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It is time for Mayhem, Mystery, and Murder!
Join the "Queen of Crime," mystery writer Agatha Christie on Friday, August 11, 2023 at 7:00 PM in the library's Riverside Room as she recounts her life story. Learn about her early writing career, her creation of her famous characters Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple, and the success that lead to being named the best-selling novelist of all time.
Musical entertainment will be provided from 6:15 - 6:45 PM. Debra Miller's living history portrayal of Christie will begin at 7:00 PM. A Q & A session will follow the performance. Questions can first be asked to Miller as Christie, and then Miller as herself.
Refreshments will be available for a donation from 6:00 - 6:45 PM and after the Q & A session.
If at all possible, attendees are asked to park in the gravel lot directly across from the library on Spruce Street.
What is "Living History Nights"? Performances that bring history to life. Each night a scholar/living historian will assume the role of a notable historical figure and perform a monologue based on the life of that individual. This will be followed by an audience Q & A session with questions addressed to both the character and the scholar/living historian.
This event, presented by the Gallipolis Chautauqua Committee, is suitable for all ages and is free and open to the public.
Agatha Christie (1890-1976): Born in Torquay, United Kingdom. Born into a wealthy upper middle class family, Agatha Christie spent her early years being homeschooled by her mother on the family's estate. Being the third and last child in her family and much younger than her two siblings, Agatha spent much of her childhood with her pets and imaginary friends. Books played an important part in her childhood as Christie was a voracious reader who was reading by the age of four.
In 1914, at the age of 24, Agatha married Archibald Christie, an officer in the Royal Flying Corps. While Archibald was serving in France during the war, Agatha served as a nurse, and later an apothecary's assistant, for the British Red Cross. During this time, Agatha wrote her first detective novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, the first of many books to feature Hercule Poirot. Rejected by numerous publishers, it was finally published in 1920 by The Bodley Head. Continuing to write once Archibald was home from the war and after their only child, a daughter, was born, Agatha now had no trouble selling her novels and short stories.
In 1926, Archibald asked for a divorce and, after a quarrel in December, Agatha disappeared from their home. Her car was discovered the next day near a chalk quarry and the fear was that she might have taken her own life. Her disappearance created international headlines and lead to an extensive manhunt. Found 10 days later, alive and well, not far from her home, Christie never gave a satisfactory reason for her disappearance. Although two doctors diagnosed her with "a loss of memory," opinions then and now remain divided over the reason for her disappearance.
In 1930, divorced from Archibald, Christie met and married archaeologist Max Mallowan. She used her subsequent travels with him on his archaeological digs as background for a number of her novels. Up until her death in 1976 at age 85, Christie continued to write both novels and short stories most of which achieved best-seller status.
Listed as the best-selling novelist of all time and called the "Queen of Crime" and the "Mistress of Mystery", Christie is considered a master of suspense, plotting, and characterization. Many mystery writers cite her as an influence on their own writing and state that her books are still wonderful reads nearly 100 years after her first novel was published. Her books have sold more than 100 million copies and have been translated into some 100 languages. (Biographical information courtesy of britannia.com and biography.com).
Debra Miller is a professional actress, vocalist, and voice-over talent with over 30 years of experience as a performer for live audiences, television, and film. A graduate of Michigan State University's Department of Theater, Ms. Miller has toured the country with such prestigious children's theater companies as Artreach (now the Children's Theater of Cincinnati) and Child's Play Touring Theatre. Since 1997, she has traveled the country with Michael Krebs of With Lincoln Production, portraying one of our nation's more controversial First Ladies, Mary Todd Lincoln in Visiting the Lincolns.
In 2010, she began creating her own company, Historical Women of Letters, in which she portrays important historical figures based off of their own letters and journals. Her portrayals include authors Jane Austen, Beatrix Potter, Mary Shelley, Louisa May Alcott, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, as well as First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln and investigative journalist Nellie Bly. Ms. Miller lives in Illinois.