026-07-29 08:00, 2026-07-30 08:00, 2026-07-31 08:00, 2026-08-03 08:00 and 6 more dates | Hall of Missions, Hall of Missions
(Programmed by Unity of Chautauqua)

Chautauqua Prays for Peace though Compassion
2026-07-23 08:55, 2026-07-24 08:55, 2026-07-27 08:55, 2026-07-28 08:55, 2026-07-29 08:55, 2026-07-30 08:55, 2026-07-31 08:55, 2026-08-03 08:55 and 6 more dates | Hall of Philosophy Grove

Cantor Olivia Brodsky
2026-07-23 09:15 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Cantor Olivia Brodsky serves as Cantor and Co-Clergy of East End Temple in Manhattan, alongside Rabbi Joshua Stanton. She is a vocalist dedicated to preserving Jewish culture and tradition while making it evermore applicable to daily life and accessible for people of all generations. Brodsky is passionate about engaging a diverse community of people with varying backgrounds and levels of religious and cultural observance, herself having been raised in the Conservative movement and now dually affiliated with both the Reform movement’s American Conference of Cantors and the Conservative movement’s Cantor’s Assembly.
Brodsky is deeply engaged in Jewish education, global Jewish travel, and interfaith
dialogue. In reaction to divisive politics plaguing both the US and the world at large, she founded an Adult Education series entitled “Complex Conversations with the Cantor,” where she facilitates respectful dialogue between people with a diverse array of views on controversial issues.
As an outspoken advocate for the Jewish community and a published writer, Brodsky contributes op-ed commentary to a variety of news outlets addressing Jewish identity, the Arab-Israeli Conflict, Zionism, and antisemitism. She brings a nuanced understanding of Jewish history, culture, Abrahamic faith traditions, Middle Eastern politics, social justice, and ethics to her ministry. Brodsky strives to create relevant, inclusive, intellectually engaging Jewish experiences for her community.
Brodsky attended a dual-degree program at Tufts University and the New England Conservatory of Music (NEC), earning a B.A. in Judaic Studies and studying Classical Vocal Performance. She received her Master of Sacred Music and Cantorial Ordination from the Debbie Friedman School of Sacred Music at Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion.

Service of Blessing and Healing
2026-07-23 10:15, 2026-07-24 10:15, 2026-07-27 10:15, 2026-07-28 10:15, 2026-07-29 10:15, 2026-07-30 10:15, 2026-07-31 10:15, 2026-08-03 10:15 and 5 more dates | Randell Chapel, UCC Headquarters

Katharine K. Wilkinson
2026-07-23 10:45 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Katharine K. Wilkinson is a human on Earth. As a bestselling writer, teacher and climate expert, she has inspired hundreds of thousands of climate journeys through transformational projects that shift our cultural narratives about what’s possible and nurture engagement in renewing our world. Her books include Climate Wayfinding — called “invaluable” by frequent Chautauqua lecturer Bill McKibben — the bestselling anthology All We Can Save and the New York Times bestseller Drawdown. Her remarks contributing to Chautauqua’s exploration of “Our Era of Disposability” will draw from Climate Wayfinding, which was released in May 2026.
Wilkinson co-founded and leads The All We Can Save Project, where she shaped the much-beloved programs All We Can Save Circles and Climate Wayfinding. She also co-hosts the podcast “A Matter of Degrees” and writes the newsletter “Human on Earth.” Previously, Wilkinson was the principal writer and editor-in-chief at Project Drawdown. With a singular blend of warmth and rigor, she facilitates and speaks widely — including a TED Talk with more than 2 million views — and periodically teaches as a visiting professor.
Wilkinson holds a Ph.D. in geography and environment from the University of Oxford, where she was a Rhodes Scholar, and a B.A. in religion from Sewanee: The University of the South. In 2019, Time Magazine named her one of fifteen “Women Who Will Save the World.”

Play CHQ: Bottle Print Flowers
2026-07-23 12:00 | Bestor Plaza, Bestor Plaza

CTC Theater Chats
2026-07-23 12:15, 2026-07-30 12:15, 2026-08-06 12:15 | Smith Wilkes Hall, Smith Wilkes Hall
Theater Chats (formerly known as Brown Bags)
On selected Thursdays at 12:15 p.m., bring lunch to Smith Wilkes Hall and join special guests, including actors, designers, playwrights and more, for a look at our upcoming productions and discussions on the craft of theater-making. Free and open to the public.

What's In Our Waters? A workshop on microplastics with Dr. Sherri Mason and Rachael Zoe Miller
2026-07-23 12:30 | Heinz Beach, Heinz Beach
Join Nat Geo Explorer Rachael Zoe Miller and leading microplastics researcher Dr. Sam Mason for a fun workshop about trash in our waters and what we can do about it.

CHQ Mystic Heart - Bhante Chipamong Chowdhury, Theravada Buddhism / Mindfulness Meditation
2026-07-23 12:30 | Hall of Missions, Hall of Missions

CHQ Dialogues
2026-07-23 12:30, 2026-07-28 15:30, 2026-07-30 12:30, 2026-08-04 15:30, 2026-08-06 12:30 | Everett Jewish Life Center, Everett Jewish Life Center

Duplicate Bridge ABCL Sanctioned
2026-07-23 12:45, 2026-07-30 12:45, 2026-08-06 12:45 | Sports Club, Sports Club
Don’t have a partner? One will be provided. Game managed by Shelley Dahlie. $10/person.

Leah Naomi Green
2026-07-23 14:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Leah Naomi Green is writer-in-residence at Washington and Lee University. She is the author of The More Extravagant Feast, selected by Li-Young Lee for the Walt Whitman Award of the Academy of American Poets and named “one of the best books of 2020” by The Boston Globe. Green teaches English and environmental studies at Washington and Lee University as well as online creative writing workshops for Orion Magazine.
Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Paris Review, The Nation, Tin House, The Kenyon Review, “Poem-a-Day,” VQR, The Southern Review, Orion, The Georgia Review and Ecotone, among other journals.
Green has been featured on NPR’s “All Things Considered” and supported by fellowships and awards from the Civitella Ranieri Foundation, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, the Guilford College Sherwood Anderson Visiting Writer Program and the Lucille Clifton Legacy Award for compassion, courage, truth-telling and commitment to justice.

Chautauqua Opera Company Presents: An Afternoon of Song
2026-07-23 15:15 | Fletcher Music Hall, Fletcher Music Hall
Join us for an afternoon of song, featuring our 2026 Young Artists.

Islam 101 Khalid and Sabeeha Rehman
2026-07-23 15:30 | Hall of Christ: Sanctuary
“Shariah”

CHQ Dialogues
2026-07-23 15:30, 2026-07-30 15:30, 2026-08-06 15:30 | United Methodist House, United Methodist House

CHQ Dialogues
2026-07-23 15:30, 2026-07-30 15:30, 2026-08-06 15:30 | Baptist House, Baptist House

Play CHQ: Juggling with Zach Fish
2026-07-23 16:00, 2026-07-30 16:00 | Heinz Beach, Heinz Beach

CHQ Dialogues
2026-07-23 18:30, 2026-07-30 18:30, 2026-08-06 18:30 | Disciples of Christ House, Disciples of Christ House

Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra: Hovhaness and Shostakovich
2026-07-23 20:00 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Rossen Milanov, conductor
The Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra presents two notable symphonies of the twentieth century. Hovhaness’s Symphony No. 2, “Mysterious Mountain,” unfolds as a meditation on nature, drawing listeners into a sound world of serenity, chant-like melody, and rich expression. In contrast, Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 12 is a work of momentum and scale, depicting history through bold orchestral force and intensity. Together, these symphonies highlight two distinct approaches to the symphonic form-one inward and contemplative, the other outward and declarative.
Program:
Hovhaness: Symphony No. 2 “Mysterious Mountain”
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 12, “The Year 1917”

Sunrise Paddle - Kayak/SUP
2026-07-24 06:00, 2026-07-29 06:00, 2026-07-31 06:00, 2026-08-05 06:00, 2026-08-07 06:00 | Sports Club, Waterfront
Enjoy the beauty of the lake during our sunrise paddle. This is not a guided tour but an opportunity to rent a kayak, SUP or canoe for an enjoyable hour at sunrise. Reservations accepted one day in advance at the Sports Club. Contact sportsclub@chq.org with questions.

Movement and Meditation with Monte Thompson
2026-07-24 08:30, 2026-07-27 08:30, 2026-07-29 08:30, 2026-07-31 08:30, 2026-08-03 08:30, 2026-08-05 08:30, 2026-08-07 08:30, 2026-08-10 08:30 | Hall of Philosophy Grove
Monte Thompson was a professional dancer, and also spent years as a restauranteur. His life was spent on his feet. Now retired, he is interested in continuing to be able to move easily and gracefully while using breathing and stretching techniques to help quiet his mind and prepare him to face each day with purpose and joy.

Ecumenical Communion Service
2026-07-24 09:15, 2026-07-31 09:15 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy

Rainn Wilson
2026-07-24 10:45 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Drawing on his experience as a cultural commentator and advocate for spiritual renewal, Rainn Wilson closes Chautauqua’s Week Four theme “Wasted: Our Era of Disposability” in conversation, weaving humor with a sense of moral urgency to discuss how disposability affects not only our environment but also erodes our sense of meaning, relationships and community.
Wilson is an Emmy-nominated and SAG Award-winning actor best known for playing Dwight Schrute on NBC’s “The Office.” A longtime environmental activist, Wilson co-founded Climate Basecamp in 2022. With the organization, he has been working on climate communications and serves as a member on the advisory board.
On his podcast, “Soul Boom,” Wilson hosts a series of intimate conversations with some of the most brilliant and heart-felt artists, thinkers and doers to bring the listener toward transformation on both a personal and spiritual level. In 2009, he founded the digital media company Soul Pancake. He is the author of four books including The Bassoon King, SoulPancake: Chew on Life’s Big Questions, Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution, and Soul Boom Workbook: Spiritual Tools for Modern Living.
Wilson is also known for “Lessons in Chemistry”; the unscripted travel series “Rainn Wilson and the Geography of Bliss”; “Jerry & Marge Go Large”; “Utopia”; Roger Michell’s “Blackbird”; “The Meg”; “Star Trek: Discovery”; “Hesher”; “Super”; “Cooties”; “Juno”; “Galaxy Quest”; and “Almost Famous.” He has an MFA from New York University. On Broadway, Wilson was in The Tempest” and the Tony nominated “London Assurance.” He performed “Thom Pain (Based on Nothing)” at The Geffen and was the lead role in the political farce “The Doppelganger” at Steppenwolf Theater.
Later that afternoon, Wilson will host a Masters Series workshop engaging the Chautauqua community with his journal-style Soul Boom Workbook: Spiritual Tools for Modern Living — based on his New York Times bestselling book and hit podcast Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution.

Introduction to Jumu'ah Muslim Prayer
2026-07-24 12:30, 2026-07-31 12:30, 2026-08-07 12:30 | Hall of Christ: Sanctuary
Jumu’ah introduction for visitors is at 12:30 PM. Jumu’ah Service is at 1:05 PM

Chautauqua Theater Company Presents FutureNow New Play Lab 2: ERASERS: A Bloodthirsty Comedy
2026-07-24 14:00, 2026-07-25 14:00, 2026-07-25 18:00, 2026-07-26 18:00, 2026-08-01 17:00 | Roe Green Theater Center
In a world that looks remarkably like ours, the National Agency of Literary Advisors gives writers “gentle advice” about what kinds of stories the world wants to see. And then, the advice gets less gentle. ERASERS is a bloodthirsty comedy about office supplies and fascism.

Susan Choi
2026-07-24 14:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
The Chautauqua Prize Award Ceremony and Presentation – Flashlight by Susan Choi
Chautauqua Institution presents author Susan Choi with the 2026 Chautauqua Prize for her book Flashlight. Awarded annually since 2012, The Chautauqua Prize celebrates a book of fiction, or literary/narrative nonfiction, or a full length collection of poetry that provides a richly rewarding reading experience and to honor the author for a significant contribution to the literary arts.
Flashlight is an expansive, ambitious, multigenerational novel that is equal parts historical fiction, family saga and bildungsroman. It is a story of secrets, shadows and absences that reverberate across time and continents. As the novel progresses, shifting perspective from one character to the next, we learn more about a family who has not only lost a husband and father, but has been severed from their pasts in unfathomable ways.
Readers follow this family from Indiana, to Massachusetts, to North Korea and Japan across decades. Slowly, we learn more about Serk before his disappearance — an ethnically Korean man raised in Japan and a lonely academic who has lost touch with his family who chose to repatriate into North Korea following the promises of the postwar Pyongyang. We witness the choices his American wife, Anne, made in her youth that transformed her into a woman of acerbic attitudes, which alienate her daughter, Louisa, and illegitimate son, Tobias. We also experience Louisa’s struggles to understand and find a place within the world after the loss of her father, Serk, at ten and as she navigates her estrangement from her mother.
The 2026 independent jury declared the book “a sprawling, masterfully and meticulously written novel that deals with language, cultural alienation and political intrigue centering a family contending with distance, time and space.” During jury deliberations they called Flashlight “a triumph of narrative craft and an ode to the power of the stories within us all.”
Since first appearing on bookshelves in June 2025, Flashlight has been named a finalist for the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards, shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the Women’s Prize for Fiction, and longlisted for the National Book Award, the Andrew Carnegie Medal and the Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award. It has also been named one of President Obama’s Favorite Books of the 2025, a TeaTime and Get Lit Book Club Pick and a Best Book of the Year by The New Yorker, Time, New York, The Washington Post, NPR, Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, The Guardian, Vanity Fair, Elle, Town & Country, Oprah Daily, The New York Post, 48 Hills, Financial Times, The Economist, Esquire (UK), Kirkus Reviews, Electric Literature, PEN America, The Chicago Public Library and Los Angeles Review of Books.
Susan Choi is the author of Trust Exercise, which received the National Book Award for fiction, as well as the novels The Foreign Student, American Woman, A Person of Interest and My Education. She is a recipient of the Asian American Literary Award for fiction, the PEN/W. G. Sebald Award, a Lambda Literary award, the Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation. She teaches in the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University and lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Masters Series Masterclass: A Dialogue with Rainn Wilson
2026-07-24 15:30 | Norton Hall, Norton Hall
Chautauqua Lecture Series keynote speaker Rainn Wilson hosts a workshop engaging the Chautauqua community with his journal-style Soul Boom Workbook: Spiritual Tools for Modern Living—written in collaboration with Wilson’s SoulPancake co-founder and writer Shabnam Mogharabi. It is filled with hands-on prompts, inspired reflections, and ingenious creative activities. The session delves deeper into the indispensable companion book, based on his New York Times bestselling book—now a hit podcast—Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution. Wilson’s approach to spirituality is relatable and applies to people of all beliefs, even the skeptics. The journal enables readers to find more purpose, meaning, and spirituality in their hectic lives as they seek out practical and transformative answers to life’s biggest questions. Wilson posits that a “Soul Boom” is the potential for a spiritual revolution to instigate transformations, both individually and collectively. It’s the healing balm that our world needs in our contemporary mental health crisis.

Islam 101 Khalid and Sabeeha Rehman
2026-07-24 15:30 | Hall of Christ: Sanctuary
“Islam in America”

CHQ Dialogues
2026-07-24 15:30, 2026-07-31 15:30, 2026-08-07 15:30 | Unitarian Universalist Fellowship

CHQ Dialogues
2026-07-24 15:30, 2026-07-31 15:30, 2026-08-07 15:30 | Episcopal Cottage, Episcopal Cottage

CHQ Dialogues
2026-07-24 15:30, 2026-07-31 15:30, 2026-08-07 15:30 | Christian Science House

School of Music: Violin Masterclass with Ilya Kaler
2026-07-24 15:30 | Fletcher Music Hall, Fletcher Music Hall

Kabbalat Shabbat Service
2026-07-24 17:00, 2026-07-31 17:00, 2026-08-07 17:00 | Miller Park, Miller Park

ARCO
2026-07-24 17:30, 2026-07-25 17:30, 2026-07-26 17:30, 2026-07-27 14:00 | Chautauqua Cinema, Chautauqua Cinema
The year is 2075. 10-year-old Iris sees a mysterious boy wearing a rainbow jumpsuit fall from the sky. It’s Arco who comes from a distant future. Iris befriends him as she tries to help him return home. Featuring the voice talents of Will Ferrell and America Ferrera, comic-book artist turned filmmaker Ugo Bienvenu’s animated feature “reminds us that suspension of disbelief is a quality of youth worth preserving.” -Chris Klimek, Washington Post “Disarming, charming, and unafraid to be sincere” -Michael Leader, Little White Lies (PG, 88m)

Alison Krauss & Union Station featuring Jerry Douglas with special guest Theo Lawrence
2026-07-24 19:30 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
For nearly four decades, Alison Krauss & Union Station have upheld their legacy as one of the most influential and widely celebrated acts in bluegrass and roots music. Known for an immaculately crafted but endlessly surprising sound that transcends the boundaries of roots, country, rock & roll, and pop, Alison Krauss & Union Station released their highly anticipated new album, Arcadia, in 2025. This marked their first studio album since the 2011 masterpiece Paper Airplane—a critically lauded, multiple Grammy Award winning LP that debuted at #1 on the Billboard Country, Bluegrass, and Folk Album charts. Over the years, Alison Krauss & Union Station have brought their phenomenal live show to sold-out performances at famed venues like Red Rocks Amphitheatre, The Greek Theatre, Radio City Music Hall, and London’s Royal Festival Hall, in addition to supporting Paul Simon in Hyde Park for his 2012 Graceland reunion. They now continue the celebration of their new music with the Arcadia 2026 Tour.
The players – Alison Krauss (fiddle, lead vocal), Jerry Douglas (Dobro, lap steel, vocals), Ron Block (banjo, guitar, vocals), Barry Bales (bass, vocals), and highly acclaimed and celebrated tenor vocalist Russell Moore (guitar, mandolin, lead vocal) – are five distinct personalities, each of whom enjoys a flourishing solo career. But when they come together, they transform into a peerless group of musicians who share a singular focus.

ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER
2026-07-24 20:00, 2026-07-25 20:00, 2026-07-26 20:00, 2026-07-27 19:15 | Chautauqua Cinema, Chautauqua Cinema
Paul Thomas Anderson’s brilliant new film stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Bob, a washed-up revolutionary who lives in a state of stoned paranoia, surviving off-grid with his spirited and self-reliant daughter, Willa (Chase Infiniti). When his evil nemesis (Sean Penn) resurfaces and Willa goes missing, the former radical scrambles to find her as both father and daughter battle the consequences of their pasts. “It’s a live wire that drops in the first scene, setting off sparks for the next 162 minutes.” -Brian Tallerico, RogerEbert.com “It’s impossible to overstate how much fun this thing is.” -Max Weiss, Baltimore Magazine “The whole movie is amazing.” -Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic (R, 162m)

Chautauqua Theater Company Presents Conservatory Improv Night!
2026-07-24 22:00 | Roe Green Theater Center

CHQ Mystic Heart: Centering Prayer with Carol McKiernan
2026-07-25 07:15, 2026-08-01 07:15, 2026-08-08 07:15 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Carol McKiernan grew up at Chautauqua and says that her love of mystical practices began here on the grounds. She was formally introduced to meditation many years ago at an off-season yoga and meditation retreat led by Subagh Singh Khalsa and has been practicing Centering Prayer daily ever since. She has attended many seminars, workshops, and retreats offered by Contemplative Outreach, founded by the late Father Thomas Keating, a Trappist Monk who was instrumental in the creation of Centering Prayer. Carol practices Centering Prayer with weekly groups in Campus Ministry at Villanova University and at St. David’s Episcopal Church outside of Philadelphia. She has led and participated in many Centering Prayer workshops and groups in the areas surrounding her hometown of Philadelphia. She is a member of the Augustinian Affiliates, the lay order of the Augustinian Friars and volunteers for the Friars in the Villanova Province. Carol is a past board member and treasurer of the Chautauqua Catholic Community.

Food Donation Drop Off Outside Turner Community Center
2026-07-25 09:00, 2026-08-01 09:00, 2026-08-08 09:00 | Turner Lobby
Every Saturday during season the Chautauqua Climate Change Initiative and Chautauqua Property Owners Association are collecting unopened non-perishable food items for donation to local food pantries. Outside front entrance of Turner Community Center. Help reduce waste and feed our neighbors in need.

Shabbat Service, Rabbi Zalman Vilenken
2026-07-25 09:30, 2026-08-01 09:30, 2026-08-08 09:30 | Chabad Jewish House

Contemporary Issues Forum: Pedro Reis
2026-07-25 15:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Pedro Reis, Founder, Production & Artistry Strategist at The Circus Arts Conservatory

Chautauqua Theater Company Presents Best for Baby (Live Audio Descriptions & Pick-Your-Price)
2026-07-25 16:00 | Bratton Theater, Bratton Theater

Catholic Mass
2026-07-25 17:00, 2026-08-01 17:00, 2026-08-08 17:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy

Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra: Carmina Burana
2026-07-25 20:00 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Rossen Milanov, conductor
The Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus joins the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra for a captivating performance of the iconic Carmina Burana. Carl Orff’s masterpiece is drawn from medieval texts exploring fate, love, and the unpredictability of fortune. Best known for its electrifying opening, O Fortuna, the piece unfolds as a series of vivid scenes propelled by driving rhythms and striking orchestration. Immediate and powerful, Carmina Burana captures the raw intensity of human experience.
Program:
Orff: Carmina Burana

Song, Prayer, Communion & Meditation.
2026-07-26 08:30, 2026-08-02 08:30, 2026-08-09 08:30 | Hurlbut Church sanctuary, Hurlbut Church sanctuary

United Church of Christ Worship Service
2026-07-26 09:00, 2026-08-02 09:00, 2026-08-09 09:00 | Randell Chapel, UCC Headquarters

Catholic Mass
2026-07-26 09:30, 2026-07-27 08:15, 2026-07-28 08:15, 2026-07-29 08:15, 2026-07-30 08:15, 2026-07-31 08:15, 2026-08-02 09:30, 2026-08-03 08:15 and 6 more dates | Hurlbut Church sanctuary, Hurlbut Church sanctuary

Quaker Worship Service
2026-07-26 09:30, 2026-08-02 09:30, 2026-08-09 09:30 | Quaker House

Unity Service
2026-07-26 09:30, 2026-08-02 09:30, 2026-08-09 09:30 | Hall of Missions, Hall of Missions

Unitarian Universalist Service
2026-07-26 09:30, 2026-08-02 09:30, 2026-08-09 09:30 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy

The Rev. Zina Jacque
2026-07-26 10:45, 2026-07-27 09:15, 2026-07-28 09:15, 2026-07-29 09:15 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
The Rev. Zina Jacque serves as President and Chair of the Board of National Senior Communities, overseeing the largest not-for-profit network of continuing-care retirement communities in the nation. Across two distinguished careers in higher education and ministry, she has worked to lift people, strengthen communities, and send good into the world. She continues to guide nonprofit boards and faith-based organizations nationwide.
For two decades, Jacque shaped the student experience at several leading universities. After transitioning to ministry, Jacque’s pastoral path has taken her from small urban parishes to historic pulpits, notably as the lead minister for the Villages of Alfred Street at the renowned Alfred Street Baptist Church.
Extending her service well beyond church walls, Jacque was the first executive director of the Boston Ten Point Coalition — a violence reduction initiative credited with nearly two homicide-free years among Boston’s youth under 21. Later, she founded the Pastoral Counseling Center at Trinity Church Boston. Jacque also co-founded Courageous Conversations, a national dialogue series fostering belonging and understanding in a polarized age.
Jacque’s impact has been recognized with numerous honors, including the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Boston University School of Theology, the 2022 Citizen of the Year Award from Barrington, Ill. and the Women of Distinction Award from the Barrington Chamber of Commerce. Jacque’s most recent work, “A Sacred Pause,” is a collection of meditations, journals, and reflections which has drawn a growing online following for its mix of stillness, wisdom, and grace.
Jacque holds a Bachelor of Arts from Northwestern University, Master of Arts from Columbia University, Master of Divinity and Ph.D. in Theology from Boston University.

"Cutwork" Exhibition: July 26–August 25
2026-07-26 13:00 | Strohl Art Center: Main Galleries
“Cutwork” exhibition runs July 26-August 25. “Cutwork” is a broad exploration of work using methods of cutting into or removing material. Featuring hand-cut paper, metal, fibers, and ceramics, these artists explore the weight and gravity of their material and subject matter. Layered and lacy textures reveal what is built and what is left behind. This exhibition is generously sponsored by Brenda and Larry Thompson. Curated by Erika Diamond.
Artists: Elizabeth Alexander, Teresa Faris, Piper Shephard, Justin Stewart, Lydia C. Thompson, and Michael Velliquette.

"A Different Light: Landscapes by Gwen Norton" Exhibition: July 26–August 25
2026-07-26 13:00 | Strohl Art Center 2nd Floor
“A Different Light: Landscapes by Gwen Norton” exhibition – July 26-August 25. Gwen Norton is currently in her thesis year of the MFA program at the School of Visual Arts in Photography, Video, and Related Media Department. Her work has been exhibited solo, two-person, and group shows in New York City and Martha’s Vineyard and is included in the collection of the Whitney Museum of Art Library. This exhibition is generously sponsored by the Friends of CVA. Curated by Judy Barie, the Susan & John Turben Director of CVA Galleries.

"Cutwork" Opening Reception
2026-07-26 15:00 | Strohl Art Center: Main Galleries
“Cutwork” opening reception. Exhibition runs July 26-August 25. “Cutwork” is a broad exploration of work using methods of cutting into or removing material. Featuring hand-cut paper, metal, fibers, and ceramics, these artists explore the weight and gravity of their material and subject matter. Layered and lacy textures reveal what is built and what is left behind. This exhibition is generously sponsored by Brenda and Larry thompson. Curated by Erika Diamond.
Artists: Elizabeth Alexander, Teresa Faris, Piper Shephard, Justin Stewart, Lydia C. Thompson, and Michael Velliquette.

"A Different Light: Landscapes by Gwen Norton" Exhibition Opening Reception
2026-07-26 15:00 | Strohl Art Center 2nd Floor
“A Different Light: Landscapes by Gwen Norton” opening reception. Exhibition runs July 26-August 25. Gwen Norton is currently in her thesis year of the MFA program at the School of Visual Arts in Photography, Video, and Related Media Department. Her work has been exhibited solo, two-person, and group shows in New York City and Martha’s Vineyard and is included in the collection of the Whitney Museum of Art Library. This exhibition is generously sponsored by the Friends of CVA. Curated by Judy Barie, the Susan & John Turben Director of CVA Galleries.

School of Music: Piano Program Showcase
2026-07-26 15:00 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Nicola Melville, Chair
Alexander Kobrin, 2026 Heintzelman Family Artistic Advisor
Pianists from the Chautauqua School of Music present a dazzling program of works for one and two pianos, with repertoire drawn from virtuoso works of the great classical composers and arrangements of popular and familiar tunes. Don’t miss your chance to see the next generation of talent on the Amphitheater stage today!
The Chautauqua Piano Program is a highly selective and dynamic five-week program for 20 pianists, ages 18–28. Combining a world-class roster of resident and guest faculty with unmatched practice and performance facilities, the program is designed to inspire young pianists from all over the globe. Students have solo and chamber music performance opportunities, plentiful private lessons, faculty-led discussions and master classes focused on advanced pianistic growth and building a career path.

Jim Daniels and Kristin Kovacic
2026-07-26 15:30 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Chautauqua Writers’ Center Faculty Reading — Featuring Jim Daniels (Poetry) and Kristin Kovacic (Prose)
Jim Daniels is the recipient of the 2025-26 Michigan Author Award for lifetime achievement from the Library of Michigan and the Michigan Center for the Book. His new book, Late Invocation for Magic: New and Selected Poems, was published in January. He has authored over thirty collections of poetry, seven collections of fiction, four produced screenplays, and one collection of essays, An Ignorance of Trees, published in 2025. He has also edited many anthologies, including RESPECT: The Poetry of Detroit Music. He is a recipient of two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships and two from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. Other writing awards include the Brittingham Prize, the Blue Lynx Prize, the Tillie Olsen Creative Writing Award, the Milton Kessler Award, and three Gold Medals in the Independent Publisher Book Awards, and his films have won awards in film festivals around the world. His work has been published in The Best American Poetry and Pushcart Prize volumes. A native of Detroit, he lives in Pittsburgh, where he is the Thomas Stockham Baker University Professor Emeritus of English at Carnegie Mellon University. He currently teaches in the Alma College low-residency MFA Program.
Kristin Kovacic’s essays have won the Pushcart Prize, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Fellowship, and the Orison Books Prize for Best Spiritual Writing, among other awards. Her work has appeared recently in Slate, Belt, The Coachella Review, Chautauqua, Table Magazine, The Iowa Review, and other publications. She is the author of the essay collection History of My Breath, the poetry chapbook, House of Women, and co-editor (with Lynne Barrett) of Birth: A Literary Companion. She has taught nonfiction writing at every level, including at Winchester Thurston School, the Pittsburgh High School for the Creative and Performing Arts, and in the graduate programs of Carlow University and Chatham University. She lives and works in a deconsecrated Catholic Church on the South Side of Pittsburgh.

CHQ Mystic Heart -Church of the Wild -Family Friendly
2026-07-26 16:00, 2026-08-02 16:00, 2026-08-09 16:00 | Outdoor Classroom
Kriss Young Miller and her husband Gary manage the Quaker House. Kriss is a 2022 graduate of Earlham School of Religion with her Master of Arts in Peace and Social Transformation. Kriss is currently a student of Victoria Loorz in the Seminary of the Wild Earth at the Center for Wild Spirituality. She has completed Wild Church Leadership training and is deeply grateful for the opportunity to work to build connections with Chautauquans in the sacred wild.

New Visitors Orientation
2026-07-26 16:00, 2026-08-02 16:00, 2026-08-09 16:00 | Hultquist 101, Hultquist 101
Join us for lemonade and cookies at the Orientation for new Chautauquans, where we warmly welcome you to our vibrant community. This event is designed to introduce you to the rich history, diverse programs, and unique experiences that Chautauqua offers. Meet fellow newcomers, engage with staff, and learn about the array of cultural, educational, and recreational opportunities available. Whether you’re here for a day, a week, or the entire season, this orientation will help you make the most of your visit and feel right at home.

Newcomers Reception
2026-07-26 17:00, 2026-08-02 17:00, 2026-08-09 17:00 | 3 Taps
Join us for the Newcomers Reception, a welcoming gathering open to all first-time and new visitors to Chautauqua Institution. This lovely event is a chance to meet fellow newcomers, connect with members of the community, and learn more about all that Chautauqua has to offer. Guests will enjoy light refreshments while taking in the beautiful lake views, making it a perfect way to begin your Chautauqua experience. We look forward to welcoming you!

Blessing of the Animals (weather permitting)
2026-07-26 17:15 | Hall of Philosophy Grove

Hebrew Congregation, Shirley Lazarus Sunday Evening Lecture Series- Cantors Jodi Sufrin and Roy Einhorn
2026-07-26 19:00 | Smith Wilkes Hall, Smith Wilkes Hall

Palestine Park Tour
2026-07-26 19:00, 2026-08-02 19:00, 2026-08-09 19:00 | Palestine Park, Palestine Park

Sacred Song Service
2026-07-26 20:00, 2026-08-02 20:00, 2026-08-09 20:00 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater

CHQ Mystic Heart - Mateo Mortellarto, Tibetan Meditation
2026-07-27 07:45, 2026-07-28 07:45, 2026-07-29 07:45, 2026-07-30 07:45, 2026-07-31 07:45 | Presbyterian House, Presbyterian House
Taking a general and non-sectarian approach to Buddhism, Mateo Mortellaro (Konchok Tsering Tengye) has years of experience leading meditation and teaching Buddhist philosophy. Mateo started his spiritual journey early in life practicing Zen Buddhism, eventually shifting focus to the Tibetan tradition, primarily within the Drikung ,Kagyu and Sakya schools.
Mateo’s main teacher is His Eminence Garchen Rinpoche, the world-renowned Buddhist master and Yogi. While his main practice and personal approach is of the Buddhist tradition, Mateo also follows the rich and eclectic teachings of Baba Ram Dass, giving instructions using language and methods that are accessible to Western students of all levels of experience.
Mateo has been fortunate to receive teachings and instructions directly from masters such as H.H the Sakya Gongma Trichen Rinpoche,H.E Garchen Rinpoche, H.E Bardor Tulku Rinpoche, and Shechen Rabjam Rinpoche. Other influential teachers include His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh, and Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche.
Mateo is also the founder of KTT Dharma, which is aimed at making spiritual teachings available to those interested through media sharing, interviews, his writing, and teachings.

The Crossover Panel with Kwame Alexander, Candrice Jones, Christopher Jackson and Jade King Carroll
2026-07-27 10:45 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
The highly anticipated musical adaptation of Kwame Alexander’s Newbery medal-winning novel, The Crossover, was commissioned and is being developed for the stage by the Chautauqua Theater Company. Hosted by Jade King Carroll, the producing artistic director of the Chautauqua Theater Company and director of The Crossover musical, the dynamic creative team behind the musical will gather on the Amphitheater stage for a conversation about the creative process, collaboration and what it means to be generative artists. The musical adaptation is being developed and workshopped both in Chautauqua and New York City, with Tony Award-winner Thomas Kail as creative consultant.
Kwame Alexander is an Emmy-award winning producer and New York Times bestselling author of 47 books. This is his fourth year at Chautauqua where he currently serves as the inaugural distinguished fellow of the African American Heritage House. He is also the co-creator and executive producer of the Emmy-nominated “Acoustic Rooster and His Barnyard Band and Acoustic Rooster: Jazzy Jams,” a PBS KIDS special and series of shorts produced by GBH Kids based on his beloved children’s book of the same name.
Alexander regularly shares his passion for literacy, books and the craft of writing around the world, including Ghana, West Africa, where he opened the Barbara E. Alexander Memorial Library and Health Clinic. He is the recipient of the 2025 NAACP Image Award.
Candrice Jones is a playwright and educator from Dermott, Arkansas. As a rising voice in American theater, she brings her poetic sensibility and powerful storytelling to the adaptation of The Crossover. She serves as a board member and educational outreach specialist of The Weekend Theater as well as Ozark Living Newspaper.
Jones’ primary goal as a writer is to write love letters for and to women of the American South. She is best known for writing “FLEX,” a play developed while she was a resident at the Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundation (VONA) Playwrights Festival, Ground Floor. FLEX premiered at Lincoln Center Theater in New York and Penumbra Theatre in St. Paul, Minnesota. Jones is also the author of the full-length play, “Crackbaby.” She has received virtual commissions from the People’s Light and Actors Theatre of Louisville.
Jones is a CalArts Critical Studies MFA recipient. She was a fellow at Callaloo for poetry at Brown University. She was also a former resident at MacDowell’s Colony of the Arts.
Christopher Jackson is a Tony Award- nominated actor, as well as a Grammy and Emmy Award-winning songwriter/composer best known for starring as George Washington in the critically acclaimed, award-winning musical “Hamilton” on Broadway and Disney+. As the creator of “The Crossover” musical score, he incorporates high-energy jazz and hip-hop to reflect the world full of dreams, melodies and rhythms.
In 2021, Jackson starred in Freestyle Love Supreme on Broadway alongside Lin-Manuel Miranda. His other Broadway credits include Holler if Ya Hear Me, After Midnight, The Bronx Bombers, In the Heights, Memphis and The Lion King. Off Broadway credits include Bronx Bombers, The Jammer, In the Heights, Cotton Club Parade, and Lonely, I’m Not.
Jackson’s TV and film credits include “And Just Like That,” “Bull,” “Freestyle Love Supreme,” “Person of Interest,” “A Gifted Man,” “Fringe,” “Gossip Girl,” “Tracers,” “Afterlife” and the 2021 film adaptation of “In the Heights.” Jackson voiced “Where You Are” for the Disney film “Moana,” and served as composer/songwriter for “Sesame Street,” garnering seven Emmy nominations and one win. He was also the co-music supervisor and writer for “The Electric Company” on PBS.
In 2018, “One Last Time (44 Remix)” was released which featured Jackson alongside President Barack Obama and BeBe Winans. Jackson won an Emmy Award for his song with Will.I.Am, “What I Am.”
Jackson has performed sold-out concerts all over the United States, including Carnegie Hall and Kennedy Center, and a command performance at the White House in 2023.
Jade King Carroll is a distinguished director specializing in new play development, and the Producing Artistic Director of Chautauqua Theater Company (CTC).
She has directed over 60 classical and contemporary productions nationwide at renowned venues. Most recently, she directed Chisa Hutchinson’s “Amerikin” at Primary Stages. Notable credits include “Proof of Love,” “Detroit ’67,” “Having Our Say,” “Red Velvet,” and multiple productions of August Wilson’s work—she is one of the few directors to have worked on every play in Wilson’s Century Cycle.
At CTC, Carroll is programming innovative new works, including the world premieres of “tiny father” by Mike Lew (a co-production with Barrington Stage Company) and commissioned pieces, “The Light and The Dark (the Life and Times of Artemisia Gentileschi)” by Kate Hamill (co-produced with off-Broadway’s Primary Stages in NYC) and the world premiere of “The Witnesses” by C.A. Johnson. Under her leadership, CTC has secured three NYSCA grants and partnered with the Telsey Office for casting and the Drama League to expand its directing fellows’ program, with the new addition of playwrighting fellows in 2026.
As a director of audio plays, Carroll’s work can be found with Audible, Marvel, and Broadway Podcast Network. She is also an educator that has guest lectured and directed at Juilliard, Rutgers, NYU, Princeton, and many more schools. She has an award from the August Wilson Estate as well as from her alma mater, SUNY New Paltz.

