Novelist and humanities scholar Alison Moore and singer/songwriter Phil Lancaster have combined audio and visual elements and musical ballads into a collaborative performance that brings the Orphan Train movement, a largely unknown chapter in American history, to public awareness. This story is of particular interest in Arizona, where an infamous 1904 kidnapping of orphans in Clifton and Morenci, with subsequent court cases, occurred. This event was revisited in the Tucson Citizen on November 21, 2012. Click on the following link to view: http://tucsoncitizen.com/southern-arizona-guide/2012/11/21/miracle-on-an-orphan-train-to-arizona/
The one and a half hour multimedia presentation, Riders on the Orphan Train, tells the story of 250,000 orphans and unwanted children who were put on trains in New York between 1854 and 1929 and sent all over the United States to be given away. The presentation is comprised of original music, an audiovisual presentation of archival photographs and interviews with two surviving orphan train riders—a man who came to Berryville, Arkansas, and a woman who came to Greenville, Texas—and is followed by a dramatic recitation from the novel Riders on the Orphan Train by Alison Moore.
After the presentation there is an informal discussion led by Moore and Lancaster about the origin and demise of the largest child migration in history and the part it played in the formation of the American Dream. The human struggle to belong, to define one’s self in the place we call home is exemplified in the stories of these children that have shaped all of our lives. The one hour performance will conclude with dialogue between presenters and audience on the historical and social significance of the Orphan Trains. The presenters will take questions from the audience and will invite relatives and acquaintances of Orphan Train Riders to share their stories.
We invite you to visit their website at www.ridersontheorphantrain.org. Alison Moore and Phil Lancaster developed the outreach program, Riders on the Orphan Train for The Orphan Train Heritage Society of America, Inc. in Springdale, Arkansas in 1997. They are currently the official outreach program for the National Orphan Train Complex Museum and Research Center in Concordia, Kansas.
Tickets are now on sale at the Concierge desk or you may call 520-393-5822 to order by phone. The price for this award winning presentation is $7.50 per person and payments can be made by cash, credit card, Robson card or checks payable to QCCC. Seating in the Madera Clubhouse Crystal Ballroom will be open with no pre assigned seating and the doors will open at 6:15 p.m. on February 13, 2014. Any remaining tickets will be available at the door with payments made by cash or check only.