Editor's Note: Couldn't be in Gettysburg for this year's Gettysburg Festival? We sent our digital reporter interns out to some of the events. Below are some highlights of events from this year's programming.
Local Galleries Host Edible Art
Tour Preview Party
Story and Photography by Casey Saylor
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| Art displays at the Gettysburg Frame Shop |
Fine art, food and wine intertwined
when five Gettysburg art galleries opened their doors for the Edible Art Tour
Preview Party, Thursday, June 13. From 5 to 9 p.m., ticket holders walked through
Historic Gettysburg to participating galleries, enjoying both artistic and
culinary creations while rubbing elbows with featured artists and chefs.
One such artist was John Paul
Strain, who could be found at the King James Gallery Thursday evening. After pursuing
Western art for 11 years, Strain shifted to a historical, Civil War style,
which he has stuck with for 24 years. By living in Gettysburg, portraying a cavalry
commander in reenactments and conducting endless research, Strain strives to
make every painting as historically accurate as possible. “Other cavalry men
can look at my paintings and see that I know what I’m doing,” he said,
motioning toward the saddled horses on his canvas. In honor of the 150th
Anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, Strain has spent the last number of
years creating three paintings, one portraying an event on each day of the
battle. All three paintings are on display and available for purchase at the
King James Gallery on 15 Baltimore St., Gettysburg.
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John Paul Strain
has created three exclusive paintings for the 150th anniversary of
the Battle of Gettysburg. Here, he was touching up a print of his third 150th
anniversary painting with oil paint. Both prints and originals of his work are
available at the King James Gallery.
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The Adams County Arts Council,
Gettysburg Frame Shop, King James Gallery, Lord Nelson’s Gallery and Lord
Nelson’s Satellite Gallery at the Gettysburg Fire Hall all hosted displays
during the Edible Art Tour Preview Party. The Blue Parrot Bistro, Garryowen
Irish Pub, Gettysburg Hotel, Inn at Herr Ridge, Wyndham Gettysburg and the
Historic Fairfield Inn (1757) were featured for culinary art, one at each of
these locations.
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Hunter Hayes Highlights the 2013 Gettysburg Festival
Story and Photography by Casey Saylor
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| Hayes hits a high note during his sold-out performance at the Gettysburg Festival. The piano in the background would be used later in his performance for his hit single, “Wanted.” |
As the sun shined on a mild, rainless evening, mills
of people from the area and beyond were attracted to Gettysburg on Friday, June
14 for the Gettysburg Festival’s headliner: the Hunter Hayes concert. Held on
Memorial Field at the local Gettysburg College, approximately 4,000 people were
expected to attend the sold-out concert, with some reports of people arriving
at the grounds as early as 6 a.m. to claim their seats. Later, as Gettysburg
College parking lots frantically filled at concert time, parking accommodations
were extended to the nearby HACC Campus, where buses shuttled concert goers to
the stadium.
At approximately 7:05 p.m.,
excited chants from the waiting crowd brought Hayes and his band onstage. “It
is so wonderful to be with you tonight Gettysburg!” He shouted above the crowd,
then launched into his first song. Although all his music was well received,
the crowd’s greatest reactions were to the opening chords of his hits: “Storm
Warning,” “Somebody’s Heartbreak,” “Wanted” and “I Want Crazy.”
Conveying tons of energy through
his 5-foot, 6-inch frame, Hayes worked the crowd, giving them both the hits
they loved while mixing in a taste of his lesser known songs. While tunes such
as “Rainy Season” and “Faith to Fall Back On” broke up the hits, Hayes touched
on a serious note as he formally dedicated “Where We Left Off,” an exclusive
song from the film Act of Valor, to
“all the men and women in the audience who served.”
All throughout the night, Hayes
proved an extremely gracious host, making sure that his audience recognized his
appreciation of them from the beginning of his show (“Seriously, thank you so
much for showing up tonight…” [embarrassed laugh]), to the continuous thank-you acknowledgements at the end of it.
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Hunter Hayes performs at the Gettysburg College campus.