Play CHQ: Drip Drop Painting
2026-07-27 12:00 | Bestor Plaza, Bestor Plaza

Guided Kayak Eco Tour
2026-07-27 12:45, 2026-08-03 12:45, 2026-08-10 12:45 | Sports Club, Waterfront
Enjoy paddling while learning about ecological info along the shores of Chautauqua Institution during this hour-long guided kayak tour. The tour begins and ends at the Sports Club. The cost is for rental of single or tandem kayak plus $12 per person for the tour guide. Limited spots so please reserve one day before the event. For more info, please contact sportsclub@chq.org.

Conversations with Kyle
2026-07-27 13:00 | Smith Wilkes Hall, Smith Wilkes Hall
Join us for “Conversations with Kyle”, an open, drop in conversation for members of the entire community. These informal gatherings offer the opportunity to ask questions and engage directly with Interim President Kyle Keogh. All are welcome.

Peter Lawson Jones
2026-07-27 14:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Peter Lawson Jones is a professional actor, former elected official, acting instructor, master of ceremonies and dramatist.
Jones, a member of SAG-AFTRA and Actor’s Equity, can be seen later this year playing the lead in the feature-length indie, “The Last Shop on Walnut.” Jones has appeared in well over twenty films including “A Man Called Otto,” “White Boy Rick,” “Alex Cross,” “The Assassin’s Code” and “Starve.” On network television he can be seen on NBC’s “Chicago Fire” and ABC’s “Detroit 1-8-7.” He received the 2025 Hard Faith Fest NYC Best Actor Award for his performance in the short film, “Unexpected,” and the 2016 Indie Gathering International Film Festival Best Ohio Supporting Actor Award for his work in the feature-length film, “How to Change the World.” He has also been inducted into the Karamu House Hall of Fame, the oldest multicultural theatre in the country.
From February 2002, through December 2010, Jones was a member of the Board of Cuyahoga County Commissioners, and its president for three of those years. He previously served two and one-half terms in the Ohio House of Representatives, where he was the ranking member of the House Finance and Appropriations Committee and second vice president of the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus. Jones was formerly the vice mayor and a councilman in the City of Shaker Heights, Ohio.
Jones’s play, The Bloodless Jungle, enjoyed a regional premiere last year at the Black Repertory Group Theater in Berkeley, California and two full productions at The Ensemble Theatre in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. The drama has enjoyed staged readings at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Dallas Convention Center, the National Black Theatre Festival, Duquesne University and in Harlem. Jones’s most recent play, The Phoenix Society, enjoyed its world premiere in 2022 at Playwrights Local in Cleveland, Ohio. Jones is a graduate of Harvard College with a degree in government, and Harvard Law School.

The 22nd Annual Robert H. Jackson Lecture on the Supreme Court of the United States — Michael R. Dreeben
2026-07-27 15:30 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Michael R. Dreeben is a distinguished lecturer from government at Georgetown University Law Center and an adjunct professor at American University Washington College of Law. From 1988 to 2019, Dreeben served in the Office of Solicitor General in the U.S. Department of Justice, first as an assistant to the solicitor general and then as a deputy solicitor general. As deputy solicitor general from 1994 to 2019, Dreeben supervised the criminal docket for the United States in the U.S. Supreme Court. Dreeben has argued 109 Supreme Court cases on behalf of the United States and private clients. He has briefed hundreds more. He also argued cases in every regional federal court of appeals, including en banc cases in 10 circuits. During the summer of 2006, he served as a special assistant United States attorney in the District of Maryland.
From 2017 to 2019, Dreeben was detailed to serve as counselor to Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III in the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and obstruction of justice.
In 2023, Dreeben returned to the Department of Justice to serve as counselor to Special Counsel Jack Smith, where he represented the United States on brief and in argument in Trump v. United States on the question whether a former president has immunity from criminal prosecution for his official acts.
During his tenure in the Solicitor General’s office, Dreeben argued many landmark cases in criminal law and procedure. These include cases involving hate crimes and the First Amendment, Fourth Amendment rights in the internet age, cases involving public corruption and private fraud, and the Sixth Amendment’s Confrontation Clause.
Dreeben received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a master’s degree in history from the University of Chicago, and his law degree from Duke University, where he served as an articles editor on the Duke Law Journal. He served as a law clerk to the honorable Jerre S. Williams of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Dreeben has also taught at Harvard Law School, Duke Law School, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and has published articles and posts on the Supreme Court and the Department of Justice. His most recent essay is “Robert Jackson’s The Federal Prosecutor Revisited,” in the Harvard Law Review Forum (2026).
Chautauqua Institution’s Robert H. Jackson Lecture is named in honor of the former Chautauquan, Jamestown lawyer, New Dealer, Solicitor General, Attorney General, Supreme Court justice, and Nuremberg chief prosecutor. Every summer the Jackson Lecture is a leading expert discussing the Supreme Court, the Justices, signal decisions, and related legal developments.
Chautauqua’s previous Jackson Lecturers have been Geoffrey Stone (2005), Linda Greenhouse (2006), Seth Waxman (2007), Jeffrey Toobin (2008), Paul Clement (2009), Jeff Shesol (2010), Dahlia Lithwick (2011), Pamela Karlan (2012), Charles Fried (2013), Akhil Amar (2014), Laurence Tribe (2015), Tracey Meares (2016), Judge Jon O. Newman (2017), Justice Rosalie Silberman Abella of Canada’s Supreme Court (2018), Donald B. Verrilli, Jr. (2019), Ruth Marcus (2020), Melissa Murray (2021), Reva Siegel (2022), Justin Driver (2023), Kate Shaw (2024) and Kim Lane Scheppele (2025).
This program is presented in collaboration with the Robert H. Jackson Center in Jamestown, New York.

"Courageous Conversation on Death and Dying" Shahid Aziz
2026-07-27 15:30, 2026-08-03 15:30, 2026-08-10 15:30 | Presbyterian Chapel

Play CHQ: Mini Golf
2026-07-27 16:00 | Heinz Beach, Heinz Beach

Patron Housing Listening Session
2026-07-27 16:00 | Alumni Hall Ballroom, Alumni Hall Ballroom
Patron Housing Listening Session
A shortage of on-grounds housing across a range of sizes and price points is one of the factors limiting Chautauqua’s ability to sustain and grow attendance.
Interim CEO Kyle Keogh, together with staff and a Patron Housing Working Group composed of Chautauquans with significant real estate experience, has developed
an initial multi-year plan to encourage the development of affinity housing (such as denominational houses), condominiums and single-family homes. Community members are invited to learn more about the proposal, discuss the plan and provide feedback.

Chautauqua Chamber Music: Verona Quartet
2026-07-27 16:00 | Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall, Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall
Join the acclaimed Verona Quartet for an afternoon of expressive performances and dynamic ensemble artistry. Hailed for their “sensational” playing and deep musical insight, the Verona Quartet brings passion and precision to every work they perform. Their program showcases a vibrant mix of classical masterpieces and contemporary voices, reflecting their commitment to storytelling through sound. Experience the emotional power and refined elegance of one of today’s leading string quartets.

TROUBLED WATERS
2026-07-27 16:30 | Chautauqua Cinema, Chautauqua Cinema
Climate Change Initiative-Special Filmmaker Event -Free Admission! Director Rory Fielding’s doc featuring Ted Danson, explores the impact of human behavior on our environment from the perspective of one of South Florida’s most beloved and fragile underwater creatures: the sea turtle. Rory will host discussion to follow. (NR, 53m)
Exploring the impact of human behavior on our environment from the perspective of one of South Florida’s most beloved and fragile underwater creatures: the sea turtle. A critical look at the effects of global warming, water pollution, and our “throw-away” plastic lifestyle on this keystone species…and inevitably ourselves.
Post film discussion led by Rory and Courtney Fielding featuring a panel of experts featured in the film, joining by Zoom: Whitney Crowder, Turtle Rehab Manager; John Hocevar, Ocean Director Greenpeace USA; Maria Chatham, veterinarian (sea turtles); and Dave Anderson, Sea Turtle Director Gumbo Limbo Nature Center.
Rory Fielding is an Emmy Award–winning director and producer and the Executive Producer of Rory Fielding Films. His environmental documentaries have earned nine Emmy nominations and four wins. Rory Fielding Films creates films to the highest production and journalistic standards that inform and inspire. Their mission is to tell stories that matter, crafted with excellence and purpose to help shape a better world.

Taize and Tea Meditation Worship
2026-07-27 19:00, 2026-08-03 19:00, 2026-08-10 19:00 | Randell Chapel, UCC Headquarters

Chautauqua Opera Conservatory with the Music School Festival Orchestra "L’Enfant Prodigue & Les Mamelles de Tiresias"
2026-07-27 20:00 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Music by: Claude Debussy & Francis Poulenc
Librettist: Édouard Guinand & Guillaume Apollinaire
Stage Director: Emma Griffin
Conductor: Timothy Muffitt
Two masters of French music share the stage in a sparkling double bill. Francis Poulenc’s Les Mamelles de Tirésias (1945) bursts with surreal satire, flipping gender norms topsy-turvy in a wildly imaginative romp of music and mischief. It’s paired with Claude Debussy’s luminous early masterpiece L’enfant prodigue (1884), a one-act cantata suffused with longing, redemption, and sumptuous lyricism. Together, these works deliver an evening of operatic drama and delight.
The Chautauqua Opera Conservatory is a premier, immersive summer program offering the highest caliber of training for young singers ages 18 and older. Under the leadership of Director Jonathan Beyer, participants join a select community of singers who study, coach, and perform in the inspiring and idyllic setting of the Chautauqua Institution in western New York State.
Our program combines rigorous artistic preparation with a warm, encouraging environment that puts each singer’s growth and well-being first. Voice lessons, role study, vocal coachings, and masterclasses are led by a distinguished full-time faculty of voice teachers, coaches, and stage directors, alongside renowned guest artists from the world’s leading opera houses and conservatories. Students explore and perform repertoire spanning Opera, Art Song, Oratorio, Chamber Music, and Crossover styles.
Comprised of top-tier students from conservatories and universities in the U.S. and abroad, Music School Festival Orchestra members participate in a variety of musical activities during their summers at Chautauqua including chamber music and private lessons along with their meticulous orchestral training. Alumni from the MSFO can be heard in many of the world’s top orchestras and chamber ensembles and can be found on music faculties worldwide. The MSFO is led by Artistic Director Timothy Muffitt, who serves as Music Director of the Lansing Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Laureate of the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra.

Mike Thornton & The Midnight Quartet
2026-07-27 22:00 | Roe Green Theater Center
Mike Thornton, jazz vocalist of grit and sophistication, takes center stage with The Midnight Quartet in a performance charged with high-octane energy and deep blues soul. Blending hard-swinging standards with electrifying improvisation, Thornton’s commanding voice rides effortlessly over the band’s tight, driving rhythms. Each tune ignites with hot, explosive solos, delivering a night where smoky storytelling meets virtuosic fire—classic jazz reborn with urgency, swagger, and unmistakable style.

Masters Series Masterclass: The Picture Book with Kao Kalia Yang
2026-07-28 09:00 | Alumni Hall Ballroom, Alumni Hall Ballroom
Kao Kalia Yang is known for her work for adults, but since 2019, she’s cultivated an award-winning body of work in children’s literature. Join Yang in this Masters Series session as she reads from some of her picture books and speaks to the movement across age groups and genre lines in a life dedicated to sharing stories that a child can grow up with and an adult can grow old with.
Kao Kalia Yang is an award-winning Hmong American teacher, speaker, and writer. Her work crosses genres and audiences and centers Hmong children and families who live in our world, who dream, hurt, and hope in it. Yang’s writing and speaking are concerned with the plight of refugees from around our world, ideas of belonging, and the depths of the human experience. She holds an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Carleton College, was the 2024 Star Tribune Artist of the Year, and is a Guggenheim Fellow. Kao Kalia Yang lives in St. Paul, Minnesota with her family.

David Michaels, PhD, MPH, Protecting the integrity of science underpinning public health and environmental protections
2026-07-28 09:15 | Hurlbut Church sanctuary, Hurlbut Church sanctuary
Chautauqua Science Group Weekly Lecture
David Michaels PhD, MPH, is an epidemiologist and professor at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health. He has held high-level, Senate-confirmed public health positions in the administrations of Presidents Barack Obama and President Bill Clinton.
Dr. Michaels is a leader in efforts to protect the integrity of the science underpinning public health and environmental protections. His book The Triumph of Doubt: Dark Money and the Science of Deception (Oxford University Press, 2020) was called “a tour de force” by the reviewer in Science Magazine and “a brave and important book,” by the reviewer in Nature. He is also the author of Doubt is Their Product, which was published by Oxford University Press in 2008 and reissued in 2023.

Stephanie Elizondo Griest
2026-07-28 10:45 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Stephanie Elizondo Griest is a globetrotting author from the Texas-Mexico borderlands. Currently a professor of creative nonfiction at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, she has performed on five continents in capacities ranging from a Moth storyteller to a literary ambassador for the U.S. State Department.
Her six books include Around the Bloc: My Life in Moscow, Beijing, and Havana; Mexican Enough; All the Agents and Saints; and Art Above Everything: One Woman’s Global Exploration of the Joys and Torments of a Creative Life. Widely anthologized, Elizondo Griest has written for The New York Times, Washington Post, The Believer, BBC, Orion, VQR, and Oxford American, among others.
Griest’s work has won a Margolis Award for Social Justice Reporting, an International Latino Book Award, a PEN Southwest Book Award and two Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism prizes. She has been supported by the Henry Luce Foundation, Lannan Foundation, and the Hodder Fellowship at Princeton University.

Play CHQ: Juggling with Zach Fish
2026-07-28 12:00 | Bestor Plaza, Bestor Plaza

Todd Paglia, CEO Stand.Earth: Delivering large-scale solutions to climate and environmental problems worldwide
2026-07-28 12:30 | Smith Wilkes Hall, Smith Wilkes Hall
Bird, Tree & Garden Club lunchtime lecture series
When Todd Paglia joined Stand.earth in 1999, he had a vision of transforming the environmental impact of something so ubiquitous that it’s often forgotten – paper. He saw that major corporations in the office supply and catalog industries were purchasing and selling millions of tons of paper with no accountability for, or even knowledge of, the environmental devastation that paper caused. As Executive Director of Stand.earth, Todd can be credited with transforming the paper policies of multi-billion-dollar Fortune 500 companies, including Staples, Office Depot, Williams-Sonoma, Dell, Victoria’s Secret, 3M and many more. Under Todd’s leadership, Stand.earth has saved more than 65 million acres of endangered forests. In addition, recycled pulp mills have seen major companies requesting more sustainable fiber as a result of Stand’s campaigns.
In 2023 under Todd’s leadership Stand was named one of the world’s most innovative companies by Fast Company Magazine and Stand won the 2023 Keeling Curve Prize for innovation in climate advocacy.

CHQ Mystic Heart - Mateo Mortellarto, Tibetan Meditation seminar and practice
2026-07-28 12:30 | Hall of Missions, Hall of Missions

Athenaeum Hotel History Lecture - "Past, Present, and Future of the Athenaeum Hotel."
2026-07-28 13:00 | Athenaeum Parlor, Athenaeum Parlor

REAGAN
2026-07-28 14:00 | Chautauqua Cinema, Chautauqua Cinema
Sponsored by Advocates for Balance at Chautauqua – Free Admission! Told through the voice of Viktor Petrovich (Jon Voight), a former KGB agent whose life becomes inextricably linked with Ronald Reagan (Dennis Quaid). Based on Dr. Paul Kengor’s book, The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism. Dr. Kengor will host the screening and discuss his role in the process.of making the film. (PG-13, 141m)

Michael Strautmanis
2026-07-28 14:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Michael Strautmanis serves as the Obama Foundation’s Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, building its strategy to extend President and Mrs. Obama’s legacy through the development of the Obama Presidential Center and civic engagement programming in Chicago. Through community affairs, government relations, strategic partnerships, and digital storytelling, Michael has built the Foundation’s impact agenda in Chicago to create an anchor institution that will catalyze economic renewal on the South Side of Chicago and develop the city’s next generation of leaders. In this role, he is in dialogue with Chicagoans from every walk of life who are looking to learn more about the Obama Presidential Center and participate in the Foundation’s mission to empower leaders to give back to their communities. Michael also leads the My Brother’s Keeper Alliance, President Obama’s signature initiative to create safe, healthy, and nurturing communities for boys and young men of color across the nation.
Before joining the Obama Foundation, Michael spent over a decade in Washington, D.C., working to increase access to economic opportunity, strengthen the judicial system, and champion equity and inclusion in the White House, federal agencies, and Congress. He served in the Obama White House for four of those years as Chief of Staff to Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett in the Office of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs. After President Obama’s first term, he joined the Walt Disney Company where he led an enterprise-wide initiative to consolidate, focus, and deepen the impact of Disney’s corporate social responsibility programs. Michael began his career in government working in the Office of General Counsel at the U.S. Agency for International Development. He did stints at the House of Representatives and American Association for Justice before joining then-Senator Obama’s congressional staff, campaign, and subsequent transition team.
An active member of Chicago’s civic community, Michael serves on the boards of Everside Health, Inc., the Emerald South Economic Development Collaborative, the Billie Jean King Leadership Institute, the Illinois Finance Authority and Headspace Health. Mike received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois and a J.D. from the University of Illinois College of Law.

