The Power of Place

The Power of Place:  Local History and the Performing Arts in an Age of Distraction

By Cecilia M. Tsu
​Associate Professor
Department of History, UC Davis

     Living in an age of distraction with endless demands for our attention emanating from our digital devices, social media, and other technology, it’s easy to feel disoriented, unfocused, ungrounded. Add the weight of alarming news abroad and at home, political polarization, climate anxiety, and our myriad everyday concerns, it’s no wonder that so many of us are overwhelmed and out of balance. There is no magic solution for our modern-day condition, but as a historian and fan of community theater, I offer up a modest recommendation: local history and the performing arts.
You can find both at the Woodland Opera House.
       This is a truly remarkable place. The Woodland Opera House (WOH) is a theater as well as a California State Historic Park. Audience members have the pleasure of enjoying a range of captivating, high-quality, award-winning productions in a building constructed in 1896 that was a premier performing arts venue in northern California during its heyday. Attending a live theater performance at the Opera House, then and now, is a screen-free opportunity to be absorbed by the magic taking place on stage. Seated in the house, we can focus and be present in a way that resists the frenetic, fragmented pace of the digital age.
         Such opportunities are even more important for the younger generation, those arguably the most negatively impacted by the tech industry’s war for our attention. In addition to being a venue for children and teens to see live performances, the Woodland Opera House runs a top-notch theater education program. It has transformed the lives of so many kids in the community, including my own. When they’re taking dance and theater classes, or rehearsing songs for an upcoming show, young performers are fully engaged, physically, mentally, and emotionally. They may be scrolling on their smartphones before and after, but while they are at the Opera House or the Theater and Dance Annex (TADA), they are immersed in learning and perfecting performing arts skills in a joyful, accepting environment.
         Like the performing arts, I believe that local history also has the power to ground us in an age of distraction, to literally connect us to who and where we are. For residents to truly know the place where they live in all of its complexity gives meaning and purpose in the day-to-day. Seeing glimpses of the past in tangible, familiar places deepens our sense of community in the present. When we know something about the experiences of people who decades ago lived in our towns, walked on the same streets, worked in the fields we drive past, we can see ourselves more clearly. Knowing that history, we have a sharper sense of who we are, who we want to become, and how we might make our community a better place.
      We need our children to have opportunities to learn and engage with local history. That’s why I decided to pilot a project called “Uncovering Diverse Histories of Yolo County.” Its goal is to research untold histories of underrepresented groups in Yolo County and to develop K-12 curriculum from that research. When I began the project in the summer of 2024, I did not set out to collaborate with the Woodland Opera House, nor to install a history exhibit in the third-floor meeting room (more commonly known as the place where you can purchase refreshments during intermission). But as my team of six UC Davis student researchers learned, historical research is all about following your sources and going where they take you. Ours took us to the Opera House, or more specifically, to a photograph there.
      A striking black-and-white picture is on display in the box office museum room (located to the right as you enter the theater). It shows 18 impeccably dressed African American men and women posing for a formal portrait on the WOH stage with an elegant painted scenery drop in the background. The women are mostly young, perhaps in their teens and twenties, wearing ruffled blouses, long skirts and dresses, their hair neatly swept up. Most of the men sport dark three-piece suits; one has on a military uniform. Captions in local history books state that the photo was taken at the Woodland Opera House in 1903, and the ensemble was known as the “Merry Company.”

      When I pointed out the photo to my older daughter, who is 13 and has performed in a couple shows at the Opera House, she wanted to know more. Who were these individuals? What show were they in? Was it common for African Americans to be on stage there? How did audiences receive them? She mused that it was mind-boggling to think she and her friends had shared the same stage as these performers.
      Through extensive research in the Yolo County Archives, our team ended up finding many answers to these questions. The story of this African American ensemble was so rich and intriguing that we felt compelled to share it with the Woodland Opera House community. My students and I produced a display of our research, which visitors can view in the meeting room during business hours or when catching a show. The exhibit made its debut at Woodland’s annual Stroll Through History on October 12, and we will be adding more to it later this fall.

​     In the next stage of the project, our team will work with curriculum experts and teacher leaders to develop educational resources for local elementary and secondary school classrooms drawing on our research. Kids coming to the Opera House for field trips will be able to see live theater and learn some local history at the same time. Down the line, we hope to create content based on our research on Chinese immigrants living and working near the Opera House during the late nineteenth century. The block on Dead Cat Alley between Elm and College Streets was known as “China Alley.”
     After a recent show rehearsal, my daughter recounted how the director gently hinted to lingering cast members that it was time to go home, to which a teenager replied, “this is my home!” It’s a sentiment echoed by generations who feel a profound sense of connection to the Opera House. Knowing the history of the people connected to this special place makes our engagement with it even more meaningful. It’s a privilege to see how the performing arts and local history are coming together at the Woodland Opera House in ways that uplift and enrich our lives and our community.

“Uncovering Diverse Histories of Yolo County” is funded by grants from the UC Davis Public Impact Research Initiative and the University of California Humanities Research Institute (UCHRI) Engaging Humanities program in partnership with the Yolo County Archives and the California History-Social Science Project. Special thanks to Louis Anderson and Barbara Graham for their support and assistance. If you would like to learn more about this project or have ideas for expanding it, please contact Cecilia Tsu at [email protected]
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​Cecilia M. Tsu is Associate Professor of History at the University of California, Davis. Her research and teaching interests encompass Asian American history, race and ethnicity, migration, and the history of California. She is the author of Garden of the World: Asian Immigrants and the Making of Agriculture in California’s Santa Clara Valley and co-author of The Elusive Eden: A New History of California, 5th edition. Tsu’s current research focuses on the politics of Southeast Asian refugee resettlement in the United States during the late twentieth century. She serves as a faculty advisor for the California History-Social Science Project, which provides professional learning for K-12 teachers and school districts throughout the state.