The Conner Prairie theater was filled for both of Jennifer Goran’s performances of Ellen Craft.
On Martin Luther King Day, actress Jennifer Goran had the crowd mesmerized as she portrayed Ellen Craft (the Vanishing Woman) at Conner Prairie Interactive History Park near Indianapolis. Even the youngest in the audience seemed to be caught up in her story, judging by the question-and-answer period after the second performance. Two young boys, who couldn’t have been more than six or seven years old, asked me five or more questions EACH. These were pretty sophisticated questions, such as, “Why did slaves have to carry papers (slave passes)?”
If you have never been to Conner Prairie in Fishers, Indiana, I highly recommend it when they reopen the outdoor season on March 28. On their large expanse of land, they have an 1836 village, where actors and actresses portray various townspeople, and they have an 1863 Civil War town, which tells of General John Hunt Morgan’s calvary raid on Indiana.
In the town, you can meet the doctor, who will recommend the best leeches for bleeding people, or the local gossip who spreads what she likes to call “concerned news.”
By Doug Peterson
Doug signed copies of his novels and VeggieTales books between performances of “Meet the Vanishing Woman.”
Doug fields questions from some future historians.Buy The Vanishing Woman