Chautauqua Theater Company Presents Best for Baby (Live Audio Descriptions)
2026-07-28 16:00 | Bratton Theater, Bratton Theater

School of Music Piano Faculty Recital: Sara Davis Buechner
2026-07-28 16:00 | Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall, Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall
Noted for her musical command, cosmopolitan artistry, and visionary independence, Sara Davis Buechner is one of the most original concert pianists of our time. Lauded for her “intelligence, integrity and all-encompassing technical prowess” (New York Times), “thoughtful artistry in the full service of music” (Washington Post), and “astounding virtuosity” (Philippine Star), Japan’s InTune magazine sums it up: “Buechner has no superior.”
Ms. Buechner has performed in every state and province of North America — as recitalist, chamber musician and soloist with top orchestras like the New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony and Philadelphia Orchestra; and in venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center and the Hollywood Bowl. She is also a much sought after professor at Temple University’s Boyer College of Music and Dance.

Play CHQ: Mono Painting
2026-07-28 16:00 | Miller Park, Miller Park

PUT YOUR SOUL ON YOUR HAND AND WALK
2026-07-28 18:00, 2026-07-29 13:45, 2026-07-30 18:00 | Chautauqua Cinema, Chautauqua Cinema
A powerful act of witness and remembrance, this urgent, deeply personal documentary unfolds through video calls between filmmaker Sepideh Farsi and 25-year-old Palestinian photojournalist and poet Fatma Hassona. Their connection bridges both geography and grief, offering a rare, unfiltered window into daily life inside Gaza. Hassona’s grace, resilience, and luminous spirit ground the film in a quiet strength. (NR, 112m. In Arabic and Persian with subtitles.)
Please note that this documentary presents the personal experience of a Palestinian photojournalist living in Gaza. It reflects an individual perspective and is not intended to provide a comprehensive account of the Israel-Hamas war.

CVA Lecture Series: Glenn Goldberg, School of Art Faculty
2026-07-28 18:30 | CVA: Large Drawing Room
The Chautauqua School of Art proudly welcomes Glenn Goldberg as a member of our 2026 visiting faculty. Glenn Goldberg will participate in the School’s Summer Lecture Series, sharing insights and practices with our artistic community.
Glenn Goldberg was born in the Bronx in 1953 and attended the New York Studio School and Queens College during his undergraduate education. He later continued his graduate studies at Queens College to receive his MFA. In 1996 he was named the Heilman Artist and since has received grants from The Guggenheim Foundation, The Edward Albee Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, and The Joan Mitchell Foundation. Goldberg’s work has been shown extensively throughout the US and internationally, and is held in numerous collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Academy of Arts and Letters, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, among others. Goldberg has taught at various institutions including The Cooper Union, NY Studio School, Brandeis University, Queens College, Parsons School of Design, and Lodestar School of Art in Ireland. He has also been a panelist and visiting artist for MFA painting programs at Yale, Columbia, Boston University, American University, Hunter College, and others. In 2023, Goldberg was commissioned to create a public arts project at the E. 149th St subway station in the Bronx by the New York MTA Arts and Design Commission. Goldberg lives and works in New York City.

CHQ Mystic Heart -Labyrinth History and Meditation
2026-07-28 18:30 | Turner (Outside of Building)
Bring gate pass. Adjacent to Turner Community Center

Opera & Pops Concert with CSO
2026-07-28 20:00 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Stuart Chafetz, conductor
Chautauqua Opera Company Apprentice and Studio Artists join Stuart Chafetz, Principal Pops Conductor, and the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra for the annual Opera & Pops concert. This popular summer event showcases Chautauqua Opera’s young artists in music from Opera, Operetta and Broadway.

FACKHAM HALL
2026-07-28 20:50, 2026-07-29 19:00, 2026-07-30 15:20, 2026-07-30 20:50 | Chautauqua Cinema, Chautauqua Cinema
Directed by Jim O’Hanlon, this comedy spoof on Downton Abbey stars Katherine Waterston and Damian Lewis as Lady and Lord of the house.”Deliciously silly, stupid and hilarious, and I guarantee you’ll leave the cinema with a smile on your face.” -Nikki Gemmell, The Australian “There are twists, turns and ridiculous faux pas in a congenially entertaining riff on the series’ more ridiculous aspects, delivered without spite but with love and a wink.” -Thelma Adams, AARP Movies for Grownups “This is just fantastically funny.” -Tim Cogshell, FilmWeek LAist (R, 97m)

Meshelle: Funny on Purpose
2026-07-28 22:00 | Roe Green Theater Center
In partnership with the African American Heritage House
MESHELLE The Indie-Mom of Comedy, is an award-winning comedian, writer, and solo performer whose work sits at the intersection of arts, culture, and impact, shaped by the lens of a Black woman honoring mothering, family, personal growth, and the undeniable cultural influence of our people. Her stand-up has been featured on Nickelodeon, TruTV, BET, and STARZ, bringing her sharp, insightful voice to audiences nationwide. A TEDx speaker, Open Society Foundations Community Fellow Alumna, and Baker Artist Award winner, she uses comedy as a tool for connection, reflection, and change. Through storytelling rooted in lived experience, MESHELLE creates work that is as thought-provoking as it is hilarious.

School of Music: Opera Conservatory Masterclass with Jonathan Beyer
2026-07-29 10:00 | McKnight Hall, McKnight Hall

Natalie Merchant
2026-07-29 10:45 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Natalie Merchant has earned recognition among America’s most respected recording artists, drawing audiences with her captivating performances and intentional songwriting over her 40-year career. Her music blends folk, rock and world music influences, and she continues to be regarded as a pioneering figure in alternative music. She joins the Chautauqua Lecture Series during our week on “Art and Artists Against the Odds” to speak on her passion for arts education for young people.
Her latest record, “Keep Your Courage” (released in 2023 on Nonesuch Records), finds Merchant in peak form. The album dives into love and human connection in its many forms—with Merchant’s voice to keep you hanging on every word.
Merchant has also distinguished herself as a social justice and environmental activist through her work with a wide variety of non-profit organizations, and by creating documentary films and large-scale community arts projects.
Merchant began her musical career as the lead vocalist and lyricist of the pop music band 10,000 Maniacs in 1981 and released two platinum and four gold records with the group. She left the band in 1993 and has subsequently released nine albums as a solo artist with combined sales of seven million copies.
In 2007, Merchant was appointed by Governor Elliot Spitzer to serve on the New York State Council on the Arts, and in 2022 Senator Chuck Schumer appointed her to the board of trustees of The American Folklife Center at The Library of Congress. Merchant’s awards for artistic excellence and philanthropic work include: the ASCAP Champion Award, The Library Lion Award from the New York Public Library and The John Lennon Real Love Award. In 2025 the National Head Start Association made Merchant their national artist-in-residence.
A few days following her lecture, at 3 p.m. on Sunday, August 2, 2026, Merchant will be joined by the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra for a free family concert, “Cabinet of Wonder Live!” Under the baton of Principal Pops Conductor Stuart Chafetz, the concert will be a joyful reimagining of Mother Goose developed in collaboration with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and will also include classic children’s poetry that she adapted to music for her highly praised double-album release, Leave Your Sleep.

Organ Recitals Owen Reyda
2026-07-29 12:15 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Owen Reyda is an organ performance major at Oberlin Conservatory of Music, studying with Jonathan Moyer. At Oberlin, he has also studied piano with Yulia Fedoseeva, choral conducting with Gregory Ristow, and improvisation with Christa Rakich. He has played for local churches in his hometown Westfield, NY and participated in summer organ events and academies, including at Trinity College and Yale University. He has served as Organ Scholar in the Sacred Music program at Chautauqua since 2024.
His program for Chautauqua will include works by August Gottfried Ritter, Robert Schumann, and Louis Vierne

Women In Ministry
2026-07-29 12:15, 2026-08-05 12:15 | Hall of Missions, Hall of Missions

School of Music: Chamber Music Concert #1
2026-07-29 13:00 | Fletcher Music Hall, Fletcher Music Hall

Natalie Wigg-Stevenson
2026-07-29 14:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Natalie Wigg-Stevenson is a theologian, minister, author and associate professor of contextual education at Emmanuel College (Victoria University, University of Toronto). Natalie brings to her teaching a spirit of play alongside rigorous theological thinking and deep pastoral attentiveness.
Based out of Toronto, she is the author of Ethnographic Theology: An Inquiry into the Production of Theological Knowledge and Transgressive Devotion: Theology as Performance Art, as well as numerous scholarly articles. A creative non-fiction writer, she is a frequent contributor to Sojourners Magazine and has created the open-access, interactive devotional website, Transgressive Devotional.

Chautauqua Arts Education 101: Panel Discussion
2026-07-29 15:30 | Smith Wilkes Hall, Smith Wilkes Hall
Chautauqua Arts Education programs serve thousands of students and hundreds of teachers each year in Chautauqua County, carrying out Chautauqua Institution’s mission through empowering students to learn about their world and themselves through the arts. Director of Arts Education Suzanne Fassett-Wright and Vice President of Performing and Visual Arts Laura Savia will be joined by local educators Nicole Kane and Samantha Cashmore in a panel discussion to share how Chautauqua Institution is working in collaboration with our community to support student growth through increased engagement with arts experiences.

School of Music: Chamber Music Concert #2
2026-07-29 16:00 | Fletcher Music Hall, Fletcher Music Hall

Play CHQ: Hand Fish Puppets
2026-07-29 16:00 | Miller Park, Miller Park

WE ARE ALL PLASTIC PEOPLE NOW
2026-07-29 16:30 | Chautauqua Cinema, Chautauqua Cinema
According to Ted Danson, “‘We’re All Plastic People Now’ is alarming, but it shows us that change is possible and should spark the kind of real conversation necessary for us to turn the tide on the plastic pollution crisis.”
Post-film discussion led by Rory and Courtney Fielding with panel of experts featured in the film, joining by Zoom: Dr. Shanna Swan, Dr. David Davis, and Dr. Rolf Halden.
With a gift for making difficult science concepts graspable for average people, JD continues his decades-long career as a science educator, sharing insights from mainstream conventional science as a source of unifying inspiration, from stages, webinars, pulpits, and workshops. He offers insights from how nature works that help us discern who we are and our place in the world.
Rory Fielding is an Emmy Award–winning director and producer and the Executive Producer of Rory Fielding Films. His environmental documentaries have earned nine Emmy nominations and four wins. Rory Fielding Films creates films to the highest production and journalistic standards that inform and inspire. Their mission is to tell stories that matter, crafted with excellence and purpose to help shape a better world.

Party on the Art Quad
2026-07-29 17:30 | CVA: Arts Quad
The Friends of CVA and Chautauqaua Visual Arts will once again host our annual ticketed fundraising event in the heart of the CVA Arts Quad. The proceeds benefit CVA School of Art residency program scholarships. This event provides an opportunity to connect with fellow art lovers and to bid on original pieces of art as well as experiences, Amphitheater performance tickets and more!

School of Music: Art Song Recital
2026-07-29 18:30 | Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall, Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall

Chautauqua School of Dance presents: "Wuthering Heights"
2026-07-29 20:00 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Directed and Choreographed by Sasha Janes, Bonnefoux McBride Artistic Director of Chautauqua School of Dance
On the wild, windswept moors of Yorkshire, this ballet adaptation of Wuthering Heights brings to life the haunting story of Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw—two souls bound by a fierce, unbreakable love that defies class, reason, and even death. Through powerful movement and evocative music, passion turns to obsession and betrayal ignites a ruthless quest for revenge, leaving a legacy of heartbreak and longing. Dark, powerful, and unforgettable, this ballet captures the raw intensity of Emily Brontë’s timeless tale of love at its most destructive.
This ballet will showcase both former and current students of the Chautauqua School of Dance.
Contains suggestive content; not recommended for children under 13.

Rev. Zina Jacque
2026-07-30 09:15 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy

Micah Hendler
2026-07-30 10:45 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Micah Hendler is the founder and artistic director of the Jerusalem Youth Chorus (JYC), an Israeli-Palestinian music and dialogue project he has brought from a dream to the global stages of TED and “America’s Got Talent” to The New York Times and “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” JYC’s work and mission will frame Hendler’s contributions to the Chautauqua Lecture Series weeklong celebration of “Art and Artists Against the Odds.”
Through the co-creation of music and the sharing of stories, JYC empowers young singers from East and West Jerusalem to speak and sing their truths as they become leaders in their communities and inspire singers and listeners around the world to join them in their work for peace, justice, inclusion and equality. Even in times of war, JYC continues to meet, and its singers’ commitment to each other, and the power of their voices raised in harmony, has only grown. In addition to his ongoing bridge-building work in Jerusalem, Hendler has brought his JYC experience to the U.S. and around the world, collaborating with several organizations working to depolarize America (including Braver Angels, the One America Movement, Convergence, New Pluralists, and Constructive Dialogue Institute), and global organizations including the United Nations, Abu Dhabi Festival, El Sistema Greece, and the first World Congress of Music and Social Change.
Hendler has a degree in music and international studies from Yale and has decades of musical experience from different global traditions. He has also been involved in dialogue work for 20 years and has written and presented in many local and global fora about his work with JYC. Selected for the Forbes “30 Under 30” list for Music in 2017, Hendler has written extensively for Forbes.com on music, society and social change in a global context, using this platform to uplift marginalized voices that are not often heard in mainstream media. He currently lives in Washington, D.C., where he leads regular community sings.

Play CHQ: Canvas Painting
2026-07-30 12:00 | Bestor Plaza, Bestor Plaza

CHQ Mystic Heart - Mateo Mortellarto, Tibetan Meditation, seminar and practice
2026-07-30 12:30 | Hall of Missions, Hall of Missions

School of Music: Chamber Music Concert #3
2026-07-30 13:00 | Fletcher Music Hall, Fletcher Music Hall

Chautauqua Theater Company Presents New Play Workshop 2: The Motions by Zora Howard
2026-07-30 14:00, 2026-07-31 14:00, 2026-08-01 14:00 | Bratton Theater, Bratton Theater
In the wake of an untimely prognosis, a father and son must relearn how to share space after years of estrangement. They pass the time with quiet rituals – making coffee, playing chess – navigating what is left to say and what is better left unsaid. Funny, tender, and deeply human, The Motions is an ode to the small movements that make a life, and the possibility of beginning again even at our very ends.

Micah Hendler
2026-07-30 14:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy

School of Music: Chamber Music Concert #4
2026-07-30 16:00 | Fletcher Music Hall, Fletcher Music Hall

Masters Series Masterclass: Natalie Merchant on Art as a Tool for Social Change
2026-07-30 16:00 | Norton Hall, Norton Hall
For decades, Natalie Merchant has used her artistry not only to inspire audiences, but also to strengthen communities and advance meaningful social causes. Merchant will reflect on the power of music, film, photography, and other creative mediums to foster connection, raise awareness, and inspire action. Drawing on her work in areas such as environmental advocacy, anti-fracking efforts, and domestic violence prevention, she will explore how artists can serve as catalysts for civic engagement and collective change. Join Natalie Merchant in conversation with Deborah Sunya Moore, Chautauqua Institution Sr. Vice President and Chief Program Officer. There will be ample time for Q & A after their dialogue.

Masters Series Masterclass: Write On: Writing for a Revolution with Jillian Hanesworth
2026-07-30 16:30 | Alumni Hall Ballroom, Alumni Hall Ballroom
James Baldwin once said, “I’m aware, you know, that I and the people I love may perish in the morning. I know that. But there’s light on our faces now”. This workshop will offer participants the opportunity to grapple with the social and political climate we face as a nation, and write poetry that encourages hope, truth and change. Affirming that even in the midst of darkness, there’s still light.

School of Music: Chamber Music Concert #5
2026-07-30 18:30 | Fletcher Music Hall, Fletcher Music Hall

Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra: Sounds of Strauss
2026-07-30 20:00 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Rossen Milanov, conductor
The Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra presents two of Richard Strauss’s most compelling tone poems. In Also sprach Zarathustra, Strauss explores themes of human striving and philosophical inquiry. Death and Transfiguration offers a contrasting perspective, portraying the final moments of an artist’s life and the transformation that follows. Together, these works showcase Strauss’s extraordinary command of orchestral color and dramatic form.
Program:
Strauss: Also sprach Zarathustra, op. 30
Strauss: Death and Transfiguration, op. 24

Sally Love & Friends: Sleep is the New Sex
2026-07-30 22:00 | Roe Green Theater Center
Usually in bed by 10, but willing to stay up and entertain us with her hilarious takes on sleep, sex and the indignities of our aging bodies,
Sally Love and friends will perform their stand up routines alongside improv artists in a brand new and exciting collaboration.
Ticket sales for this performance benefit Friends of Chautauqua Theater.

