'Ghosts of the Civil War' to Visit RPL Oct. 6

Ghosts of the Civil War
Husband-and-wife team Mark Dawidziak and Sara Showman, co-founders of Largely Literary Theater Company, will present "Ghosts of the Civil War: Shades of Blue and Gray" in Rodman Public Library's Main Auditorium on Wednesday, Oct. 6 at 6:30 p.m. The program is presented by Alliance’s Civil War-era historic home, the Haines House Underground Railroad Museum.

Although its last battle was fought more than 150 years ago, our nation continues to be haunted by the Civil War, the bloodiest and most wrenching conflict in American history.

Largely Literary Theater Company co-founders Sara Showman (from the South) and Mark Dawidziak (from the North) will examine the War Between the States with a mixture of haunting tales, literary selections, song and history when they visit Rodman Public Library’s Main Auditorium at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 6 to present “The Ghosts of the Civil War: Shades of Blue and Gray.”

 Dawidziak and Showman, a husband-and-wife team, will take the audience on a 90-minute ghostly tour that begins in Ohio, with stories drawn from Marietta, a stop on the Underground Railroad and the still-standing Hope iron furnace, as well as the two Confederate cemeteries that were part of prisoner of war camps in Columbus and on Johnson's Island. The journey continues with stories from South Carolina and Virginia, with a special section about Abraham Lincoln and the White House hauntings. Literary selections include poems by Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson.

Dawidziak is well-known as a writer in northeast Ohio. He was a TV and film critic and later the critic-at-large at the Akron Beacon Journal for much of the 1980s and 1990s. Since 1999, he has been the television critic for The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and has authored several books.

The Largely Literary Theater Company was founded in 2002 by Dawidziak and Showman, who met when they were cast in a Tennessee production of Neil Simon’s "The Good Doctor." Their mission is to champion literacy, literature and live theater by bringing to life on stage great literary works, multicultural stories and authors such as Charles Dickens, Mark Twain and Edgar Allen Poe.

Registration is required for “Ghosts of the Civil War” at Rodman Public Library by calling 330-821-2665, ext. 107, or online at rodmanlibrary.evanced.info/signup.