Gainesville Plays in the Park: The American Story

Gainesville Celebrates America 250 - The American Story Through Play

Join us for Plays in the Park: The American Story as we celebrate America250 with live performances and hands-on activities. Journey through pivotal moments in U.S. history from 1774 and the American Revolution to WWII, honoring our past and inspiring the future. Free, educational and fun for all ages.

1820s New Mexico – Josefina’s Gift
Saturday, April 18, 2026, 2 pm-5 pm
Greentree Park 3700 NW 19th St, Gainesville, FL 32605
Josefina’s story explores life on a New Mexican rancho in the 1820s. Guests can listen and dance to traditional Mexican folk music with the Miarachi Redeeming band and create pottery in a hands-on ceramics workshop.

Pioneer America – Home is Where the Heart Is
Saturday, May 2, 2026, 9 am-1 pm
Morningside Nature Center 3540 E. University Ave, Gainesville, FL 32641
Kirsten, a Swedish immigrant, adjusts to her new life on the American frontier in 1854. Interactive Activities: Weaving, a blacksmith demonstration, and a historic log cabin tour, with live banjo and fiddle music.

Civil War Era – Friendship and Freedom
Saturday, September 5, 2026, 9 am-1 pm
Morningside Nature Center 3540 E. University Ave, Gainesville, FL 32641
This play follows Addy, an escaped enslaved girl, as she starts a new life in the North during the Civil War. Visitors will be able to tour a one-room schoolhouse and enjoy a performance by a choral group singing spirituals and freedom songs, along with choral lessons with the 1000 Voices of Florida, Inc.

Turn of the 20th Century – Actions Speak Louder Than Words
Sunday, October 11, 2026, 2 pm-5 pm
Thomas Center, 302 NE Sixth Ave., Gainesville, FL 32601
Samantha’s play highlights the social changes of the early 1900s. Attendees can enjoy a ragtime band and a cross-stitch activity, as well as touring the Historic Thomas Center, built in 1906.

World War II America – War on the Home Front
Wednesday, November 11, 2026, 10 am-1 pm
Evergreen Cemetery, 401 SE 21st Ave., Gainesville, FL 32641
Molly’s story showcases life on the home front during World War II. The play will take place at the Historic Evergreen Cemetery, as part of Veterans Day commemorations. Activities will include a patriotic brass quintet performance, a 1940s swing dance lesson, and abstract painting.