On August 18h, History Alive, Inc. will launch its 2022 season with a mini-festival called “The Broad Pathway of the Sea”, with a different experience each day through August 21st. The name of the festival is taken from Hester Prynne’s line to Arthur Dimmesdale when they meet privately in the forest in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter. “Is the world so narrow? There is still the broad pathway of the sea. It brought you here and it can bear you back again.” Four theatrical events, tied together by an ocean theme, will enliven different locations throughout Salem’s historic waterfront.

The mini-festival starts with on the evening of Thursday, August 18th, with Quest for the Rich East—a combination trading/scavenger hunt game set in Salem’s “Golden Age of Sail”. Teams of participants, organized as merchant ships, can race each other around the world (downtown Salem) solving puzzles, and trading for exotic goods in the hopes of turning the highest profit back in Salem. The quest starts and ends at the Old Town Hall, the former site of “King” Elias Hasket Derby’s mansion. Derby was the first investor to trade directly with China. The Derby estate, between Essex and Front Streets, was once waterfront property.

On Friday evening, at 6:30, History Alive’s immersive version of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, takes over The House of the Seven Gables museum. The piece walks with Hawthorne as he entrusts his ideas for a new novel to the audience—his intellectual comrades. Locations around the historic campus form the backdrop for his imagination as the scenes come to life before his companion’s eyes. A cast of 22 people from all over Essex County will populate the 1640’s colony. Paul Riopelle, most recently of Cincinnati Shakespeare Company, will play Hawthorne.

On Saturday afternoon, at 2PM, guests can walk with abolitionist Charlotte Forten (Samantha Searles of Philadelphia) and hear how the sea relates to underground railroad efforts and other aspects of black culture in 1850’s Salem.

On Sunday, at 2PM, The National Park Service Maritime Park will host Two Points Off the Weather Bow. The musical adventure, taken from 19th century ship logs and historical reminiscences, invites audiences aboard an 1850’s whaler to become the crew of a hunting adventure. Two Points Off the Weather Bow was written by Juice Wacker and is directed by Jennifer Emerson, both of Salem.

To participate, or ask questions , write query@hisoryalivesalem.com