Two projects created and performed by Hendersonville Middle School (HMS) students are being featured in the first-of-its-kind National History Day (NHD) National Contest virtual performance showcase!
Hosted online by the National Women’s History Museum (NWHM) through June 28, the virtual showcase features 20 performances researched, written, staged, and performed by middle and high school students competing in the 2021 NHD National Contest.
According to a NHD press release, students considered topics of local, national, or international women’s history from the fourteenth century to the present to create performances selected for the showcase by NWHM. These works also address the 2021 NHD theme, Communication in History: The Key to Understanding.
Ellery Cheek’s performance, “She Had a Disaster to Report : The Story of Genie Chance and the 1964 Alaska Earthquake,” and “The Venona Project: Lies, Ties, and Soviet Spies” by Lila Feather, Ella Smith, Harry Davenport, Alex Fleury, are the only two in the showcase from North Carolina, and are available to watch online via the National Women’s History Museum’s website through Monday, June 28.
“Despite the ongoing pandemic that prevents us from enjoying a live theater-going experience, the virtual nature of this showcase allows us to leverage modern technology to share student work and creativity that addresses important movements and advancements in women’s history and the history of communications,” said National History Day Executive Director Dr. Cathy Gorn in the press release. “These students have recognized, researched, and brought to life on stage powerful stories of communication breakthroughs and female pioneers of the past. We are so grateful to our partners at the National Women’s History Museum for making this virtual showcase and series of performances accessible to millions of people around the world.”
“We’re excited to continue our longstanding partnership with National History Day with the inclusion of the Women’s History Performance Competition Virtual Showcase,” Holly Hotchner, president and CEO of the National Women’s History Museum, said in the release. “We’re proud of the students and supporting educators who participate in National History Day and look forward to sharing their efforts with our Museum’s audience.”
NHD is a non-profit organization based in College Park, Maryland, which seeks to improve the teaching and learning of history. The National History Day Contest was established in 1974 and currently engages more than half a million students every year in conducting original research on historical topics of interest. Students present their research as a documentary, exhibit, paper, performance, or website. Projects compete first at the local and affiliate levels, where the top entries are invited to the National Contest at the University of Maryland at College Park.
NHD is sponsored in part by HISTORY®, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Park Service, Southwest Airlines, The Better Angels Society, Jacqueline B. Mars, and BBVA. For more information, visit nhd.org.
