November 10 & 11, 2023
7:30 p.m.
Welcome! Four score and some months ago (ahem), I started this podcast with a few
dozen listeners and an ardent desire to make US history fun and accessible. I never
imagined it would grow as it has, now consistently placing among the Apple® and Spotify®
top history podcast charts with more than 100 episodes and millions of downloads to
date.
I adapted HTDS for the stage for the same reason I first created the podcast: to bring important stories from the past, both well-known and forgotten, back to life. History is full of rich, complex, and complicated situations and people. We sometimes forget this when saddled with a name-and-date heavy textbook, but I reject the idea that good history has to be a dry, ivory-tower telling. In brief, good history doesn't have to be told in a way that sucks.
Tonight will be different from the podcast. We will enjoy the magic of lights, images, and comradeship – all the joys of theater and stagecraft. As much as I want you to enjoy these added aspects, I hope you'll allow the stories to be the key element that paints a picture in your mind. While this is an evening of spectacle and rigorous research, the key element, in my humble opinion, is getting lost in the audible experience as our ancestors did before the bard gave way to streaming. Above all, I am here to tell you a story.
I have the honor to be, your obedient servant,
Greg
Chapter I: Game of Empires
The mighty French and British empires are playing a game of chess with their colonies in North America. Young George Washington, in his first command of a colonial militia, stumbles into a dustup with French troops and their Native American allies, which inadvertently ignites a world war. Finding themselves pawns in the game, American colonists contemplate forming a "union."
Chapter II: Death and Taxes
Spoiler alert: Britain wins the war with France and gains disputed territories in North America. However, more territory means more problems, and Britain needs money. Parliament begins to tax the colonies for the first time ever, and the sparks of a revolution fly in New England.
Chapter III: The Rebel Alliance
The violence in New England has turned deadly for colonists and costly for Parliament. Parliament ups the ante in this game with its Coercive Acts to bring these rebellious colonies into line. "Americans," as expressed by Patrick Henry, throughout the colonies are now sympathetic to Bostonians suffering under Parliament's levy and view the latest acts by Parliament as "intolerable."
Chapter IV: The Empire Strikes
King George III doesn't back down and views the colonies as blatantly rebellious; "blows must decide" the outcome. Colonial delegates from each state gather in Philadelphia. They debate fiercely on a course of action and ultimately declare independence for their "league of friendship," the United States.
Chapter V: The United "Nations"
Now united, and with an assist from France, American colonies pull off an upset in overthrowing British rule to become their own nation. Okay, now what? How will they govern "the people"?
Chapter VI: We Hold These Truths?
The Declaration set a lofty vision for what this new union of nation-states will become. Rallying against a common foe is different than providing for the common good when ideals and economic interests collide.
Chapter VII: An Imperfect Union
The American union fractures from a divide that the founders never resolved because of positions that, James Madison had admitted less than a century earlier, were rooted "principally from their having or not having slaves."
Chapter VIII: From the Bloodiest Day to a Proclamation
Bloody, historic, horrible war rages. President Lincoln uses all the power granted a wartime Commander in Chief and finally ends the insidious institution at root in the divide: slavery.
Chapter IX: Total War and Politics
Lincoln overcomes formidable challenges to win a second term, but to win in war and politics he must become a "radical" leader.
Conclusion: Our Better Angels
"We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection...this broad land will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature." -Abraham Lincoln
As we prepare to welcome the community to experience the wonder at The Noorda, I’d like to thank you for making it all possible.
The performing arts inspire us to engage with others, discover new ways of thinking and feeling, and provides us with hope—in short, we believe the arts transform you. As an exciting hub for the arts in Utah County, we produce hundreds of performances by talented students, faculty, and world-renowned visiting artists. We invite everyone to join in connecting through the arts.
As part of UVU’s inaugural EverGREEN fundraising campaign, I invite you to make a gift to UVU’s Noorda Center for the Performing Arts today.
Your gift impacts not only students, but everyone who comes to The Noorda by ensuring programming and exciting artistic creation continues.
Please make a gift today by clicking below. Thank you!
| Creator, Head Writer, and Host | Greg Jackson |
| Producer & Director | Dossie McCraw |
| Cello | Alexander Taylor |
| Violin | McKenna Taylor |
| Graphic Design | Tim Bryant |
| Theme Music | Greg Jackson |
| Music & Arrangement, Airship Productions |
Lindsay Graham |
| Music & Arrangement, Airship Productions |
Mollie Baack |
| HTDS Operations | Kelsi Dynes |
| HTDS Editorial | Will King |
Special Thanks: HTDS Live was first staged at the Bartlett Performing Arts Center in Tennessee, January 2022. Special thanks to Michael Bollinger, Artistic Director of Bartlett Performing Arts Center for his friendship and ongoing support!
Special thanks as well to the Professor's wife Sue Jackson! Despite her own busy career as a professor and university administrator, the "other"
Dr. Jackson has been nothing but supportive of the countless hours sunk into HTDS
over the last five years. Also to the Prof's sister Diana, brother Bradford, and mother
Susan for their support.
Follow HTDS Podcast: If you like what you heard and saw tonight, please follow the History That Doesn't
Suck podcast, published bi-weekly on podcasts platforms. Think of HTDS as covering
the basics of what an American should but possibly doesn't know (or has forgotten)
about history. Each episode stands on its own as a story, but taken together, they
will also walk you through a survey of US history that starts with the Revolution
and will (eventually) go right up to the present.
Facebook, Instagram, Threads: @Historythatdoesntsuck; Twitter/X: @HTDSpod; or online
at HTDSpodcast.com. Support on Patreon.com/historythatdoesntsuck.
Book HTDS Live: Contact Dossie McCraw [email protected]
Give us your feedback:
Click here to take our audience survey!
Utah Valley University acknowledges that we gather on land sacred to all Indigenous people who came before us in this vast crossroads region. The University is committed to working in partnership—as enacted through education and community activities—with Utah’s Native Nations comprising: the San Juan Southern Paiute, Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah, Uintah & Ouray Reservation of the Northern Ute, Skull Valley Goshute, Confederated Tribes of the Goshute Reservation, Northwestern Band of Shoshone Nation, Hopi Tribe, Navajo Nation, Ute Mountain Ute-White Mesa Community, and urban Indian communities. We recognize these Native Nations and their continued connections with traditional homelands, mountains, rivers, and lakes as well as their sovereign relationships with state and federal governments. We honor their collective memory and continued physical and spiritual presence. We revere their resilience and example in preserving their connections to the Creator and to all their relations, now and in the future.
With this statement comes responsibility and accountability. We resolve to follow
up with actionable items to make the School of the Arts at UVU and The Noorda Center
for the Performing Arts an inclusive, equitable, and just space for all. There is
much work to be done, and we are committed to putting these words into practice.
Artwork by Shane Walking Eagle (Sisseton Dakota).
Our mission is to produce and present artistic excellence, which would not be possible without the generous support of our sponsors. We thank them and express our deep gratitude to all patrons, supporters, and friends of The Noorda.
The arts possess the unparalleled power to inspire, educate, liberate, and transform. They elevate moments, mark milestones, soften edges, and generate profound meaning. Experience the beauty and wonder of the arts with us this season at The Noorda and begin at once to live!
Courtney R. Davis, J.D., M.A.
Dean, School of the Arts