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After his final song, “I Want
Crazy,” Hayes and his band left the stage, only to return after the ensuing
applause and chants for an encore. After playing an original song written for
fellow country artist Rascall Flatts titled “Play,” Hayes encouraged the
audience to sing along with them to a cover of the pop-rock band Maroon 5 song,
“This Love.”
As the lights went out and
vendors collected their final sales, I interviewed a couple concert goers. When
asked their favorite aspect of the show, most of their immediate responses were
simply, “Hunter Hayes.” Two friends however, Mallory and Mallorie, claimed the
Maroon 5 song as their favorite part. “It shows that he’s into more than
country,” said Mallory. “[And] there was a part where he didn’t know the words,
but that’s OK, because it made me feel better because I didn’t either!”
Hunter Hayes was voted Best New
artist in 2012 by the Country Music Association.
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Boritt’s Premiere Takes a Fresh Look at the
Gettysburg Battle
Story and Photography by Casey Saylor
After this brief speech on the
festival, Prasse introduced Jake Boritt to the stage, writer and director of
the evening’s premiering film. After a short thank-you speech, Boritt addressed
the crowd. “I know a lot of you know a lot about Gettysburg,” he said. “But
you’ve never seen anything like what you’re about to see on the battlefield.”
And with that, the film promptly began.
For the next hour, the big screen
filled with gorgeous images of Gettysburg, many so striking that they could
steal even a local’s breath away. “Over three days on this ground,” the
narrator’s deep voice rang out, “America will live or die.” After this opening
line, the film went on to tell the traditional story of the Battle of
Gettysburg in an untraditional way: in chronological order, without actors and using
the current Gettysburg National Military Park setting. This would mean that every
battle, general, civilian and soldier mentioned would have to be brought to
life onscreen solely by state-of-the-art camera work and narration. Not an easy
task, but Boritt and his crew were able to successfully hit their mark.
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As the final credits roll, the
crowd gives Borritt’s film a standing ovation.
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For instance, when a general such
as Mead or Lee was mentioned, their monument would artfully fill the screen. Silhouettes
of the generals’ statues against the fields their armies fought on often
accompanied their narrated dialogue during the battle. As the narrator told the
story, subscripts appeared at the base of the screen, identifying where the
depicted area is in the park and the date/time the area was used during the 1863
battle. Phrases such as, “At this moment, on this day…” were often used by the
narrator along with subscripts to keep the recent images connected to the
150-year-old events. Electronically generated maps mixed with aerial views of
the battlefields were used to illustrate battle formations and strategies, while
sound effects completed the essence of battle with horse whinnies, gunshots and
the yells of soldiers. Obscure, sometimes amusing descriptions profiling
generals, soldiers and civilians acted as comic relief as they portrayed the
historic figures as layered people rather than their often stiff
representation. Boritt describes the film’s soundtrack as a “pop version” of
Civil War music.
Although this new documentary
structure was certainly different, the premiere audience’s reaction proved it
successful. In a brief Q & A session after the premiere, a woman shouted
her agreement from the balcony. “Thank you… I’ve been coming to Gettysburg 11
years now… I’ve taken the tours, maps and museums… [but] now that I’ve seen the
movie, I think I [finally] know what’s what!”
During the Q & A session, Boritt
disclosed his plans for The Gettysburg
Story to be aired on public television this coming November, right around
the 150th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address. DVDs of the film
should be available for sale in “a couple weeks,” according to Boritt.
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The Art of Storytelling with Jeff Shaara
Story and Photography by Brendan Raleigh
“There’s a story,” historical fiction novelist Jeff Shaara tells his audience.
The moment a young American soldier discovers a German concentration camp; the intimate yet historically-informative letters between John and Abigail Adams; the death of Albert Sidney Johnson, the second highest-ranking officer in the Confederate Army. “There’s a story.”
