The Blue Ridge Dinner Theatre at Ferrum College
has received a Discretionary Grant from the Virginia Foundation for
the Humanities. The grant will support informal conversations about
social issues paralleling the productions in the BRDT’s 27th season.
Using the historical idea of the Chautauqua Institute, the BRDT will
invite resource people to talk. Each expert will introduce a topic
for discussion with the listeners.
The “Saturday Sems,” as the theatre is calling
these informal conversations, will encourage members of the community
to interact with each other and the speaker in an exchange of ideas
about various public topics. Admission to the “Saturday Sems” is free.
Each will be held at 6:00 p.m. on Saturdays in June, July, and August
in the new Skeens Conference Center in Franklin Hall at Ferrum College.
Theodore Roosevelt called Chautauqua events "the
most American thing in America." Woodrow Wilson described them
as an "integral part of the national defense." The BRDT
and the VFH hope to learn whether people today attach similar importance
to such conversations.
Ferrum College is a four-year, private, co-educational,
liberal arts college affiliated with the United Methodist Church.
Ferrum offers a choice of nationally recognized bachelor’s degree
programs at a cost well below the national average for private colleges.
For more information on Ferrum, visit www.ferrum.edu.