Dave Eggers
2026-07-31 10:45 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Dave Eggers is the author of many books, among them Contrapposto, The Eyes and the Impossible, The Circle, The Monk of Mokha, Heroes of the Frontier, A Hologram for the King, and What Is the What. Contrapposto, released in June, is a moving and funny novel about allies and art, and what it means to be an artist. A wild and beautiful examination of the rules and market forces of the art world, the novel is chiefly about two friends who believe they can change that world, and bring new meaning to it. These themes will frame this capstone presentation of the Chautauqua Lecture Series week on “Art and Artists Against the Odds.” This program is presented in collaboration with the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle, and Contrapposto is a 2026 CLSC selection.
Eggers is founder of McSweeney’s, a nonprofit, independent publishing company based in San Francisco that produces books, a humor website, The Believer and Illustoria magazines, and a journal of new writing, McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern. The magazine has been edited by a long line of brilliant editors, including Eli Horowitz, Jordan Bass, Claire Boyle, and now Rita Bullwinkel. Under their leadership, McSweeney’s has won the National Magazine Award for Fiction three times and has been a finalist nine times.
Along with Nínive Calegari, Eggers is the co-founder of 826 National, a network of youth writing and tutoring centers around the United States. The whole thing started with 826 Valencia, their original center in the Mission District of San Francisco. Since then, more than 70 other organizations, from Louisville to Toowoomba, Australia, operate with inspiration from the 826 Valencia model.

Masters Series Masterclass: Amy Grant
2026-07-31 12:30 | Norton Hall, Norton Hall
Join Friday night’s Amphitheater stage headliner, Amy Grant for a conversation about her life and career. Grant, an American singer-songwriter and musician, began her career in contemporary Christian music before crossing over to pop music in the mid-1980s. Her latest album, “The Me That Remains” was released in May 2026.

Tessa Hulls
2026-07-31 14:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle — Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic Memoir by Tessa Hulls
An astonishing, deeply moving graphic memoir about three generations of Chinese women, exploring love, grief, exile, and identity.
In her acclaimed graphic memoir debut, Tessa Hulls traces the reverberations of Chinese history across three generations of women in her family. Tessa’s grandmother, Sun Yi, was a Shanghai journalist swept up by the turmoil of the 1949 Communist victory. After fleeing to Hong Kong, she wrote a bestselling memoir about her persecution and survival—then promptly had a mental breakdown from which she never recovered.
Growing up with Sun Yi, Tessa watches both her mother and grandmother struggle beneath the weight of unexamined trauma and mental illness, and bolts to the most remote corners of the globe. But once she turns thirty, roaming begins to feel less like freedom and more like running away. Feeding Ghosts is Tessa’s homecoming, a vivid, heartbreaking journey into history that exposes the fear and trauma that haunt generations, and the love that holds them together.
Tessa Hulls is an artist/writer/adventurer illuminating the connections between the present and the past. Her graphic memoir Feeding Ghosts explores the reverberations of her Chinese grandmother’s escape from the Communist regime and her subsequent mental illness. Her work addresses racial justice, the immigrant experience, generational trauma, mental health, the creative process, and the surprising feminist history of the bicycle. Her graphic memoir Feeding Ghosts has earned the Pulitzer Prize, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Prize for First Book, 2024 Libby Award and was named a Best Book of 2024 by Time, Forbes, NPR, the Minnesota Star Tribune, LitHub, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Chicago Public Library and others.

School of Music: Opera Conservatory Sing-Out
2026-07-31 14:00 | Fletcher Music Hall, Fletcher Music Hall

GIRLS LIKE GIRLS
2026-07-31 14:00, 2026-08-01 20:00, 2026-08-02 20:40 | Chautauqua Cinema, Chautauqua Cinema
Based on writer/director Hayley Kiyoko’s hit single and best-selling novel of the same name and featuring all-new music from Kiyoko, Girls Like Girls is a heartfelt coming-of-age story. Set over the course of one sun-drenched summer, new-girl-in-town Coley (Maya Da Costa) falls in love for the first time while learning to accept herself along the way. “Moving and rewarding, illuminated throughout by da Costa’s wonderful performance” -Guy Lodge, Variety “Beautifully shot and tenderly acted,” -Angie Han, The Hollywood Reporter (R. 90m)

School of Music: Piano Program Play-Out
2026-07-31 16:00 | Sherwood-Marsh 101

DESCENT: INTO THE BLUE
2026-07-31 16:30 | Chautauqua Cinema, Chautauqua Cinema
A powerful documentary narrated by Peter Coyote, showcasing the best of the human spirit – the fight to save our ocean’s ecosystem and critically endangered coral reefs.
Post film discussion led by Rory and Courtney Fielding with a panel of experts featured in the film joining by Zoom: Film participants Mike Goldberg, Eric Wehemeyer, John Hocevar, and Ken Nedimeyer (“Father of Coral Restoration”); Renee Sunbird and Christophe Chagnard, Emmy winners for Original Musical Composition.
Rory Fielding is an Emmy Award–winning director and producer and the Executive Producer of Rory Fielding Films. His environmental documentaries have earned nine Emmy nominations and four wins. Rory Fielding Films creates films to the highest production and journalistic standards that inform and inspire. Their mission is to tell stories that matter, crafted with excellence and purpose to help shape a better world.

Men's Softball League
2026-07-31 17:00 | Sharpe Field, Sharpe Field
Interested in playing slow pitch softball? Contact co-commissioner Wes Delancey
at markernalt21@gmail.com to be added to a team roster. Fee per team for league play.

PROJECT HAIL MARY
2026-07-31 19:00, 2026-08-01 16:20, 2026-08-02 13:20, 2026-08-02 17:00 | Chautauqua Cinema, Chautauqua Cinema
When science teacher Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling) wakes up alone on a spaceship light years from home he has no recollection of how he got there. As his memory returns he uncovers his mission to save the Earth’s sun from a mysterious threat, and discovers that an unexpected alien friendship may be the key. “One of the most visually stunning, emotionally resonant space films ever made.” -Nikki Gemmell, The Australian “Purely pleasurable.” -Peter Travers, The Travers Take “Hard sci-fi with a soft heart.”-Matt Singer, ScreenCrush (PG-13, 156m)

An Evening with Amy Grant
2026-07-31 20:00 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Amy Grant’s career spans more than 40 years and stretches from her roots in gospel into becoming an iconic pop star, songwriter, television personality and philanthropist. With three multi-platinum albums, six platinum albums and four gold albums, her total career album sales have exceeded 30 million and over 1 billion global streams. Grant’s chart success has been consistent throughout her career with six No. 1 hits, 10 Top 40 pop singles, 17 Top 40 Adult Contemporary tracks and multiple Contemporary Christian chart-toppers. In addition to her six GRAMMY® Awards, Grant has earned 26 GMA Dove Awards (including four Artist of the Year Awards) and has been awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame as well as the Music City Walk of Fame and the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. Conventional wisdom has it that Grant put Contemporary Christian Music on the map becoming the first Contemporary Christian artist to have a platinum record, the first to hit No. 1 on the Pop charts and the first to perform at the GRAMMY® Awards. With that, her legacy as one of the most influential artists of the past four decades is assured. In 2022, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts included Grant as one of their five distinguished Honorees to receive the 45th Kennedy Center Honors for lifetime artistic achievements. Grant continues to actively tour each year playing 70+ solo shows in addition to the annual Christmas At The Ryman residency with Vince Gill which celebrated over 100 headline shows at the Ryman, the first co-headliners to mark this incredible milestone. In the spring of 2026, Grant will release her first new album of new music in over a decade entitled “The Me That Remains” dropping May 8, 2026. Produced by legendary Mac McAnally, this very personal album is a journey through themes of healing, human & spiritual connection, unity, & hope. The album features collaborations with guest artists Ruby Amanfu & Vince Gill along with co-writing partners Jon Foreman (Switchfoot), Tom Douglas, Mike Reid, Mac McAnally and more. The title song reflects Amy’s journey over the last few years overcoming heart surgery and a bike accident that nearly took her life. Amy’s music always looks through a lens of hope & faith while probing the human condition with honest commentary inviting a conversation. “The Me That Remains” album sounds and reads somewhat like a ‘life manual’ written from the perspective of an artist that has lived through it all, knows who she is as an artist and human, and as Amy has said,‘I want to be present for whatever emerges in my time’. The story is not over; it is just the beginning of new chapters to come.
We will also host a Masters Series Masterclass with Amy Grant at 12:30 pm on 7/31 in Norton Hall (separate ticket required).

Old First Night Race and Kids Races
2026-08-01 08:00 | Sports Club, Sports Club
The Sports Club is hosting the popular 50th Annual Old First Night Run/Walk Race and Kids Fun Runs. The OFN 2.75 mile chip-timed race follows the perimeter of Chautauqua’s beautiful grounds. This year we will also host two kids races – a 1 mile non-chip timed race and little kids short fun run. Kids hats included with race registration. If you are not on the grounds August 1, you can participate in the virtual Around the World race. Race registration includes t-shirt. Sign up at oldfirstnight.com. Questions? Contact sportsclub@chq.org

Chautauqua Theater Company Presents FutureNow New Play Lab 1: The Bone Wars
2026-08-01 11:00 | Roe Green Theater Center
Paleontologists O.C. Marsh and Edward Drinker Cope race against each other to uncover the secrets of the prehistoric world. Between them, they discover and named 136 new species of dinosaurs, including Stegosaurus, Triceratops, Coelophysis, and Allosaurus. Their rivalry also led to their professional and personal ruin. The Bone Wars brings to life the explosive true story of the legendary rivalry between two American paleontologists in the late 1800s.

Contemporary Issues Forum: Sarai Johnson
2026-08-01 15:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Sarai Johnson, Award-winning Author

Dolly Parton's Threads: My Songs in Symphony with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra
2026-08-01 20:00 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Dolly Parton’s Threads: My Songs in Symphony features Dolly’s songs and the stories behind them in an innovative multimedia symphonic experience featuring Dolly on screen, leading audiences in a visual-musical journey of her songs, her life, and her stories. Guest vocalists and musicians bring new and innovative orchestrations of Dolly’s hit songs together into a full-evening multimedia symphonic story-telling experience. Dolly Parton says, “The threads of my life are woven together through my songs. That’s why this project, Threads: My Songs in Symphony, is so special to me. It’s all about sharing my music and my musical journey with audiences in a new way.”
Co-produced by Dolly Parton together with Schirmer Theatrical and Sony Music Publishing.
Please Note: Dolly Parton is not performing or attending this event.

Rev. Anna Carter Florence
2026-08-02 10:45, 2026-08-03 09:15, 2026-08-04 09:15, 2026-08-05 09:15 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
The Rev. Anna Carter Florence is the Peter Marshall Professor of Preaching at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Ga and an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church. She is also currently serving as Co-Director of the Columbia Preachers Studio for Renewal, a Lilly-funded Compelling Preaching grant.
Before joining the Columbia faculty in 1998, Florence served as an associate pastor for youth and young adults at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Minneapolis. Based on her 2012 Lyman Beecher Lectures on Preaching at Yale Divinity School is her first book, Preaching as Testimony, Inscribing the Word, Rehearsing Scripture: Discovering God’s Word in Community. Florence’s most recent title, A Is for Alabaster: 52 Reflections on the Stories of Scripture, has a forthcoming sequel titled, B Is for Banquet: 52 More Reflections on the Stories of Scripture. She has published articles and chapters in numerous books and journals, including a year’s worth of lectionary text commentaries for WorkingPreacher.org.
Florence is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and holds a Bachelor of Arts from Yale University as well as a Master in Divinity and Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary.

Art in the Park
2026-08-02 11:00 | Miller Park, Miller Park
Hosted by the Friends of CVA, Art in the Park is an open art fair with 70+ vendors held in Miller Park, showcasing art by members of the Chautauqua community, artists-in-residence from the School of Art, and artisans from the region around Chautauqua Institution. Items for sale include ceramics, paintings, prints, Chautauqua-themed trinkets, pieces made of up-cycled materials, homemade soaps, hand-dyed silk clothing, organic cosmetics, embellished handbags and fine jewelry. Art in the Park markets are always planned for Sundays, when admission to the grounds is free, so the markets can be accessible for Institution residents and members of the surrounding community alike.
For artist registration information, visit: https://art.chq.org/friends-of-cva/art-in-the-park/

Kosher BBQ & Klezmer Band
2026-08-02 11:30 | Miller Park, Miller Park

6-Week Residency Open Studios
2026-08-02 14:00 | CVA: Arts Quad
Join us at the Arts Quad where visitors are invited to step inside our 6-week resident artists’ studios, learn more about their processes, and engage with the residents before gathering for a reception celebrating the exhibition next door at the School of Art Gallery. This event provides a glimpse into the ideas, experiments, and conversations that have shaped the School of Art 6-week residency experience.

6-Week Residency Exhibition Opening
2026-08-02 15:00 | CVA: Arts Quad
We are excited to announce the culmination of the Chautauqua School of Art’s 6-Week Residency Program with an opening reception, following our open studios event.
Over the course of six weeks, resident artists have immersed themselves in focused studio practice, meaningful dialogue, and creative exploration. This special evening offers an opportunity to experience the work that emerged during their time at Chautauqua through both an open studio event and this group exhibition.
We hope you’ll join us in celebrating this talented cohort of artists and the work they have developed during their summer at Chautauqua.

Cabinet of Wonder Live! A Free Family Concert with Natalie Merchant & Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra Musicians
2026-08-02 15:00 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Stuart Chafetz, Conductor
Natalie Merchant, Composer and Vocals
American singer-songwriter, recording artist, and activist Natalie Merchant will be in residence at Chautauqua Institution this summer (July 25-August 2, 2026) for Week Five’s programmatic theme, “Art & Artists Against the Odds.”
Merchant will give a matinee family-friendly concert performance with a chamber orchestra ensemble of Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra musicians, under the baton of Principal Pops Conductor Stuart Chafetz, which will be free to the public. The concert will center on the music of Merchants’ Cabinet of Wonder, a joyful reimagining of Mother Goose developed in collaboration with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and will also include classic children’s poetry that she adapted to music for her highly praised double-album release, Leave Your Sleep (2010 Nonesuch Records).
A Chautauqua County native, Merchant was strongly influenced by local artists and her summer encounters with arts at the Institution during her formative years. At the age of fifteen, she spent a summer volunteering in a therapeutic arts camp for developmentally and physically challenged children in Ashville. It was there that she first witnessed the transformative power of art education and was inspired to become an art therapist. Although her life path led her to a career as professional musician, she has continued to honor her commitment to the healing power of music. Merchant will combine her performances on the grounds of Chautauqua site visits to locally sponsored children’s programs for workshops and sing-a-longs. Since leaving the area in 1988, she has returned several times over the years to perform solo and with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra.
Merchant will also appear in the Chautauqua Lecture Series on July 29th at 10:45am; her talk will focus on her life-long commitment to using music as powerful means of communication, community building, and a tool for social justice.

John Hoppenthaler and Roy Hoffman
2026-08-02 15:30 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Chautauqua Writers’ Center Faculty Reading — Featuring John Hoppenthaler (Poetry) and Roy Hoffman (Prose)
John Hoppenthaler’s books of poetry are Night Wing Over Metropolitan Area, Domestic Garden, Anticipate the Coming Reservoir, and Lives of Water, all with Carnegie Mellon UP. He has co-edited a volume of essays on the poetry of Jean Valentine, This-World Company (U of Michigan P). A Professor of English at East Carolina University, his poetry appears in Ploughshares, Virginia Quarterly Review, TriQuarterly, Southern Review, Poetry Northwest, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, and many other journals and anthologies.
Roy Hoffman is a novelist and journalist with an interest in family, history, and characters of diverse backgrounds struggling to connect. He is the author of four novels: “The Promise of the Pelican,” about an 82-year-old lawyer defending an undocumented worker accused of a crime; “Come Landfall,” about love, war, and hurricanes; “Chicken Dreaming Corn,” inspired by his Jewish immigrant grandparents to Alabama, praised by Harper Lee; and “Almost Family,” set in the Civil Rights era South. He’s written two nonfiction books, “Back Home,” and “Alabama Afternoons.” Roy worked for many years in New York as a journalist and speechwriter, covered features and religion for his hometown newspaper in Mobile, AL., and has written essays for the New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall St. Journal. He resides in Fairhope, AL., and is on the faculty of the Naslund-Mann Graduate School of Writing in Louisville, KY. On the web: www.royhoffmanwriter.com

Hebrew Congregation, Shirley Lazarus Sunday Evening Lecture Series- Sheldon Goldberg
2026-08-02 19:00 | Smith Wilkes Hall, Smith Wilkes Hall

CHQ Mystic Heart - Dhara Kowal, Zen Buddhism Meditation Practice
2026-08-03 07:45, 2026-08-04 07:45, 2026-08-05 07:45, 2026-08-06 07:45, 2026-08-07 07:45 | Presbyterian House, Presbyterian House
Sensei Dhara Kowal- Kowal is Dharma Successor to Roshi Bodhin Kjolhede, who sanctioned her as a Zen teacher in 2022 and gave her Dharma Transmission in 2025. As a resident teacher and priest (ordained in 2023), she serves as Co-Director of the Rochester Zen Center, in partnership with Sensei John Pulleyn.
In the preceding years, she joined the Center’s staff in 2019. She served as both Head of Zendo at Chapin Mill, the Center’s country retreat facility, and Manager of the Sangha Programs Office, which coordinates educational and social programming.
Born and raised in Staten Island, New York, Dhara-sensei first learned about Zen practice while training in martial arts. She joined the Center in 1998 and was a local Sangha member for some 20 years prior to joining staff. During that time, she committed herself to attending as many sesshins as possible and serving the Center as a volunteer, including Editor of Zen Bow for 14 years. She also had a successful career in academia as an award-winning professor and author (Ph.D. in Rhetoric & Communication, University of Pittsburgh).

