A group of Northern Illinois University history students will reenact an old PBS show.
"Meeting of the Minds" is a late 1970s-early 1980s PBS show where actors dressed as historical figures and debated with each other. It was hosted by Steven Allen.
Aaron Fogleman is a distinguished research and board of trustees professor in the history department at NIU. He said he watched the show when he was a history major.
"I've always thought it would be a good idea to try that," he said, "if the time was right and the right people and the right place, and it just worked out."
The timeliness coincides with the 250th anniversary of the United States' Declaration of Independence.
"We've been planning it for a year,"' he added. "The difference is nobody's a professional here, and we're not scripted, but they're history majors, so they've been working hard on this for months, and they chose the characters, and they're studying them."
Those characters include George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Abigail Adams, Napoleon Bonaparte and Karl Marx. Fogleman will portray Allen.
"Meeting of the Minds - Revolution" will take place at 7 p.m. this Friday, Nov. 13 at Cavan Auditorium.
