Patrick Henry is speaking at Texas A&M

On Tuesday April 10th at 3 PM, Richard Schumann will be enacting Patrick Henry's views on Church and State.

Here is the press release:

April 10

3:00 pm

Whitley Suite,  Evans Library 

Speaker:  Richard Schumann, Historical Interpreter, Actor, Lecturer; Colonial Williamsburg Foundation

Title:  "Give Me Liberty: 'Enthusiastic Oratory and Political Dissent in British America  1740-1776"

Co-sponsored by the departments of English, Communication, and History, the Academy of Visual and Performing Arts, with additional support from the Discourse Studies Working Group

Resume and Press Release:

Richard Schumann graduated from Rutgers University, double-majoring in Political Science and English, with a secondary specialization in Pre-Law. He undertook further study in Theatre in New York City at the Herbert Berghoff Studio, where he studied with Uta Hagen, Aaron Frankel, Hal Holden, and Sandy Dennis.  Along with the first generation of historical interpreters trained at Yorktown and Williamsburg, he began his apprenticeship in Living History in Yorktown, Virginia in 1981. 

Schumann has devoted the last 25 years to the thorough performance-based understanding of 18^th-century Virginia.  He joined the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation in 1993, first as a Theatrical Interpreter, and then "became" Patrick Henry, the Voice of the Revolution, in 1995.  Continually striving to master the oratorical genius of the "forest born Demosthenes" before hundreds of thousands of visitors each year, Schumann combines two of his great loves:  acting, and history.  Mr. Schumann firmly believes that if it weren’t for Patrick Henry, we'd all be speaking English today.

Program Synopsis:

Richard Schumann’s depiction of Patrick Henry has impressed audiences again and again as a rare and stunning reconstruction of what ex tempore political oratory was like in a period that taught oratory through practice as much as through precept.  Schumann’s performance highlights how much Henry had learned from the religious orators of his time, particularly Samuel Davies, a Presbyterian “New Light” in Virginia during the 1750s. Henry later melded the “enthusiastic” style he had learned from Davies with his own experiences in the courthouse and tavern culture of Hanover, Virginia, and the House of Burgesses. Schumann’s interpretation and performance of the Henry character, and the “Give Me Liberty”: speech of March 23, 1775, will be followed by ample time for questions and answers. Mr. Schumann will then provide us with insights into how he has gone about reconstructing Henry and preparing his interpretation.  The presentation will be of special interest to our students and scholars in Rhetoric, American Literature and History, Communication, Religious Studies, and Performance Arts.