The Chautauquan Daily

For Children’s School administrators, a major goal for several years has been to incorporate more outdoor learning for the kids who attend the program. This year, after five years of planning, designing and building, their goal has finally been reached. The final product: the new “sensory garden” in the backyard of the Children’s School, which allows children to experience nature in a whole new way.

The Rev. Katharine Rhodes Henderson said she considers “troublemaker” and “activist” to be honorific titles, so it only made sense that her lecture was titled “Trouble the Waters, Heal the World.” Henderson is the president of Auburn Theological Seminary and the author of God’s Troublemakers: How Women of Faith Are Changing the World.

For Voice Program faculty member Donald St. Pierre, teaching music is not just about the notes on a page. It is about reminding students why they got involved with music in the first place. At 7:30 p.m. tonight in McKnight Hall, singers will bestow another warm greeting to the Chautauqua community through song with a voice concert. It is the first concert in a series of Wednesday night performances that will offer a glimpse into the hard work these students have done throughout their stay at the Institution.

In the south of Switzerland, they speak Italian. So the first time Sharon Creech visited Switzerland in 1982, she made sure to learn Italian. But when the Newbery Award-winning author of Walk Two Moons returned to the country in 2007, she found that hopping between English and Italian was much more difficult than it used to be.

The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori shared some of her faith journey at the 5 p.m. Vespers Service Sunday. Ruth Becker, registrar at the United Church of Christ denominational houses, served as liturgist, and Janet Miller provided accompaniment on the piano. Born in Pensacola, Fla., while her father was in the Navy, Jefferts Schori grew up outside of Seattle until she was 9 years old.

Lasers, bowling balls, electric carving knives and comedy will fill the Amphitheater at 7:30 p.m. tonight. These all play a part in “Expecting the Impossible: Mark Nizer’s Live 3D Show,” a special Wednesday entry into Chautauqua’s Family Entertainment Series this summer.

Chautauqua Theater Company begins the first of 15 performances of its production of Anton Chekhov’s “Three Sisters” with a preview of the play at 8 p.m. tonight in Bratton Theater. The company’s preview performance is open to the public and allows the guest director to see the show with an audience before he leaves Chautauqua.

If anyone is qualified to speak on applied ethics in government, it is David Gergen. A political consultant who has advised the administrations of presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, he has an intimate knowledge of the key ingredients of sound leadership in the political sphere. Among the most important, Gergen said, is a strong ethical grounding.

Rabbi David Saperstein has been called many things in Washington. A profile of him in The Washington Post called him “the quintessential religious lobbyist on Capitol Hill.” Newsweek named him the most influential rabbi in the country in 2009, and major news outlets like The Wall Street Journal and Religion News Service identified him as one of the most influential people in shaping religious issues in elections.

Bill Purcell remembers the first debate he experienced in 1986 as a member of the Tennessee House of Representatives. “Mr. Speaker, I rise to observe that the snack bar, which has for so long stood in the area outside this great chamber, has been removed, and I now call upon you, sir, to explain, ‘Where is our snack bar?’” a senior member of the legislature said as he stood.

SLIDESHOW: Scenes from around Chautauqua Institution on Independence Day 2011

“We Americans have trouble with religion,” said James Carroll. “Many Americans think, for example, that Joan of Arc was Noah’s wife.” But that’s only the beginning.

Jackson Rohm, a Jamestown, N.Y., native, returns to the College Club for a free evening of acoustic country, rock and pop at 9 p.m. tonight. Rohm visited Chautauqua many times in his youth. Now, he tours across the eastern states with his music but returns to Chautauqua County every summer. Rohm has been entertaining audiences at the College Club for more than ten years.

Audience members can find themselves taking an active role in tonight’s Family Entertainment Series performance. This is the Pittsburgh Opera’s “Opera Improv Trunk,” and it allows audience members to take part in making a finished “Opera-on-the-spot” improvisation alongside Pittsburgh Opera teaching artists.

Bol Malual remembers dodging crocodiles when he was a child. The water-dwelling predators were just one of the threats he faced on his journey as one of the thousands of Lost Boys of Sudan.

Three shows filled with color, creativity and artistic interpretation will have opening receptions from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. today in the Fowler-Kellogg Art Center.