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| Jeff Shaara signs a copy of A Chain of Thunder. |
Shaara, the 12-time New York Times bestselling author behind the novels Gods and Generals and The Last Full Measure, delivered a lecture to history buffs and literature lovers alike on Saturday, June 15 at the Adams County Agricultural & Natural Resources Center. The lecture was a featured event of the sixth annual Gettysburg Festival, which took place from June 8 to June 16.
Shaara holds a personal connection to the town, as his late father Michael Shaara is the author of The Killer Angels, the basis of the movie Gettysburg.
After an outdoor luncheon in the center’s picnic shelter, Shaara and his fans entered the Agricultural & Natural Resources Center, where the author discussed a number of topics, ranging from the personal to the historical, including his path to becoming a writer, his relationship with his father and the historical events behind his books.
The focus of his oration, however, was on how he came to the stories he writes about. Rather than selecting a popular subject guaranteed to have a broad audience, Shaara instead searches for stories that have been practically untouched by writers and filmmakers, such as the Korean War or the Civil War’s Western Theater. By choosing these more obscure stories, he hopes to inspire the same passion and curiosity in his readers that he has experienced.
Shaara also noted his exclusive use of historical documents so as to maintain credibility with his audience, specifically the historians and Civil War purists who protest to the very concept of his novels, which place the reader in the mind of historic figures such as Robert E. Lee or Joshua Chamberlain.
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| Living historians gather for Jeff Shaara's presentation. |
The phrase, “I bet you didn’t know that!” peppered throughout his lecture, Shaara discussed untold story after untold story, providing his audience with a number of new perspectives on American military history.
Following the path of his father, Shaara has written a dozen historical fiction novels since his outset in 1996. His first two novels concluded the trilogy started by Michael Shaara’s The Killer Angels.
Despite the recent literary success experienced by Shaara and his father, who won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1975, the younger writer lamented that his father never lived to see the fruits of his labors, passing away before the success of The Killer Angels and its movie adaptation.
Fortunately, Shaara found some solace in the fact that he was able to use his father’s original title for The Killer Angels for his own book, Gods and Generals, stating, “That is a bond that can never be broken.”
Following the lecture, Shaara held a book signing for his fans, in which his newest work, a Civil War novel entitled A Chain of Thunder, was available for purchase.
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The Lettermen Deliver Gettysburg Festival Performance
Boasting 18 gold albums worldwide, five Grammy nominations and a place in the Vocal Group Hall of Fame, The Lettermen acted as one of the premier performances in the sixth annual Gettysburg Festival, which featured artists such as country singer Hunter Hayes and Surf’s Up: A Tribute to The Beach Boys.
Founding member Tony Butala, along with long-time members Bobby Poynton and Donovan Tea, were introduced by Randy Prasse, the executive director of the festival, and a montage of Dean Martin, Merv Griffin and a number of other television stars who had hosted presented The Lettermen, before diving into the performance with their 1969 hit, “Shangri-La.”
The group’s repertoire featured
notably positive and uplifting messages, celebrating themes such as love and liberty
in their covers of Frank Sinatra’s “More” and The Rascals’ “People Got to Be
Free.” Encouraging the audience to embrace one another in, regardless of their
relationship, the group was a source of unity and vibrancy throughout the
night.
Founded in 1959 by
Butala and bandmates Jim Pike and Bob Engemann, The Lettermen have seen numerous
incarnations throughout the years. The trio has been its current form since
2011, when Poynton rejoined Butala and Tea, six years after his departure from
the band in 1995. Hundreds of songs and dozens of albums have marked the
success of the group’s 54-year-long, accolade-speckled career.
The Lettermen have performed at The
Majestic eight to 10 times before their show on the evening of Saturday, June 15.
From Gettysburg, the trio will continue
their 2013 tour, going to Annapolis, Maryland on June 28 and Ocean Grove, New
Jersey on June 29. Butala and his bandmates’ busy tour schedule denotes the
continuation of their already long and successful careers.
The Gettysburg Festival lasted
from June 8 to June 16, featuring a lecture from historical fiction novelist
Jeff Shaara, a concert from the U.S. Army Concert Band & Soldier’s Chorus, and
over 60 other events and performances.
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