The Tramp and the Rough Rider
Produced by and starring Lee Stetson as John Muir and Alan Sutterfield as Theodore Roosevelt
July 11th at 7:00pm
Mariposa County High School’s Fiester Auditorium
$8 for Students, Senior Citizens, and Arts Council Members
$10 for General Admission
In May of 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt, planning a tour of the western forests, invited the naturalist John Muir to a four-day camping trip in the Yosemite wilderness.The Tramp and the Roughrider illuminates this extraordinary encounter, with the action unfolding at sunset on Glacier Point, overlooking the magnificent Yosemite Valley.
Both of these characters were feisty and opinionated, and had sharp disagreements on issues like hunting, animal rights, and forest management. Muir’s poetic and evangelistic temperament, clashing with Roosevelt’s political (and boyish) enthusiasms, naturally spawned both tension and humor. Both skillful storytellers, it seems natural that both would seek to top one another by relating some of their many adventures in the American wilderness – Roosevelt bringing a frontier ruffian to justice, for example, or Muir telling of his hair-raising ‘interview’ with a Yosemite bear. At the time of this historic meeting, many millions of acres of our western forest, with little or no governmental supervision, were being exploited and abused by hunting, lumber, stock and mining interests.
The federal government had established only five national parks and one small wildlife preserve (Pelican Island) and was without a Park Service. The Yosemite Valley, though surrounded by a national park, was controlled by the state of California, and was frowsy and neglected.
But around the campfire, in sifting through their histories and their hopes, these very different men slowly discover how the other had been shaped by the wilderness they loved, opening up some rich possibilities of “doing some forest good.” And by the end of Roosevelt’s presidency, America could boast of an additional 200 million acres of forest wilderness, five more national parks, and 65 wildlife preserves. Bully! Whether you’re a naturalist, a sports-man, or both, you will be captivated by this passionate performance by Lee Stetson as John Muir and Alan Sutterfield as Theodore Roosevelt.
For more information about John Muir presentations, please see: www.johnmuirlive.com
