IPSWICH — For the first major event of this momentous year, the Ipswich 375th Anniversary Committee is turning to pageantry. And to a former resident of high regard.
While John Updike was working at becoming an American literary giant, he took time out to write a historical pageant of the place he called home in 1968, Ipswich.
"Three Texts From Early Ipswich: A Pageant" was first performed Aug. 3, 1968, at the South Parish Church. It was part of an annual celebration called 17th Century Day, which residents had for many years observed by parading dressed in period costumes.
The church burned down, and 17th Century Day is now Olde Ipswich Days, a decidedly more commercial celebration than its predecessor.
375th Committee Chairman Nat Pulsifer said the pageant has been staged periodically over the years. He wrote Updike last fall for permission to put it on once again.
"Yes, I'd be delighted to see you do it," he wrote back, according to Pulsifer.
Updike also agreed to have a preface added about the long history of Native Americans in Ipswich, written by local historian John Goff.
The pageant will be staged tomorrow at the Performing Arts Center, and the Board of Selectmen recently named March 8 John Updike Day in Ipswich.
Pulsifer recruited the cast for the show.
"None of them has particular professional credentials," he said.
Among the thespians for a day, J.T. Turner will narrate the pageant, and Robert Weatherall Sr. will follow it with a remembrance of the playwright.
"It's just to tell people who John Updike was," Weatherall said. The Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist lived in Ipswich for 20 years, before moving to Georgetown and then Beverly. He died in January at the age of 76.
Weatherall plans to conclude with a discussion of Updike's lengthy efforts to have the First Church rebuilt after it was destroyed by fire in 1965.
Members of the Company of Ipswich High School, the school's drama club, are also cast in the pageant.
Chorus North Shore, under the leadership of Director Sonja Dahlgren Pryor, will open the production with "The Star-Spangled Banner." The evening will close with a community sing-along of patriotic music.
If you go
What: "Three Texts From Early Ipswich: A Pageant by John Updike."
When: Tomorrow, 2 p.m.
Where: Ipswich Performing Arts Center, 134 High St.
Cost: Adults $15; seniors and children under 12, $10
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