Tallahassee marks its bicentennial next year. A weekend event at Goodwood Museum and Gardens was giving visitors a preview of the occasion.
A highlight of the program was a short comedy in which live actors portrayed some of the historic figures connected to the founding of Tallahassee as Florida's territorial capital in 1824.
The play was staged by Theater With a Mission. Its Artistic Director Ben Gunter said the idea was to show the link between today's audiences and people who lived back then.
"That starts to bring history to life and lets us learn from history. Because when we realize that those are full-blooded people who have a lot to say to us, we can listen to the laughter, the tears, the soul searching and we can learn."
The experience also included lots of live animals from the Tallahassee Museum and Brian Carroll's Redeptive Love Farm & Rescue.
"A lot of the animals we brought today would be the kind you'd see floating around Florida with the Spanish when it was raw, undeveloped land for a length of time. So we brought chickens, goats, sheep and even little pigs and bunnies, so you'd probably see them hopping around, running around and grazing."
The idea, said event organizers, was to give those who came a real sense of what life was like in the area 2 centuries ago.
