The Chautauqua Council of Enid created Winter Chautauqua and a companion program, Chautauqua in the Schools, in 2006. The council felt that including schools in Winter Chautauqua activities would provide a meaningful opportunity for Enid-area school children to experience history through the medium of live theatre.

The scholar who is selected for the yearly Winter Chautauqua/Chautauqua in the Schools program presents morning and afternoon performances in area schools Monday-Friday for two weeks. In between, the public Winter Chautauqua performance is on Saturday night.

Since 2006, it is estimated that Chautauqua in the Schools has touched over 60,000 elementary, middle school and high school children in the Enid area.

Chautauqua in the Schools is the only program of its kind in Oklahoma.

Winter Chautauqua/Chautauqua in the Schools

Program directors: Dr. John & Laurel Provine, 2006-16; Polly Maxwell, 2017-present

2025: Ulysses S Grant, by Tom King
2024: Maria von Trapp, by Elsa Wolff
2023: Clara Barton, by Karen Vuranch
2022: Canceled due to COVID 19
2021: Canceled due to COVID 19
2020: Thomas Edison, by Peter Small
2019: Big Mama Speaks (Tulsa Race Riot), by Vanessa Adams-Harris
2018: Emily Dickinson, by Debra Conner
2017: Amelia Earhart, by Elsa Wolff
2016: Christopher Columbus, by Hank Fincken
2015: Washington Irving, by John Anderson
2014: Dr. Mary Edwards Walker, by Debra Conner
2013: Francisco Pizarro, by Hank Fincken
2012: Margaret Mitchell, by Debra Conner
2011: Pearl S. Buck, by Karen Vuranch
2010: Ulysses S. Grant, by Tom King
2009: Booker T Washington, by Joseph Bundy
2008: Pioneer Woman (Mary Draper Ingles), by Karen Vuranch
2007: Will Rogers, by Doug Watson
2006: Thomas Edison, by Hank Finchen