The Spirit of Muir
Community Reads Program brings in popular Yosemite show.
John Muir—well, as close to John Muir as you’re gonna get—is making a special appearance in Bishop next Thursday, March 12 at the Inyo Council for the Arts.
The show, “The Spirit of John Muir,” is being presented as part of the 7th Annual Community Reads Program sponsored by the Inyo County Superintendent of Schools and the Inyo Council for the Arts.
“The Spirit of John Muir” is a one-man show created by Lee Stetson.
As Stetson tells it, back in 1982, when he was 42 years old, he was living and working in L.A. as an actor when he visited Yosemite National Park for the first time.
He arrived on a full moonlit evening in April, 1982. He hiked up to Columbia Point that evening and took in Yosemite Valley at sunrise.
He said he then rushed back down to the Valley to apply for any job he could.
He spent the next seven months working as a desk clerk (“I was probably the worst desk clerk they ever had,” he joked) and spending his free time in the Park’s research library.
What came out of this time was a one-man theatrical performance which has been running for 32 consecutive years and has been seen by more than a quarter million visitors.
He has since written two additional shows expounding upon Muir, and a fourth based upon both Muir and President Theodore Roosevelt.
“The Spirit of John Muir” is “a fun romp through some of the very best of Muir’s grand, thrilling adventures in his beloved western wilderness,” according to Stetson.
These adventures include: “The Perilous Night on Mount Shasta,” with Muir freezing in the midst of a howling blizzard while simultaneously being boiled and blistered in hot springs; his astonishing ride down a Yosemite Valley canyon wall on a snow avalanche; and climbing the 500’ wall of the winter ice cone beneath the Yosemite Falls; only a few of Muir’s amazing—and true—adventures.
These and other stories are all liberally salted with Muir’s wilderness philosophy. This show’s themes revolve around the health and invigoration one acquires when one fully and joyfully engages wildness.
Stetson has toured throughout the country, appearing at universities, parks, museums, wilderness and environmental organizations from Washington D.C. to Hawaii. Mr. Stetson lectures frequently on the arts and the environment, and spends a considerable portion of his time promoting the performing arts in the national parks. Lee’s career has included founding and managing the Hawaii Performing Arts Company, being the Artistic Manager of both the Hawaii Theatre Festival and the Antique Theatre Festival of Idaho, and freelance directing throughout the Northwest and in Los Angeles.
As an actor he has performed more than fifty major roles from Shakespeare to Simon, and his television credits include a dozen episodes of Hawaii Five-0.
As Mr. Stetson told The Sheet on Thursday, “I haven’t been over on the Eastside in a long time.” He said his last performance of a Muir show in Bishop probably took place 15 to 20 years ago.
This is a rare opportunity to see a one-of-a-kind performer. If you’d like to see a snippet of one of his performances, visit www.johnmuirlive.com.
