About the Performer
Steve Duchrow
Steve has performed in theatres, colleges, museums, historic landmark homes, State Libraries, Frank Lloyd Wright historic landmarks, Chautauqua style tent festivals and county fairs. He is proud to have performed in the historic home of Vachel Lindsay, in Springfield, and Carl Sandburg College in Galesburg, IL.
Steve Duchrow lives to speak the words of Carl Sandburg. Steve is a humanities researcher and expert on Carl Sandburg, Carl Sandburg’s Lincoln and Vachel Lindsay. He can be found reading “The Complete Letters of Carl Sandburg on beach vacations. Steve believes Carl Sandburg and his fellow Prairie poet Vachel Lindsay, point toward America’s true north. Sandburg’s words stand, silent sentinels in the night, ready to be animated by the human voice. His words are lighthouses and beacons of America’s promise.
Steve’s stage work as Carl Sandburg is a ​​first-person historical interpretation. His deep research distills Sandburg’s words into public performances that remind us of Sandburg’s raw power. “Sandburg’s words remind us about the America that we can still be.”
Steve writes, adapts and performs theatre works. He created two plays adapted from the writings of Illinois prairie poets, Carl Sandburg and Vachel Lindsay. The latest play is: Carl Sandburg’s Lincoln: A Living Portrait. This play is an evening of vivid stories of Lincoln through the Pulitzer Prize poet Carl Sandburg. Lincoln walks off the page in vivid detail provided by sharp senses of poet Sandburg. Sandburg’s spent decades as a newspaper reporter and his Lincoln research in dusty newspaper archives paints a Lincoln that no artist’s brush dared to catch..
Steve infuses his voice into the vivid language of Carl Sandburg’s Lincoln to show us why both Lincoln and Sandburg matter. Steve’s performances broom and shake history’s unfortunate prairie dust off Carl Sandburg and make him relevant now.
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Steve’s strong voice resonates and infuses power into Sandburg’s extraordinary language to soothe modern ears packed to the gunwales with today’s clamor.
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Steve evokes the power of Sandburg and Vachel Lindsay’s prairie “songs”. These two vital American voices would wink and nod at each other as he daubs paint on their democratic essence.
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He gives us the gift of Carl Sandburg again.
Steve also performed an original play called Vachel Lindsay: Peddler of Dreams. The play puts you on Lindsay’s shoulder as he walks alone and penniless across thousands of dirt road miles witnessing America in the early 1900’s. This show won the Chicago Fringe Festival’s designation as the fastest show to sell out all performances.
Performance Highlights
Steve was a special guest and performed Carl Sandburg’s Lincoln: A Living Portrait at the Northern Illinois University Art Museum’s event “Making Our History – Artists Render Lincoln’s Legacies”. This special exhibit displayed over 15 original artworks on Abraham Lincoln. Steve performed in the museum in the midst of the exhibit.
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Steve was invited to perform in Carl Sandburg’s hometown of Galesburg, IL at the community college named in Carl’s honor, Carl Sandburg College.
Steve has performed at the Frank Lloyd Wright designed Dana Thomas Home.
He has performed at the historic, Vachel Lindsay home on several occasions including the Illinois Humanities Council’s “Walt Whitman at 200”. He performed in front of the Old State Capitol, in Springfield, IL, where Lincoln gave his “House Divided speech and President Barack Obama launched his presidential bid.
He has also performed at the Illinois State Library, the Northern Illinois University Art Museum, the Northern Illinois University Life-Long Learning Program and Elgin Community College’s, Socrates Café.
He has been a guest performer at outdoor festivals including the Amaranth Apple Festival, in Springfield, IL., and The Sandwich County Fair, He is also a musician and guitarist who has performed at The Prairie State Winery, Blumen Gardens and outdoor festivals.
Steve is no stranger to performance environments as he worked in the arts for over thirty-five years as a director of performing arts centers in Illinois. He was awarded Arts Presenter of the Year by the North American Performers Arts Managers and Agents for national excellence in presenting the arts. He presented such noted actors as John Lithgow and Ed Asner and musicians Tommy Emmanuel, B.B. King, Wynton Marsalis and Booker T. Steve’s expertise is in not-for profit organizations and arts organization management, presenting performing arts events, curating community-based events, organizing artist residencies, and building the arts in small cities and communities.