THE EDEN VALLEY STORY (A 40TH ANNIVERSARY SERIES)
as told by Bette Lou Higgins, Artistic Director

PART 14

Since then we have been producing all sorts of programs for various organizations around the Cleveland area. Mainly, a group gets an idea about a program they’d like to have and commissions us to research and write it. Sometimes they choose to have us present it and sometimes they present it themselves. All in all, we’ve put together more than 40 programs since then! We’re pretty busy for a little non-existent company!

One of our first commissioned projects was for the Cleveland Health and Education Center -- a museum on Euclid Ave. that, unfortunately, is no longer there. As you can imagine, they specialized in exhibits and programs that dealt with our bodies and health. They were famous for their transparent, talking woman, Juno. She was designed in 1926 by Franz Tschakert of the German Hygiene Museum in Dresden. With a clear, plastic skin that showed her skeleton, blood vessels, organs, nerves and lymphatic system and accent lighting and audio recordings she taught visitors about their bodie. She came to the museum in 1952. Since the closing of the museum, she spent some time at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and has since moved to the Dittrick Museum of Medical History.

We did three special programs for the Health Museum. A first-person character program for our MEET THE PEOPLE SERIES about Antony Van Leeuwenhoek who discovered the Microscopic World of bacteria and a wacky play about the five senses called The Sense-Ational Circus. At Christmas time, we did a revised version of our Johnnycake Christmas program to start a conversation of the effects of stress on health -- specifically the stress of the commercialism of the season. This program featured a family who learns to celebrate the season simply -- just like they did in the 1800s in the Western Reserve. All three programs were very well received.

The best story coming from the Health Museum shows involved The Sense-Ational Circus. You’ll find out what it is in our next installment!

To be continued ...