Ken Burns and Jeffrey Rosen
2026-08-03 10:45, 2026-08-04 10:45 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Celebrating the United States semiquincentennial, Chautauqua presents Week Six, “America at 250: In Partnership with The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.” The milestone anniversary offers an opportunity to survey the previous quarter millennium – how a collection of British colonies became the world’s pre-eminent constitutional democracy, with major successes, failures and continued struggles along the way – alongside world-renowned leaders in historical education. To begin this weeklong commemoration, Chautauqua welcomes Ken Burns and Jeffrey Rosen back to the Amphitheater stage for a two-day conversation on themes and threads from the pair’s latest projects: for Burns, the November 2025 PBS documentary “The American Revolution,” and for Rosen, his October 2025 book The Pursuit of Liberty: How Hamilton and Jefferson Ignited the Lasting Battle Over Power in America.
Ken Burns has been making documentary films for almost fifty years. Since the Academy Award nominated “Brooklyn Bridge” in 1981, Burns has gone on to direct and produce some of the most acclaimed historical documentaries ever made, including “The Civil War”; “Baseball”; “Jazz”; “The War”; “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea”; “Prohibition”; “The Roosevelts: An Intimate History”; “The Vietnam War”; “Country Music”; “The U.S. and the Holocaust”; “The American Buffalo”; “Leonardo da Vinci”; and, most recently, “The American Revolution.”
Future film projects include “Emancipation to Exodus” and “LBJ & the Great Society,” among others.
His films have been honored with dozens of major awards, including seventeen Emmy Awards, two Grammy Awards and two Oscar nominations. In September of 2008, at the News & Documentary Emmy Awards, Burns was honored by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences with a Lifetime Achievement Award. In November of 2022, he was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame.
Jeffrey Rosen is chief executive officer emeritus of the National Constitution Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization whose mission is to educate the public about the U.S. Constitution. His latest book, The Pursuit of Liberty: How Hamilton and Jefferson Ignited the Lasting Battle Over Power in America, was released in October 2025. It highlights how the opposing constitutional visionaries continue to drive the debate over the power of government today. Rosen appeared as part of the 2025 Chautauqua Forum on Democracy, where he was publicly announced and recognized for the first time as the newly appointed 2025–26 Chautauqua Perry Fellow in Democracy.
Rosen is currently a professor of law at the George Washington University Law School and a contributing editor of The Atlantic. He was previously the legal affairs editor of The New Republic and a staff writer for The New Yorker. In his former role at the National Constitution Center, he was the host of “We the People,” a weekly podcast of constitutional debate.
Rosen is the author of seven other books, including the New York Times bestseller Conversations with RBG: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Life, Love, Liberty, and Law, as well as biographies of Louis Brandeis and William Howard Taft. He is a graduate of Harvard College; Oxford University, where he was a Marshall Scholar; and Yale Law School.

Colonial Williamsburg Historic Trades & Skills Demonstrations: Blacksmith, Cabinetmaker, Carpenter & Joiner
2026-08-03 12:00, 2026-08-05 12:00, 2026-08-06 12:00 | Bestor Plaza, Bestor Plaza
The Colonial Williamsburg Historic Trades and Skills community uses 18th-century tools and techniques to apprentice in and eventually master more than 20 historic trades and skills. These world-renowned experts not only make goods and provide services to the Historic Area, they also consult and produce for other cultural institutions around the world.
Carpenters and joiners build structures and craft finished woodwork, using traditional hand tools and joinery techniques to create everything from structural framing to doors, windows, furniture, and interior fittings.

Colonial Williamsburg Historic Trades & Skills Demonstrations: Milliner & Journeyman Founder
2026-08-03 12:00, 2026-08-04 12:00, 2026-08-05 12:00, 2026-08-06 12:00, 2026-08-07 12:00 | Oliver Archives Center, Oliver Archives Center
The Colonial Williamsburg Historic Trades and Skills community uses 18th-century tools and techniques to apprentice in and eventually master more than 20 historic trades and skills. These world-renowned experts not only make goods and provide services to the Historic Area, they also consult and produce for other cultural institutions around the world.
Milliners design, make, and sell fashionable accessories and garments for women, including hats, caps, cloaks, gloves, and decorative trims, and mantua-makers are skilled dressmakers who measure, cut, fit, and sew women’s gowns and other fitted garments to the latest fashions.

Conversation with Kyle, Interim CEO
2026-08-03 13:00 | Smith Wilkes Hall, Smith Wilkes Hall

PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR: BEYOND THE MASK
2026-08-03 13:45 | Chautauqua Cinema, Chautauqua Cinema
This feature-length documentary directed by Frederick Lewis, a professor at Ohio University, illuminates the life and legacy of Paul Laurence Dunbar, the first African American writer to gain national and international fame. Frederick will introduce the film and lead a post-screening discussion. (NR, 115m)

Rosemarie Zagarri
2026-08-03 14:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Rosemarie Zagarri is Distinguished University Professor and professor of history at George Mason University. A specialist in Early American political and women’s history, she is the author of a numerous articles and several books, including The Politics of Size: Representation in the United States, 1776-1850, A Woman’s Dilemma: Mercy Otis Warren and the American Revolution, and Revolutionary Backlash: Women and Politics in the Early American Republic.
She has contributed several amicus briefs to the Supreme Court and is a member of the Brennan’s Center’s Historians Council on the Constitution. She has been a historical consultant for the Statue of Liberty Museum as well as on various digital projects, such the Mapping Early American Elections project and When Women Lost the Vote. A former president of the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic (SHEAR), she is also an elected member of the American Antiquarian Society and the Society of American Historians.
Zagarri has received numerous scholarly awards, including fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Philosophical Society, and the George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon. She received her Ph.D. from Yale University.

Masters Series Roundtable: A Conversation with Ken Burns
2026-08-03 15:30 | Norton Hall, Norton Hall
Former Chautauqua president Tom Becker will engage Ken Burns in an in-depth conversation about his forthcoming films and projects. A filmmaker for almost 50 years, Burns will expand upon his morning conversation on the Amphitheater stage. An opportunity for Q & A, patrons can ask about Burns’ awards, career, research and future plans.

Play CHQ: Hopscotch
2026-08-03 16:00 | Heinz Beach, Heinz Beach

Chautauqua Chamber Music: Ruckus with Keir GoGwilt, violin
2026-08-03 16:00 | Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall, Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall
Experience the electrifying energy of Ruckus, a boundary-pushing baroque ensemble redefining early music performance. With virtuosic flair and a fresh, improvisatory spirit, Ruckus brings 17th- and 18th-century works vividly to life. Their performances blend historical authenticity with modern vitality, creating concerts that feel both timeless and daringly new. Don’t miss this exuberant celebration of baroque music at its most alive and joyful.

THE EYES OF GHANA
2026-08-03 17:00 | Chautauqua Cinema, Chautauqua Cinema
Directed by Ben Proudfoot and executive produced by Barack and Michelle Obama. The Eyes Of Ghana follows Chris Hesse, the personal cameraman to revolutionary leader Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of Ghana, who was deposed in a coup d’état in 1966.(NR, 93m)

CHQ Travels Reception
2026-08-03 17:00 | Athenaeum Porch
Join Chautauqua Travels for an hour of wine and conversation at 5 p.m. this evening on the porch of the Athenaeum Hotel.
This informal travel information session offers an opportunity to learn about upcoming Chautauqua Travels experiences, including journeys to Singapore, South Africa and Santa Fe, while hearing directly from travel experts about each destination. Whether you’re considering your next adventure or curious about the program, stop by to meet fellow travelers, ask questions and discover where Chautauqua Travels may take you next.
No registration is required.

Chautauqua School of Dance with the Music School Festival Orchestra
2026-08-03 20:00 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Chautauqua School of Dance presents an outstanding mixed repertoire evening of new and established works, masterfully performed by the Music Student Festival Orchestra. This performance will feature the most exceptional young talent in the country. Under the leadership of Sasha Janes, the school continues its long tradition of excellence as a top-tier summer training program focused on bringing the next generation of dance stars from the studio to the stage.
Comprised of top-tier students from conservatories and universities in the U.S. and abroad, Music School Festival Orchestra members participate in a variety of musical activities during their summers at Chautauqua including chamber music and private lessons along with their meticulous orchestral training. Alumni from the MSFO can be heard in many of the world’s top orchestras and chamber ensembles and can be found on music faculties worldwide. The MSFO is led by Artistic Director Timothy Muffitt, who serves as Music Director of the Lansing Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Laureate of the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra.

W.E.B. DUBOIS: REBEL WITH A CAUSE
2026-08-03 20:00 | Chautauqua Cinema, Chautauqua Cinema
This film directed by Rita Coburn and narrated by Viola Davis, explores the life of the pioneering civil rights activist and scholar W.E.B. DuBois, charting his journey from his birth in 1868 during Reconstruction to his death in 1963 on the eve of the March on Washington. Rita will introduce the film and lead a post-screening discussion. (NR, 113m)

Judi Greewald, CEO of the Nuclear Innovation Alliance
2026-08-04 09:15 | Hurlbut Church sanctuary, Hurlbut Church sanctuary
Chautauqua Science Group Weekly Lecture
Judi Greenwald is the President and CEO of the Nuclear Innovation Alliance.
Ms. Greenwald has over 35 years of energy and environmental policy leadership experience in the public and nonprofit sectors, including the U.S. Congress, the White House, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Energy, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES, formerly the Pew Center on Global Climate Change). Highlights of her distinguished career include working on the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments as congressional committee staff; overseeing energy and environmental programs at C2ES and DOE; co-founding the Carbon Capture Coalition; advising U.S. state and regional greenhouse gas initiatives; and collaborating with stakeholders to advance both economic and environmental goals.
She has focused extensively on deep decarbonization through the interplay of public policy, technology innovation, human behavior, and markets. She served as Deputy Director for Climate, Environment, and Energy Efficiency at US DOE’s Energy Policy and Systems Analysis Office, and the Senior Climate Advisor to the Energy Secretary. She was a fellow at Princeton University’s Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment. Ms. Greenwald received a B.S. in Engineering, cum laude, from Princeton University, and an M.A. in Science, Technology, and Public Policy from George Washington University.

Children's School Old First Night Sing-a-long at Smith Wilkes Hall.
2026-08-04 10:00 | Smith Wilkes Hall, Smith Wilkes Hall
Join us to wish CHQ a Happy Birthday at Smith Wilkes Hall!

Colonial Williamsburg Historic Trades & Skills Demonstrations
2026-08-04 12:00 | Bestor Plaza, Bestor Plaza

Sigrid Jakob: "Fruiting Bodies and Big Ideas: a Citizen Science Adventure"
2026-08-04 12:30 | Smith Wilkes Hall, Smith Wilkes Hall
Bird, Tree & Garden Club lunchtime lecture series
Sigrid Jakob is a freelance marketing strategist during the day and mycophile in her spare time. She’s an avid member and president of the New York Mycological Society, a mushroom club that goes out and observes fungi in New York City’s parks 52 weeks a year. She extracts fungal DNA in her home lab, incubates dung fungi, writes and lectures.

CHQ Mystic Heart - Dhara Kowal, Zen Buddhism Meditation, seminar and practice
2026-08-04 12:30, 2026-08-06 12:30 | Hall of Missions, Hall of Missions

Manisha Sinha
2026-08-04 14:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Manisha Sinha is the Draper Chair in American History at the University of Connecticut and immediate Past President of the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic. She received her Ph.D from Columbia University where her dissertation was nominated for the Bancroft Prize. She was nominated to the OAH Distinguished Lecture Series in 2003. A Guggenheim fellow for 2022-2023, she has received several other fellowships from the NEH and the Mellon foundation. She is the author of The Counterrevolution of Slavery: Politics and Ideology in Antebellum South Carolina which was cited in the New York Times’ 1619 project and named one of the ten best books on slavery in Politico. She is also the author of the multi award winning The Slave’s Cause: A History of Abolition, which was long listed for the National Book Award for Non-Fiction and translated into Chinese in 2025. She taught at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst for over twenty years where she received the Chancellor’s Medal, the highest honor bestowed on faculty. She was a visiting Professor at the University of Paris, Diderot in 2018 and at the University of Heidelberg in 2022, where she received the 2021 Pennington award. She has published widely in the mainstream press, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The New York Review of Books, The Times Literary Supplement, The Boston Globe, and The Nation, to name a few and has been interviewed in the national and international press. Her recent book The Rise and Fall of the Second American Republic: Reconstruction, 1860-1920 won the President’s Book Prize from the Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era in 2026.

School of Music: Open Recital
2026-08-04 14:00 | Fletcher Music Hall, Fletcher Music Hall

Play CHQ: Float or Sink Challenge
2026-08-04 16:00 | Miller Park, Miller Park

TIME & WATER
2026-08-04 16:30 | Chautauqua Cinema, Chautauqua Cinema
Climate Change Initiative-Special Filmmaker Event! Free Admission! Icelandic writer and filmmaker Andri Snær Magnason returns to Chautauqua Cinema with his new film Time & Water, a vibrant elegy which preserves vanishing glaciers, departed grandparents, family memories, and flowing time in his personal archives, transforming loss into a time capsule. “This is a beautiful film. It’s very moving and evocative.” -Claudia Puig, FilmWeek LAist “Breathtaking!” -Tim Cogshell, FilmWeek LAist Andri will host discussion to follow the screening. (NR, 93m)
A National Geographic documentary film inspired by Andri Snær Magnason’s 2019 non-fiction On Time and Water, directed by Sara Dosa, premiered at the Sundance Festival on 27th January 2026.
Facing the death of his country’s glaciers and the loss of his beloved grandparents, Icelandic writer Andri Snær Magnason turns his archives into a time capsule to hold what is slipping away — family, memory, time, and water.
Writer, filmmaker, and poet Andri Magason is one of Iceland’s leading creative forces who has twice met with Chautauqua Travels groups in Reykjavik, and visited Chautauqua Institution in 2023.

Masters Series Masterclass: Colonial Williamsburg Foundation presents Becoming History with Stephen Seals, Nation Builder James Lafayette and Fifes & Drums Experience: Tuesday
2026-08-04 16:30 | Norton Hall, Norton Hall
During “Becoming History with Stephen Seals, Nation Builder James Lafayette”, learn how Colonial Williamsburg’s Nation Builders bring the voices of the past to life with a behind the scenes look into the art and craft of interpretation and how they move from research to scripts, to performance, to impact. The story of America is full of hope and struggle. Step into the past with James Lafayette, enslaved revolutionary spy. Learn more about his contribution to the founding of our nation as you engage with him and experience his world. Experience Stephen Seals’ interpretation of James Lafayette with discussion and Q & A moderated by Robert Currie, Associate Vice President, Performing Arts & Signature Events for The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. Following the masterclass inside, enjoy a quintessential piece of the Colonial Williamsburg experience through the vibrations of 18th-century military music with a series of special performances outside Norton Hall. The march of the Fifes and Drums is an indispensable part of the Colonial Williamsburg visit. The shrill fife and the resounding drum broadcast a wave of sound throughout the city announcing the red-and-blue-uniformed regiment moving through the streets of Williamsburg. What started 65 years ago as four high school students playing “Yankee Doodle” at a Fourth of July celebration has since blossomed into two full Corps of local students who perform more than any other youth Fife and Drum Corps in the country. These students keep alive an even longer tradition of military music that dates back centuries.

Colonial Williamsburg Fifes and Drums performance
2026-08-04 17:45, 2026-08-05 17:45, 2026-08-06 17:45 | Norton Hall, Norton Hall

Old First Night
2026-08-04 18:00 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Old First Night is Chautauqua’s birthday party, and all are invited!
In the early years of Chautauqua, the season’s first night was not in late June but early August. Therefore, Old First Night (OFN) is a celebration of the original first night of the season at Chautauqua.
This event begins with music from Thursday Morning Brass at 6 p.m., followed by vespers and a traditional Chautauqua salute called the Drooping of the Lilies, which honors Chautauquans who are no longer with us. The program continues with music and audience participation events, and all generations are involved, including Children’s School and Boys’ and Girls’ Club. The program concludes with a rousing rendition of “Happy Birthday” accompanied by the Massey Memorial Organ.

Puppy Pals Live - The Action-Packed Comedic Stunt Dog Show
2026-08-04 19:30 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
As Seen on America’s Got Talent, Puppy Pals Live is a family fun action-packed show where adopted and rescued dogs perform spectacular stunts and breathtaking feats. Watch as Puppy Pals Live leads the puppies and audience through challenging and comical tricks as the pooches show everyone who is really boss! Full of canine stunts and laugh-out-loud canine comedy, it is no surprise this show has been a hit all over the USA!

PURSUING LIGHT - THE BILL STRICKLAND STORY
2026-08-04 20:00 | Chautauqua Cinema, Chautauqua Cinema
Director Karen Somers’ documentary Pursuing Light follows the life and legacy of Bill Strickland, whose philosophy of “hope through opportunity” has impacted thousands of lives. This film traces his personal journey and examines how arts education, workforce training, and environments of beauty can help individuals transcend circumstances and achieve their fullest potential. Introduction by Kwame Alexander with a welcome from Bill Strickland. Panel discussion to follow with Karen, Kwame, Bill and executive producer Steve Sarowitz (NR, 86m)

David W. Blight and Tiya Miles
2026-08-05 10:45 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Continuing Chautauqua’s weeklong commemoration of “America at 250,” two of the country’s pre-eminent historians present a mainstage conversation about the moral foundations of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, and how they have been interpreted and reinterpreted throughout American history.
David W. Blight is Sterling Professor of History and Director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at Yale University. In 2020, Yale President Peter Salovey appointed him as chair of the Yale and Slavery Working Group. With his Working Group colleagues, Blight authored the book Yale and Slavery: A History, a narrative study of Yale’s historic involvement and associations with slavery and its aftermaths, published by Yale University Press in February of 2024.
Blight is the immediate past president of the Organization of American Historians. He previously taught at North Central College in Illinois, Harvard University and Amherst College. He is the author or editor of a dozen books, including Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom; American Oracle: The Civil War in the Civil Rights Era; Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory; and annotated editions of Douglass’s first two autobiographies. Blight has worked on Douglass much of his professional life, and been awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the Bancroft Prize, the Abraham Lincoln Prize, and the Frederick Douglass Prize, among others. He writes frequently for the popular press, including The Atlantic, The New York Times, and many other journals.
In 2020, Blight was elected to the American Philosophical Society and awarded the Gold Medal for History by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. At the beginning of his career, he spent seven years as a high school history teacher in his hometown of Flint, Michigan.
Tiya Miles is a public historian and the author of eight books that explore Black, Indigenous and women’s history; place and environment; and contemporary uses of the past. These works include four prize-winning histories and one prize-winning novel about slavery and its legacies. Her 2021 National Book Award winner, All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake, was a New York Times bestseller that won eleven historical and literary prizes.
Miles’ latest work is Night Flyer: Harriet Tubman and the Faith Dreams of a Free People, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography. Her other books include Wild Girls: How the Outdoors Shaped the Women Who Challenged a Nation; The Dawn of Detroit: A Chronicle of Slavery and Freedom in the City of the Straits; The House on Diamond Hill: A Cherokee Plantation Story; Ties That Bind: The Story of an Afro-Cherokee Family in Slavery and Freedom; Tales from the Haunted South: Dark Tourism and Memories of Slavery from the Civil War Era; and the novel The Cherokee Rose.
Miles publishes frequently in national periodicals, and her work has been supported by the MacArthur Foundation (“genius award”), the Guggenheim Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and she currently serves as the Michael Garvey Professor of History at Harvard University.

