Looking for Joe-The Amazing Life and Times of Joseph Addison

Description

Doug Anderson thinks we’re missing something important.

“We live in a place called Addison County, and nobody knows anything about Joseph Addison. His name is on our school districts, businesses, nonprofits…but we have a collective blind spot about this person.”

Anderson even talked to Angelo Lynn, publisher of the Addison Independent. “I said, hey, Angelo, this Addison guy has been on your masthead for 80 years. Any idea who he was?’”

“’Not a clue,” said the publisher.

Joseph Addison lived in London over 300 years ago. And though he never set foot in North America, he played a vital role in the American Revolution. Anderson will bring this story to life in an entertaining evening he’s calling Looking for Joe, which will be a fundraiser for the Henry Sheldon Museum of Vermont History and Town Hall Theater.

The evening will be the first of many events at Town Hall Theater celebrating the 250th anniversary of American Independence.

The story starts in London coffee shops in the early 1700s, which were the seedbeds of democracy, as that was the one place where you could speak freely. “If you wanted to complain about the Crown or anything else for that matter, you did it in a coffee shop,” says Anderson.

This was Addison’s world. He took what he overheard and created newspapers so everyone had access to the free-wheeling debates about politics, philosophy, and citizenship. At one point, over 50,000 Londoners were reading Addison’s newspapers.

Addison was also a playwright, and it was his hit play, Cato, that had a profound effect on the American Revolution. The title character is the Roman general who stood up to Caesar and tyranny, so it’s maybe no surprise that it was the most popular play in the colonies. The play spoke directly to resistance, to be willing to lay down your life for freedom.

Cato was George Washington's favorite play. Jefferson and Adams quoted from it in their letters. When Nathan Hale said, “I regret that I have only one life to give for my country,” he was quoting Joseph Addison.

That’s our Joe, the Addison of Addison County.

Looking for Joe will feature not only Anderson but professional actor Jeremy Holm, who will portray Addison. Holm is perhaps best known for his continuing role in the TV series House of Cards, and he has dozens of films and TV shows to his credit. Holm lives in Vergennes and currently sits on THT’s Board of Directors.

“We were so lucky to get him between film shoots,” says Anderson.

Looking for Joe will be performed in the Anderson Studio at Town Hall Theater on Thursday, April 9 and Friday, April 10 at 7pm with an approximate one-hour running time. The Town Hall Theater bar will be open from 6-7pm, and the Anderson Studio will have a cabaret feel. It will be a fundraiser for both the Henry Sheldon Museum of American History and Town Hall Theater. Tickets are: $25/regular seating; $35/table seating; $50/generous (regular or table). For tickets and info, go to www.townhalltheater.org, of call the THT box office at 802-382-9222 (Mon-Fri, Noon-5:00).