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Eleanor Roosevelt - The Early Years

Performed by The American Historical Theater

This first person historical interpretation permits us to meet the remarkable Eleanor Roosevelt and share her passions as well as her pains while looking back in time at America and the world.

Performed by Rene Goodwin from The American Historical Theater.

In the public sphere Eleanor Roosevelt exuded a zest for life and carved out a career and reputation as First Lady by championing the equality of people of all nations.Through her efforts the world began to look anew at human rights and equality. She soon became known not just as First Lady of the United States, but rather, as First Lady of the World and is considered the prime architect of the United Nation’s Declaration of Human Rights. Though she fought on the world’s stage to improve the lives of others, she struggled in the shadow of her famous husband, and in her privates roles as wife, mother, and daughter, she suffered much personal pain and disappointment. 

Philadelphia-born Rene Goodwin seized the opportunity to begin studying voice, dance and piano at age eleven. Her training continued at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts and with noted local Soprano, Dolores Ferraro Cascarino. Since 1990, she has continued private voice work. She currently teaches voice, and serves as a musical mentor for the Philly Pops, with whom she has performed. Ms. Goodwin has studied ballet and jazz dance, and she still studies tap. She credits her vibrant spontaneity to high school debate training and to her experience traveling with the Annenberg Children’s Theater Company. As an entertainer doing the Florida circuit as part of a standup duo (formerly with Michael Ryan and now with pianist husband Ed Hagopian), Ms. Goodwin fine-tuned the entertainer’s art of audience give-and-take.

In the 1980’s, Ms. Goodwin joined the American Historical Theatre in a murder mystery written and produced by founders William and Pamela Sommerfield.  She performed again with AHT in "Night Thoughts," a Sommerfield play commissioned by the Pennsylvania Historical Society. Later, the Sommerfields approached her to develop the Eleanor Roosevelt presentations. Goodwin has appeared at numerous venues including the White House Visitors Center, the Theodore Roosevelt Museum, the National Archives, and Freedoms Foundation of Valley Forge.

In addition to Mrs. Roosevelt, Rene’s character portrayals include Dorothy Parker and Golda Meir, and a presentation about Jacqueline Kennedy as she is about to become First Lady of the Land. Together with her husband Ed Hagobian, Rene has also created musical programs: "An Afternoon on Board the Titanic," and “Christmas Around the World”. Her most recent character is St. Katherine Drexel, the only canonized saint to have been born in the United States.

At the conclusion of the program please feel free to take a brief online survey here:
https://www.projectoutcome.org/responses/63423

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