Thomas Edison performed by Hank Fincken
He was the classic Yankee tinkerer, quintessential workaholic, serial inventor, prolific genius, and overwhelming force of nature driven by compulsive creativity with a gift for turning big dreams into everyday reality. Nearly all his inventions came after thousands of experiments that failed but taught him something. (The only device that worked on the first try was the phonograph.)
Thomas Edison held 1,093 patents, including the light bulb, phonograph, microphone, motion pictures, fluoroscope, rechargeable batteries, stock ticker, and mimeograph – not including others, such as the X-ray fluoroscope that he left unlicensed for the benefit of medicine.
But perhaps Edison’s greatest legacy is as creator of the modern R&D laboratory in Menlo Park, NJ, which he called an “invention factory,” where constant experimentation was the necessary prelude to discovery. He not only hatched a new culture of innovation, he reinvented the whole way we go about it.
Rain Plan: The show will be performed live at the Transylvania Library (next to the Amphitheater) in the Rogow Room.
About Hank Fincken
For more than twenty years, Hank Fincken has toured as a living history performer in Europe, South America and the United States. He has performed in theaters and at educational institutions, corporate meetings, Chautauquas, libraries, national and international conferences, parks, and cultural events as Johnny Appleseed, Thomas Edison, Christopher Columbus, Henry Ford, forty-niner J.G. Bruff, Francisco Pizarro, Prosecuting Attorney Richard Crowley (Susan B. Anthony’s 1873 trial), and now W.C. Fields. Because Hank incorporates the audience in every performance, each presentation molds itself to the unique interests of that particular group. Humor abounds. Each program is provocative, insightful, relevant, enlightening and entertaining. It’s art wearing a humanities tuxedo and a spinning bow tie.
Hank began his life of adventure first by serving in the Peace Corps in both Peru and Costa Rica. He later conducted research and gave live performances in twenty US states, Spain, Italy, Portugal, the Dominican Republic, Peru, and Ecuador. Each script took a minimum of two years to write and has been critiqued by scholars and theater professionals. Hank’s in-depth research assures historical accuracy. The crafted scripts, precise language, insights into both the past and the present, and skillful acting make the performances art. Hank has published more than twenty essays, a dozen short stories, and one book of children’s plays called: Three Midwest History Plays and Then Some. The Indiana Arts Commission named Hank a Master Artist, and the Indiana Theatre Association gave him the “Teaching and Service Award.” He has the endorsement of numerous cultural institutions, including the Indiana and the Ohio Humanities Councils. For the past four years, Hank has received the national Pinnacle Award, based on the quality of his distance learning programs.
If History were to repeat itself, it would be like this. Website: hankfincken.com