The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew.

In the year 2009, the entire nation will commemorate the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln’s birth. As part of that celebration, Indiana will present a new play in the Lincoln Amphitheatre, which is nestled in the hillside of the very woods where young Abraham once wandered.

For, you see, it was here he grew up. From the time he was seven until he was 21, Abraham lived and learned in what is now Lincoln City, in Spencer County, Indiana.

Many of the stories you’ve learned about young Lincoln over the years happened here in Indiana: working to clear the virgin forest, studying by firelight, mourning the tragic death of his mother, working for days to pay the replacement cost of a damaged book, walking for miles to return a few pennies.

Lincoln’s remarkable character, forged on the Indiana frontier, will be the heart of a new play, opening in the 1,500-seat, roofed Lincoln Amphitheatre in June of 2009. The Lincoln Boyhood Drama Association has embarked on an extraordinary journey. Please join us as we work together to create this inspirational dramatization.