School of Music: Brass Chamber Concert
2026-08-05 14:00 | Fletcher Music Hall, Fletcher Music Hall

Brandon Dillard
2026-08-05 14:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Brandon Dillard is Director of Historic Interpretation and Audience Engagement at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, the iconic home and historic plantation in Virginia, where he has worked for sixteen years. At Monticello, he leads interpretation efforts and works on exhibits, programs, and training. As a public historian, he focuses on best practices for encouraging connection between the visitor and the power of place. He works to bring people together across differences to encourage collective reflection on our shared pasts. He frequently consults and provides training for museums and historic sites across the United States and abroad on the practice and technique of public history, especially in the interpretation of slavery and Indigenous histories and perspectives, and he regularly lectures on public history, memory, and Native America.
Dillard is an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation. He comes from a long line of southern American storytellers, and he has spent most of his life thinking about public memory and identity. He serves on the North American Steering Committee for the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience and the Leadership Nominating Committee for the American Association of State and Local History. He is an interdisciplinary scholar with degrees in philosophy and anthropology, and he is currently a Royster Fellow at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he is working towards a PhD in American Studies.

Play CHQ: Balancing Bubby
2026-08-05 16:00 | Miller Park, Miller Park

Masters Series Masterclass: Colonial Williamsburg Foundation presents Becoming History with Katharine Pittman, Nation Builder Martha Washington and Fifes & Drums Experience: Wednesday
2026-08-05 16:30 | Norton Hall, Norton Hall
During “Becoming History with Kathatine Pittman, Nation Builder Martha Washington”, learn how Colonial Williamsburg’s Nation Builders bring the voices of the past to life with a behind the scenes look into the art and craft of interpretation and how they move from research to scripts, to performance, to impact. The story of America is full of hope and struggle. Step into the past with Martha Washington, our Nation’s first First Lady. Through stories and questions, explore the hopes, choices and challenges she faced. Experience Katharine Pittman’s interpretation of Martha Washington with discussion and Q & A moderated by Robert Currie, Associate Vice President, Performing Arts & Signature Events for The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. Following the masterclass inside, enjoy a quintessential piece of the Colonial Williamsburg experience through the vibrations of 18th-century military music with a series of special performances outside Norton Hall. The march of the Fifes and Drums is an indispensable part of the Colonial Williamsburg visit. The shrill fife and the resounding drum broadcast a wave of sound throughout the city announcing the red-and-blue-uniformed regiment moving through the streets of Williamsburg. What started 65 years ago as four high school students playing “Yankee Doodle” at a Fourth of July celebration has since blossomed into two full Corps of local students who perform more than any other youth Fife and Drum Corps in the country. These students keep alive an even longer tradition of military music that dates back centuries.

WICKED FOR GOOD
2026-08-05 16:30, 2026-08-06 20:10 | Chautauqua Cinema, Chautauqua Cinema
The conclusion to Jon M. Chu’s 2024 Wicked is “a soaring musical triumph filled with standout performances, extraordinary craft, and an emotional core that is sure to delight fans young and old.” -Linda Marric, HeyUGuys “From its director to its cast, the movie is a testament to diversity (species included) as a common good as well as to love, friendship and solidarity. It’s on the side of kindness, which is itself, well, a balm.” -Manohla Dargis, New York Times “Its sincerity, heart, and belief in a better world are inspiring.” -Billie Melissa, Newsweek (PG, 137m)

Dance Preview: Alonzo King "LINES"
2026-08-05 18:15 | Smith Wilkes Hall, Smith Wilkes Hall
Chautauqua Dance Circle-Anita Lin
alin@chqdancecircle.org

CVA Lecture Series: Susan Lichtman, School of Art Faculty
2026-08-05 18:30 | Hultquist 101, Hultquist 101
The Chautauqua School of Art proudly welcomes Susan Lichtman as a member of our 2026 visiting faculty. Susan Lichtman will participate in the School’s Summer Lecture Series, sharing insights and practices with our artistic community.
Susan Lichtman is a figurative painter of domestic spaces, working out of her home studio in southeastern Massachusetts. She graduated from Brown University and received an MFA in Painting from Yale University School of Art.
Lichtman has had solo exhibitions at Steven Harvey Fine Arts Projects, (NY, NY); Fahrenheit Gallery (Madrid, Spain); Gross McCleaf Gallery, (Philadelphia, PA); and Wilson Museum at Hollins University, (Roanoke, VA.) Recent group exhibitions have been at Steven Harvey Fine Arts Project and Nathalie Karg Gallery, (NY, NY); Wege Center for the Arts, (Fairfield, IA); Chazen Gallery, (Providence, RI); Page Gallery, (Camden, ME); and Crosstown Arts, (Memphis, TN). A recipient of a fellowship from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, she also holds awards from the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation and the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Susan Lichtman is Professor and Charles Bloom Chair, Emerita, of the Department of Fine Arts at Brandeis University. She has been a visiting artist at universities and art schools throughout the US. She was the Frances Niederer Artist-in-Residence at Hollins University, the Guest of Honor at JSS Civita, IT and has taught in summer programs at Yale Norfolk, Pont-Aven School of Art and MassArt New England.

School of Music: Double Bass Concert
2026-08-05 18:30 | Fletcher Music Hall, Fletcher Music Hall

Alonzo King LINES Ballet
2026-08-05 19:30 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Alonzo King LINES Ballet is a celebrated contemporary ballet company that has been guided since 1982 by the unique artistic vision of award-winning choreographer Alonzo King. Since 1982, LINES Ballet has collaborated with noted composers, musicians and visual artists from around the world to create performances that alter the way we look at ballet today. Its unique artistic vision adheres to the classical form — the linear, mathematical and geometrical principles that are deeply rooted in the pre-existing East-West continuum.

WICKED
2026-08-05 19:50, 2026-08-06 16:30 | Chautauqua Cinema, Chautauqua Cinema
Starring Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba, misunderstood because of her unusual green skin, and pop superstar Ariana Grande as Glinda who is gilded by privilege and ambition, director Jon M. Chu’s adaptation of the broadway hit musical is “a wickedly good time at the movies.” -Max Weiss, Baltimore Magazine “Smart, sweet, and sassy in equal measure, with eye-popping special effects, lustrously colorful cinematography and production design, dynamic vocals and dancing, and—best of all—emotionally intimate storytelling.” -Albert Williams, Chicago Reader (PG, 160m)

The Sarah James Trio
2026-08-05 22:00 | Roe Green Theater Center
Chautauqua’s own award-winning singer-songwriter and recording artist Sarah James from Scottsdale, AZ, brings her trio to our late-night series at the Roe Green Theater. From Pittsburgh, PA, accompanying Sarah will be notable guitarist and musical artist Doug Edgell and Aaron Majiros on bass and keys. Sarah James has been a staple at 3Taps here at CHQ and other CHQ County venues bringing her own blend of what she calls “Americana-Fusion” covering a wide variety of genres from rock, pop, indie and a dab of country.
Performing solo and with her band in a variety of venues in the Phoenix market, Sarah’s music video “Take It or Leave It” recently won Bronze at the Berlin Music Video Awards in Germany and First Place in the Los Angeles Wildwood LGBT film festival. Her recent release and lyric video “Better Than This” is currently seeing nearly 250K streams on YouTube. She is also the founder and host of the popular YouTube channel “Vintage Guitar Legacies” which features a presentation and demo of rare and collectable guitars.

Rev. Anna Carter Florence
2026-08-06 09:15 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy

Melody Barnes
2026-08-06 10:45 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Melody Barnes is the founding executive director of the University of Virginia’s Karsh Institute of Democracy, where she leads the Institute on an action-oriented path to realizing the promise of democracy in both principle and practice. She joins Chautauqua’s weeklong exploration of “America at 250” with remarks reflecting on the foundations of democracy and justice, tracing throughlines from the country’s founding to the work of democracy today.
In addition to her leadership at the Karsh Institute, Barnes is the W.L. Lyons Brown Family Director for Policy and Public Engagement in the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences’ Democracy Initiative, a professor of practice at UVA’s Miller Center of Public Affairs, and a distinguished fellow at UVA’s School of Law. She is also co-founder of the domestic policy strategy firm MB2 Solutions. In 2024–25, Barnes was an inaugural recipient of the Chautauqua Perry Fellowship in Democracy alongside New York Times columnist David French; she is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and serves on the boards of several corporate, nonprofit, and philanthropic organizations.
A committed public servant, Barnes brings more than 25 years of experience shaping public policy at the highest levels of government and the non-profit sector. She served as assistant to the president and director of the White House Domestic Policy Council under President Barack Obama. Previously, she was executive vice president for policy at the Center for American Progress and chief counsel to the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. She began her career in law as an associate at Shearman & Sterling in New York.
Barnes holds a B.A. with honors in history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a J.D. from the University of Michigan.

David Waldstreicher
2026-08-06 14:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
David Waldstreicher is a distinguished historian of early America and the nineteenth-century United States whose scholarship focuses on political and cultural history, slavery and antislavery, and the American Revolution. He is Distinguished Professor of History at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.
Waldstreicher is the author of several award-winning books, including The Odyssey of Phillis Wheatley: A Poet’s Journeys Through American Slavery and Independence, widely regarded as the most comprehensive biography of the pioneering African American poet. The book received the Society of American Historians’ Francis Parkman Prize and was praised by critics for placing Wheatley at the center of debates over the relationship between slavery and the American Revolution while reconstructing the intellectual world in which she lived.
His other major works include Slavery’s Constitution: From Revolution to Ratification (2009), Runaway America: Benjamin Franklin, Slavery, and the American Revolution (2004), and In the Midst of Perpetual Fetes: The Making of American Nationalism, 1776–1820 (1997). As an editor, he has contributed to numerous influential volumes, including Revolutions and Reconstructions: Black Politics in the Long Nineteenth Century (2020), the Library of America edition of The Diaries of John Quincy Adams (2017), Beyond the Founders: New Approaches to the Political History of the Early American Republic (2004), and The Struggle Against Slavery: A History in Documents (2001).
His scholarship has earned recognition from leading historical organizations, including the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic, the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, the Southeastern American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, and the American Jewish Historical Society. In addition to his academic work, he has written for publications such as The Boston Review, The Atlantic, and The New York Times Book Review.
Before joining the Graduate Center, Waldstreicher taught at Temple University, the University of Notre Dame, Yale University, and Bennington College. In 2024, he delivered the Benjamin Franklin Distinguished Lectures at the University of Pennsylvania under the title “Three Ages of Slavery and the Future of U.S. History.”

Chautauqua Opera Company Workshop: Anne of Green Gables and A Prayer for Owen Meany
2026-08-06 15:15 | Fletcher Music Hall, Fletcher Music Hall
Chautauqua Opera Company will host the first workshops of two new works by GRAMMY Award nominated composer Luna Pearl Woolf. Toronto’s Against the Grain Theatre has commissioned a new adaptation of Anne of Green Gables by Woolf and librettist Royce Vavrek (Lincoln in the Bardo). Pacific Opera Victoria and Opéra Magnolia have commissioned the first operatic adaptation of John Irving’s internationally best-selling novel A Prayer for Owen Meany, for which Woolf will provide both libretto and music. Through these inventive new operas two of Canadian literature’s most iconic characters, Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Anne Shirley and Irving’s Owen Meany, will come to life. The public presentation with piano accompaniment which concludes these workshops will be the first time any music from these works has been heard, and will give Chautauqua audiences a unique opportunity to watch the development of these groundbreaking works.

Play CHQ: Bubble Party
2026-08-06 16:00 | Heinz Beach, Heinz Beach

Beach-to-Beach Color Sprint
2026-08-06 16:30 | Sports Club, Sports Club
Ages 6+ are invited to run the color sprint. $13 fee includes white t-shirt. Powdered paint tossed at participants as they run from the children’s beach to Heinz beach.Great photo opp at the end! Questions? contact sportsclub@chq.org

Masters Series Masterclass: Colonial Williamsburg Foundation presents Pursuing Happiness with Thomas Jefferson and Fifes & Drums Experience: Thursday
2026-08-06 16:30 | Norton Hall, Norton Hall
On the evening before Thomas Jefferson turns his draft of the Declaration of Independence over to a committee, he is visited by three inspiring voices. Witness a series of imagined conversations between Thomas Jefferson, John Locke and King George III to discover the ghosts behind Jefferson’s drafts of the Declaration of Independence and gain a new perspective on the document we celebrate on the Fourth of July. This special theatrical presentation will be followed by Q & A session moderated by Katharine Pittman, Nation Builder, Martha Washington & Program Lead for The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. Following the masterclass inside, enjoy a quintessential piece of the Colonial Williamsburg experience through the vibrations of 18th-century military music with a series of special performances outside Norton Hall. The march of the Fifes and Drums is an indispensable part of the Colonial Williamsburg visit. The shrill fife and the resounding drum broadcast a wave of sound throughout the city announcing the red-and-blue-uniformed regiment moving through the streets of Williamsburg. What started 65 years ago as four high school students playing “Yankee Doodle” at a Fourth of July celebration has since blossomed into two full Corps of local students who perform more than any other youth Fife and Drum Corps in the country. These students keep alive an even longer tradition of military music that dates back centuries.

Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra with Aubree Oliverson, violin
2026-08-06 20:00 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Rossen Milanov, conductor
Aubree Oliverson, violin
Experience an evening of myth, melody, and modernity with The Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra and guest violinist Aubree Oliverson. Missy Mazzoli’s Orpheus Undone reimagines the ancient myth with driving energy and striking orchestral color. Dvořák’s beloved Violin Concerto brings lyrical warmth and Romantic sweep to the spotlight, showcasing Oliverson’s expressive artistry. The program concludes with Kevin Puts’ Concerto for Orchestra, a dazzling display of rhythmic vitality and instrumental flair that highlights the full power of the ensemble.
Program:
Mazzoli: Orpheus Undone
Dvorak: Violin Concerto
Puts: Concerto for Orchestra

Chautauqua Theater Company Presents for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf by Ntozake Shange
2026-08-06 22:00 | Roe Green Theater Center
CTC’s 2026 Acting Conservatory student Mengwe Wapimewah performs for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf by Ntozake Shange

Ecumenical Communion Service, Rev. Julius Jackson
2026-08-07 09:15 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy

Robert P. George
2026-08-07 10:45 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Robert P. George is McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and director of the James Madison program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University. Currently, he also chairs the New Jersey Advisory Committee of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. George is general editor of New Forum Books, a Princeton University Press series of interdisciplinary works in law, culture and politics. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and is of counsel to the law firm of Robinson & McElwee. He will help close Chautauqua’s week commemorating “America at 250” with his perspective on the significance of “freedom of conscience” in the American founding and ongoing experiment.
George has frequently been a visiting professor at Harvard Law School, teaching philosophy of law and related subjects. In addition, he has served as chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, on the President’s Council on Bioethics, as a presidential appointee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights, and as the U.S. member of UNESCO’s World Commission on the Ethics of Science and Technology.
George is the author of several books; his most recent is Seeking Truth and Speaking Truth: Law and Morality in Our Cultural Moment. He has written numerous academic articles and review essays along with pieces for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post.
A graduate of Swarthmore College, George holds the degrees of J.D. and MTS from Harvard University and the degrees of PhD, BCL, DCL, and D.Litt. from Oxford University, in addition to 23 honorary doctorates. He is a recipient of the U.S. Presidential Citizens Medal, the Honorific Medal for the Defense of Human Rights of the Republic of Poland, the Canterbury Medal of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, and Princeton University’s President’s Award for Distinguished Teaching.

The Age of the Imaginals: A Musical Performance
2026-08-07 12:45 | Smith Wilkes Hall, Smith Wilkes Hall
Following last year’s lecture presentation, Just the Right Climate for Metaphors, Caitlyn Kamminga returns to premiere The Age of the Imaginals. With music by Adam Walters, and poetry by Kamminga, this chamber work blends music and spoken word to explore transformation on a metamorphosing planet. This performance offers an accessible entry point for audiences of all ages to engage with climate change, resilience, and possibility.

