Geneseo stage brings life to Civil War love letters
Gina M. DiBella
More than 150 years ago, our nation was entrenched in a Civil War that threatened to split it in two.
In 1862, Col. John Rorbach of Geneseo left his wife and two young children to help Gen. James S. Wadsworth organize and train the 104th N.Y. Volunteer Infantry, a regiment from the Genesee Valley, also known as the Wadsworth Guards. While apart, Rorbach and his wife, Elizabeth "Libby" Vance Rorbach, wrote to each other several times a week.
Those letters, kept in a tin box by descendents of the Rorbach family for one-and-a-half centuries, will be brought to life in a staged reading presented by the Livingston County Historical Society.
Civil War Letters: Love and War will be performed Friday on the stage of the recently rehabilitated Riviera Theater, 4 Center St. in Geneseo.
The performance begins at 8 p.m., but those wanting a sneak peek inside the theater, which has not yet opened to the public, can attend a Patron Wine and Cheese Tasting, beginning at 6:45 p.m.
This is not the first public reading of the letters. Last November, a staged reading was held at the Livingston County Historical Society Museum, 30 Center St., Geneseo. An audience of 65, which included several descendents of the Rorbachs, gave the performance such a warm reception that LCHS decided to step it up a notch.
"The first performance was open to membership only," said Anna Kowalchuk, LCHS museum administrator. "This time we decided to advertise more broadly and make it accessible to a larger audience. We also realized it had the potential to be a fundraiser."
Bringing the love letters of John and Libby Rorbach to life had a journey of its own. A few years ago, LCHS was planning an exhibit to mark the sesquicentennial of the Civil War. They knew about the Rorbach letters and hoped to obtain a few to scan and display.
After meeting with family members Judy Mendoza and her mother, Elizabeth Adams, who knew the most about the content of the letters, LCHS staff and volunteers realized their value went beyond an exhibit. They received permission from the family to scan/digitize more than 75 letters.
"LCHS capitalized on the opportunity to archive the full collection of letters, sought and received funding from the Rochester Area Community Foundation, and collaborated with Leicester Town Historian Tom Roffe and SUNY Geneseo intern Rob Terreri to scan and transcribe all of the letters," said Kowalchuk.
While the grant helped to fund some of the project, most of it was completed in a year with volunteer and intern support.
In addition to the Rorbachs' correspondence during the war, the collection also includes their courting letters, as well as military correspondence written by John Rorbach.
"The letters document both military and home life accounts and humanize a kind of story that all too often over militarizes soldiers," said Kowalchuk. "Libby and John's letters not only illustrate nationalistic sentiments, but also reveal a true love story."
Bringing the letters and that love story to life in a performance was accomplished with the help of Melanie Blood, Ph.D., professor of English and music at SUNY Geneseo. She edited hundreds of pages down into an 80-minute script to be read by two actors. Directed by Blood, this production will feature SUNY Geneseo communications majors Christina O'Shea, a senior from Long Island, and Noah Pfeiffer, a sophomore from Buffalo.
"I whittled the letters down so they took on a conversation. Many topics they wrote about were repetitive and told a story themselves," Blood said.
Poetically, the letters express the Rorbachs' love for each other and how much they long to be together again. Libby shares single-parenting woes, telling of a playful son who is struggling to learn to read and a pre-school-aged daughter who doesn't understand why her father can't be with them. John describes the movements of his regiment and the struggles he has with other officers.
"The letters are a window into the past," said Blood. "They humanize history and break down stereotypes we have of Victorian people." Through the letters, we can see they were actually quite intimate with each other and spoke or wrote about subjects we may have thought were never discussed.
And while the performance will introduce the community to the life of Libby and John Rorbach, it also will bring the community inside a theater that has been closed for several years. This will be the first public performance in the 100-year-old theater, recently rehabilitated by Palace Properties of Geneseo, owned by Don Livingston and Jim Sullivan.
"The Riviera is a nice match and a perfect space for this performance," said Kowalchuk. "And there's a lot of energy in the community to get inside the theater to see what has been done to the building."
Gina M. DiBella is a Rochester-area freelancer.
What: Staged reading of Civil War love letters penned by Elizabeth and John Rorbach.
When: 8 p.m., Friday.
Where: The Riviera Theatre, 4 Center St., Geneseo.
Cost: $18 general admission; $25 preferred seating and admission to Patron Wine and Cheese Tasting by Deer Run Winery at 6:45 p.m.
Tickets: Available online at livingstoncountyhistoricalsociety.com; at David Mann Jewelers or the Not Dot Shop on Main Street, Geneseo; or at the door (if not sold out).
Info: (585) 243-9147.
A sad goodbye
Elizabeth Adams, whose knowledge of the Rorbach letters helped in the creation of this production, passed away on Jan. 26 at the age of 91. Fortunately, she was able to see her ancestors' stories brought to life at the first performance in November.