Laurie Halse Anderson and Adrian Matejka
2026-08-07 14:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle – Rebellion 1776 by Laurie Halse Anderson and Be Easy: New & Selected Poems by Adrian Matejka
Laurie Halse Anderson and Adrian Matejka will join us in conversation in a joint CLSC Author Presentation on Friday, August 7, 2026, in the Hall of Philosophy. Reading Be Easy: New & Selected Poems by Adrian Matejka alongside Rebellion 1776 by Laurie Halse Anderson creates a powerful conversation about race, resistance, and the meaning of freedom in America. Together, the books highlight how the promises of liberty in 1776 were unevenly distributed and how the struggle for dignity and self-definition continues across centuries. In dialogue, they invite readers to question who freedom was—and is—for, and how rebellion can be both a public act and a deeply personal one.
Rebellion 1776
From New York Times bestselling author Laurie Halse Anderson comes an “thoroughly researched, emotionally resonant” (Booklist, starred review) historical fiction middle grade adventure about a girl struggling to survive amid a smallpox epidemic, the public’s fear of inoculation, and the seething Revolutionary War.
In the spring of 1776, thirteen-year-old Elsbeth Culpepper wakes to the sound of cannons. It’s the Siege of Boston, the Patriots’ massive drive to push the Loyalists out that turns the city into a chaotic war zone. Elsbeth’s father—her only living relative—has gone missing, leaving her alone and adrift in a broken town while desperately seeking employment to avoid the orphanage.
Just when things couldn’t feel worse, the smallpox epidemic sweeps across Boston. Now, Bostonians must fight for their lives against an invisible enemy in addition to the visible one. Elsbeth, who had smallpox as a small child and is now immune, finds work taking care of a large, wealthy family with discord of their own as they await a turn at inoculation, but as the epidemic and the revolution rage on, will she find her father? This book will serve as a joint CLSC and CLSC Young Reader selection.
Laurie Halse Anderson is a New York Times bestselling author known for tackling tough subjects with humor and sensitivity. She’s twice been a National Book Award finalist, for Chains and Speak; Chains also received the Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction. Laurie was chosen for the 2009 Margaret A. Edwards Award and received the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award in 2023, presented to her by the Crown Princess of Sweden. She lives in Pennsylvania, and you can follow her adventures on X @HalseAnderson or visit her at MadWomanintheForest.com.
Be Easy: New & Selected Poems
Revered for his “patient, clever, controlled, [and] visionary” (Hanif Abdurraquib) poems, Adrian Matejka has been a mainstay of contemporary American poetry for over two decades. Gathering hits from six extraordinary collections, Be Easy showcases his singular sonics and narrative vision in fresh, dynamic poems that lyrically complicate place, race, and identity.
Traversing the Midwest from Indianapolis to Chicago, new poems explore the twitchy unease of unintentional migration and economic instability as the country faces a future every bit as unsettling and circus-like as parking lot carnivals of the poet’s childhood. Selections from Mixology (2008)—“a post-soul tour de force” (Kevin Young)—reverberate with the rhythm of ’80s hip-hop, while “revelatory” (Gabrielle Calvocoressi) odes from Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist The Big Smoke (2013) reimagine the legacy of prizefighter Jack Johnson and transcendent poems from Map to the Stars (2017) brim with cosmic jazz.
Matejka’s smooth lyricism flows into a singular, indispensable collection of memories lost and found again. Tracing the continuum of a “rocket-powered” (Campbell McGrath) writer, Be Easy affirms Matejka as one of the most exciting voices of our time.
Adrian Matejka is the author of six poetry collections and the graphic novel Last on His Feet. He has been nominated for the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize, served as the poet laureate of the state of Indiana from 2018–2019, and is editor–in–chief of Poetry magazine. He lives in Chicago.

Chautauqua Opera Company Orchestral Workshop: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
2026-08-07 15:15 | Norton Hall, Norton Hall
In Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead Grammy award-winning composer and librettist Herschel Garfein has created the first ever operatic adaptation of a play by Tom Stoppard. Chautauqua Opera Company’s young artists will be joined by internationally heralded baritone Keith Phares and the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra for a ten-day workshop of the complete opera, which concludes with a public presentation of excerpts and panel discussion with Garfein and Phares. Reviewing excerpts presented at Fort Worth Opera’s Frontiers Festival, the Wall Street Journal said, “composer-librettist Herschel Garfein set the diamond-bright dialogue of the Tom Stoppard play with clarity and wit, heightening the comedy through skillful ensemble writing and characterization.”

School of Music: Percussion Ensemble Concert
2026-08-07 16:00 | Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall, Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall

Chautauqua Theater Company Presents How I Learned What I Learned
2026-08-07 18:00, 2026-08-09 14:00, 2026-08-09 18:00 | Bratton Theater, Bratton Theater
By August Wilson
Directed by Jade King Carroll
Bratton Theater
August Wilson’s celebrated classic solo piece is an autobiographical tour de force that follows Wilson’s journey through the streets of Pittsburgh’s Hill District — through artistic awakenings, odd jobs and heartbreaks — capturing the moments that forged his identity. From the hustle of his early days to the love affair that almost got him killed, Wilson weaves his youth into a series of deliciously compelling stories. With his trademark wit, lyricism, and truth-telling, he invites audiences into the dynamic world that shaped both the man and the master storyteller he became.

MINIONS & MONSTERS
2026-08-07 18:00, 2026-08-08 18:00, 2026-08-09 15:30, 2026-08-09 18:00, 2026-08-10 18:00 | Chautauqua Cinema, Chautauqua Cinema
The Minions bring their penchant for mayhem to Hollywood history in this affectionate and charming sendup of moviemaking magic. “Very funny and often insightful as it zooms through what amounts to a crash course in the early days of Hollywood moviemaking.” -Soren Andersen, Seattle Times “A pure throwback to the early days of cinema.” -Kristen Lopez, The Film Maven “The viewer leaves really believing that those little dandelion CGI blobs had a blast making their movie, and they can’t wait for the next one.” -Johnny Oleksinski, New York Post (PG, 90m)

Flame of Revolution: A Colonial Williamsburg 250th Commemoration
2026-08-07 20:00 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Two hundred and fifty years ago, a handful of visionary minds gathered in Williamsburg, Virginia to do something few had ever dared – they declared their independence, and in doing so, changed the course of human history.
Flame of Revolution is an immersive, multimedia journey into the birth of the Declaration of Independence – the debates that nearly derailed it, the courage that carried it forward and the timeless ideals that continue to challenge and inspire us today.
As the nation’s foremost living history museum, Colonial Williamsburg has spent nearly a century helping Americans not merely remember their founding but truly understand it. Through engaging storytelling, rigorous scholarship, and transformative civic programming, Colonial Williamsburg has educated generations of students, teachers, and lifelong learners on the enduring principles that shaped our nation so that the future may learn from the past.

CAROLINA CAROLINE
2026-08-07 20:30, 2026-08-08 20:30, 2026-08-09 20:30, 2026-08-10 15:15, 2026-08-10 20:30 | Chautauqua Cinema, Chautauqua Cinema
Desperate to escape her small West Texas town, Caroline Daniels runs away with a charismatic con man who takes her on a romantic crime spree through the American South in Director Adam Carter Rehmeier’s gothic thriller. “Samara Weaving and Kyle Gallner, two fine actors rarely granted the glow that comes with a proper star vehicle, positively bask in it here.” -Guy Lodge, Variety “The movie is good from its first shot.” -Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle “It’s a rip-roaring, tragic, joyride.” -Zachary Lee, RogerEbert.com (R, 105m)

CPOA Business Meeting
2026-08-08 11:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy

Annual Corporation Meeting & Leadership Forum
2026-08-08 12:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy

Contemporary Issues Forum: Jim Rasenberger
2026-08-08 15:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Jim Rasenberger, Author and Journalist

Chautauqua Theater Company Presents How I Learned What I Learned (Pick-Your-Price)
2026-08-08 16:00 | Bratton Theater, Bratton Theater

Alonzo King LINES Ballet with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra
2026-08-08 19:30 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Alonzo King LINES Ballet is a celebrated contemporary ballet company that has been guided since 1982 by the unique artistic vision of award-winning choreographer Alonzo King. Since 1982, LINES Ballet has collaborated with noted composers, musicians and visual artists from around the world to create performances that alter the way we look at ballet today. Its unique artistic vision adheres to the classical form — the linear, mathematical and geometrical principles that are deeply rooted in the pre-existing East-West continuum. The Company brings two separate programs to the Amphitheater, with Saturday’s program featuring live music from the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra under the baton of music director Rossen Milanov.

The Rev. Frank A. Thomas
2026-08-09 10:45 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
The Rev. Frank A. Thomas currently serves as the Director of the Compelling Preaching Initiative and the Nettie Sweeney and Hugh Th. Miller Professor of Homiletics at Christian Theological Seminary, Indianapolis, Indiana. For many years, Thomas has also taught preaching to doctoral and master’s level students at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago, Memphis Theological Seminary in Memphis, Tennessee, and United Theological Seminary of Dayton, Ohio. With a long history of excellence in preaching and preaching method, Thomas was inducted into the prestigious Martin Luther King Jr. Board of Preachers of Morehouse College in 2003. Thomas also serves as a member of the International Board of Societas Homiletica, an international society of teachers of preaching.
Thomas is the author of several books including, The God of the Dangerous Sermon, Surviving a Dangerous Sermon, How to Preach a Dangerous Sermon, and Introduction to the Practice of African American Preaching. He also co-edited the anthology Preaching with Sacred Fire: An Anthology of African American Sermons 1750 to the Present. Thomas is also the author of several other books on subjects from matters of prayer to spiritual maturity.
Previously, Thomas served with distinction as the senior pastor for two remarkable congregations: New Faith Baptist Church of Matteson, Illinois and Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church of Memphis, Tennessee.
Thomas holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Communications from the University of Memphis, a Doctor of Divinity from Christian Theological Seminary and Doctor of Ministry degrees from Chicago Theological Seminary and United Theological Seminary. He also holds a Master of Fine Arts from Alma College, Master of Divinity from Chicago Theological Seminary and a Master of Arts from Northeastern Illinois University.

Bandits on the Run
2026-08-09 15:00 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Bandits on the Run are a musical trio from the Brooklyn-Queens border. Born from a chance encounter busking on the subway, Adrian Blake Enscoe, Sydney Shepherd, and Regina Strayhorn defy convention with an impressive trade-off of lead vocals and instruments. The Bandits marry acoustic, electric, and bass guitar sounds with cello, accordion, suitcases-turned-kickdrums, and (if you’re lucky) sometimes even a megaphone.
The Bandit’s three-part harmonies have been heard filling iconic venues while opening for The Wood Brothers’ 2025 East Coast tour, on the main stages at Colorado’s Rocky Mount Folks Fest and Michigan’s Blissfest, and in a sold out residency at Manhattan’s Bowery Electric. Their songs have been featured by NPR’s Tiny Desk and The Moth Story Slam, as well as in Netflix’s Ask the StoryBots and the feature film The Same Storm. The Bandits tour nationally and internationally, with appearances at Cambridge Folk Festival, Floydfest, Summerfest Milwaukee, Americanafest, F1 Singapore Grand Prix, Mile of Music, and more. Their theatrical indie-folk lends itself quite well to storytelling and their work adapting text for a musical production of As You Like It later became their EP The Shakespeare Tapes.
In addition to all their touring and recording work, Bandits on the Run are also in the business of writing musicals, sometimes as a trio and sometimes with collaborators. They are currently creating the stage musical adaptation of the novel What’s Eating Gilbert Grape with actor-musician-longtime friend Christopher Sears and newfound friend Academy Award Nominee Peter Hedges, supported by MCC Theater. Bandits on the Run are also developing an original musical, Yukon Ho, about a group of Black prospectors in the Alaskan gold rush, Yukon Ho was researched on the ground in Skagway, Alaska with support from the NEA, and has been workshopped with support from Prospect Musicals. They are alumni of several musical theater writing development programs, including Berkeley Rep Ground Floor, Rhinebeck Writers Retreat, and the Johnny Mercer Songwriters Grove at Goodspeed Musicals.
Adrian, Sydney, and Regina bring their individual corners of the creative universe into the room when they collaborate. Adrian Blake Enscoe made their Broadway debut in The Avett Brothers’ Swept Away in 2024 and can be seen playing Austin Dickinson in the Apple TV+ Series Dickinson. Sydney Shepherd was most recently seen in the 2025 world premiere of The Ruins at the Guthrie Theater. Regina Strayhorn also works in casting, bringing to life shows for HBO, Amazon, Apple TV, CBS & Hulu, as well as a freelance photographer.
The Bandits will be on the run again soon, touring behind their new full length album “Rough Magic”.
They hope to see you there.

Deborah A. Miranda and A. J. Eversole
2026-08-09 15:30 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
Chautauqua Writers’ Center Faculty Reading — Featuring Deborah A. Miranda (Poetry) and A. J. Eversole (Prose)
Deborah A. Miranda is a writer and enrolled member of the Ohlone-Costanoan Esselen Nation in California, with Santa Ynez Chumash ancestry. Her hybrid project, Bad Indians: A Tribal Memoir, won the PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Literary Award; the 10th anniversary edition of Bad Indians was released in 2023 as a hardback with 50+ additional pages of material. Miranda is also the author of four poetry collections (Indian Cartography, The Zen of La Llorona, Raised by Humans, and Altar for Broken Things) and co-editor of the Lambda finalist Sovereign Erotics: An Anthology of Two-Spirit Literature. Her scholarship focuses on California Indian experiences within and after Missionization and California Indian storyteller and culture bearers such as Isabel Meadows. She is Thomas H. Broadus, Jr. Professor of English emerita at Washington and Lee University, where she taught Native American Literatures and Creative Writing, and was an affiliate of the Shepherd Poverty Studies Program and the Women and Gender Studies Programs. She and spouse Margo Solod now live in Eugene, Oregon.
A.J. Eversole grew up in rural Oklahoma where the wide open spaces fed her imagination. An enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation, she works across adult and children’s literature to explore themes of cultural reclamation, resilience, and the ways ancestral knowledge persists in modern worlds. Her stories appear in Legendary Frybread Drive-In (Heartdrum/HarperCollins), Beyond the Glittering World (Torrey House Press), and the forthcoming Never Whistle At Night Part II. When not writing, she reports on Native Voices in literature for Cynsations News Website. Visit her on socials: @ajeversole

Hebrew Congregation, Shirley Lazarus Sunday Evening Lecture Series- Lindsey Cormack
2026-08-09 19:00 | Smith Wilkes Hall, Smith Wilkes Hall

CHQ Mystic Heart - Kainat (Felicia) Norton and Muinuddin (Charles) Smith, Sufi Meditation
2026-08-10 07:45 | Presbyterian House, Presbyterian House
Kainat Felicia Norton and Muinuddin Charles Smith are senior Sufi teachers, retreat guides, and interfaith ministers within the Inayati Sufi Order. Together they founded and facilitate the Light of Guidance Center for Sufi Studies in New York City. Charles teaches leadership and sustainability studies at Hofstra University and Felicia teaches at the United Nations International School. They are married and live in New York City. Felicia has been touring the solo dance/theatre piece ‘NOOR’, depicting the life of Noor Inayat Khan, Sufi WW2 heroine, in London, Edinburgh, UK, France, and NYC. Together Felicia and Charles co-authored the book, ‘An Emerald Earth–Cultivating a Natural Spirituality and Serving Creative Beauty in Our World.’ Their book offers basic practices, poetry, and wisdom teachings from the Sufi tradition with the theme of joining inner cultivation and sacred ecology. They travel and offer retreats and workshops throughout the US, Canada, Asia, and Europe.

Thr Rev. Frank A. Thomas
2026-08-10 09:15 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater

Nancy Youssef
2026-08-10 10:45 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Nancy Youssef is a staff writer at The Atlantic. Before that, she was a longtime national security correspondent for The Wall Street Journal and also worked at BuzzFeed News and The Daily Beast. Youssef spent much of her career at McClatchy Newspapers where she served as national security correspondent and Middle East bureau chief based in Cairo covering the Middle East and the Islamic world. Prior to that she was McClatchy’s chief Pentagon correspondent, focusing on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. She traveled frequently to those two nations to see how the policies crafted in Washington reached Afghans, Iraqis and the troops alike. She is also the founder of the Pentagon Press Association.
Before covering the Pentagon, Youssef spent four years covering the Iraq war, including a stint as Baghdad bureau chief. Her pieces focused on the everyday Iraqi experience, civilian casualties and how U.S. military strategy was reshaping Iraq’s social and political dynamics. She began her career at the Detroit Free Press, covering legal issues. While at the Free Press, she traveled throughout Jordan and Iraq for Knight Ridder, covering the Iraq war from the time leading up to it through the post-war period. Her journalism career started at The Baltimore Sun.
A Washington, D.C.-area native, Youssef earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from University of Virginia and master’s degree in security studies from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. Youssef’s parents are from Egypt, and she speaks Arabic. Throughout her life, she has been a frequent visitor to the region. She is currently based in Washington, D.C. and is an advocate for supporting neurodiverse children.

Play CHQ: Pom Pom Caterpillars
2026-08-10 12:00 | Bestor Plaza, Bestor Plaza

Kevin Rudd
2026-08-10 14:00 | Hall of Philosophy, Hall of Philosophy
The Honorable Dr. Kevin Rudd AC is a leading international authority on China. He currently serves as Global President and CEO of Asia Society. Asia Society was established in New York in 1956 and now operates across 16 centers with more than 250 staff around the world. Dr. Rudd is also Founding President of the Asia Society Policy Institute, a “think-and-do tank” focused on U.S.-Asia relations, and the Founding Chair of its Center for China Analysis. Dr. Rudd returned to lead Asia Society in March 2026 following three years as Australia’s Ambassador to the United States under the Trump and Biden Administrations. He previously served as Australia’s 26th Prime Minister from 2007 to 2010 and as Foreign Minister from 2010 to 2012, before returning as Prime Minister in 2013. He has published two books on U.S.-China relations, On Xi Jinping (2024) and The Avoidable War (2022), which have been translated into more than seven languages. Dr. Rudd is professionally proficient in Mandarin Chinese. In 2022 he was awarded his DPhil from Oxford University for his dissertation on Chinese President Xi Jinping’s ideological worldview. Over the years, he has been extensively cited on China relations, appearing frequently on U.S. network television, in print media including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and the Financial Times, and across the major outlets in India, Japan and across Europe.

Play CHQ: Penny Spinners
2026-08-10 16:00 | Heinz Beach, Heinz Beach

Chautauqua Chamber Music: JACK Quartet
2026-08-10 16:00 | Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall, Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall
Join the groundbreaking JACK Quartet for a concert of fearless innovation and extraordinary musicianship. Renowned for their precision, passion, and adventurous programming, JACK champions new works that redefine the possibilities of the string quartet. Their performances are both intellectually bold and emotionally gripping, inviting listeners into the cutting edge of contemporary music. Experience why JACK Quartet is hailed as one of the most influential ensembles of its generation.

Music School Festival Orchestra
2026-08-10 20:00 | Amphitheater, Amphitheater
Comprised of top-tier students from conservatories and universities in the U.S. and abroad, Music School Festival Orchestra members participate in a variety of musical activities during their summers at Chautauqua including chamber music and private lessons along with their meticulous orchestral training. Alumni from the MSFO can be heard in many of the world’s top orchestras and chamber ensembles and can be found on music faculties worldwide. The MSFO is led by Artistic Director Timothy Muffitt, who serves as Music Director of the Lansing Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Laureate of the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra.

CHQ Mystic Heart - Kainat (Felicia) Norton and Muinuddin (Charles) Smith, Sufi Meditation
2026-08-11 07:45 | Presbyterian House, Presbyterian House
