Birthday Party for the USA: Time Travel into Florida 1776
by Ben Gunter
NEWS FLASH: This year, the United States of America turns 250. This month, you’re invited to celebrate. On May 29-31, in the heart of Historic Tallahassee, at Goodwood Museum & Gardens, you can join Theater with a Mission for a birthday party that’s been 250 years in the making. It’s free, it’s family-friendly, and it’s three days of once-in-a-lifetime fun.
Time Travel into Florida 1776 is Theater with a Mission’s birthday present to America, designed to carry you back to the USA’s first birthday in ways that tantalize your taste buds, stir your feet, challenge your brain, and reconnect you with your roots. Like the milestone birthday party it is, you’ll find cake & ice cream, songs & dances, games & presents, and chances to make new friends – all with an authentic Revolutionary twist.
Because Florida stayed loyal to Great Britain through the Revolutionary War, the cake & ice cream – one of George Washington’s favorite treats – will honor the 38th birthday of George III, the first King of England from the German House of Hanover who spoke English as his first language. Wait till you see King George’s cake, majestically unfurling a royal coat of arms on all four sides! Wait till you taste the ice cream, hand-scooped by Tallahassee’s own Lofty Pursuits!
Because songs and social dances were as important as military maneuvers to the Revolution, there’ll be opportunities to sing marches that moved our founding fathers, including “Yankee Doodle” and “God Save the King,” watch minuets that our founding mothers danced, re-created by Atlanta Historic Dance, and step into a Pursuit of Happiness Costume Ball, where you dress up as any character who catches your fancy from history. At the Ball, you’ll learn dances from 1776 under the expert instruction of Susan de Guardiola, who is internationally famous for showing people how to have a ball while we dance dances that our great-great-great grandparents loved.
Because parades & breaking news were as thrilling then as they are now, this birthday bash will feature the Suwannee River Fife & Drum marching band inviting you to hoist a flag and join in a parade, horsemen galloping in with news flashes about threats to Florida’s freedom from Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina, and Sons of the American Revolution teaching you how to drill with the militia to Keep Florida Free. Witness a reenactment of Patrick Henry’s death-defying “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death!” Hear the final draft of the Declaration of Independence!
Because every kid loves birthday presents, this party invites you to make and take away your own historic treasure. Workshops will show you how to transform a 2026 sunhat into a 1776 tricorn, mold a doily into a Revolutionary mobcap, and stitch tricolor ribbons into a red-white-and-blue cockade – headgear you can wear all through this revolutionary year. Fashion plates and flags from 250 years ago will inspire you to decorate a gingerbread man (baked from Mother Washington’s orange-spiced recipe) as a Continental soldier with a brightly colored flag to match. You can pose for souvenir photos with animals in the petting zoo, storytellers at the Songs & Stories Stage, and costumed characters from Revolutionary Florida all around Goodwood’s gracious gardens.
Because milestone birthdays represent golden opportunities to think about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, this party gives you priceless chances to see the promise of America from new perspectives. You can hear historians share new findings from their Florida-history research. You can drink in stories from Florida’s Native, Black, and Hispanic cultures – stories that build bridges across time to connect us with generations long gone but still with us in spirit. And you can win prizes by joining in a brand-new game show called Feuding Families in Florida 1776.
A full schedule of events, with more information about how to reserve your place at the party, awaits you at TheaterwithaMission.com. It’s the party of two and a half centuries, and you’re invited! Visit TheaterwithaMission.com to let us know you’re coming, and spread the word to family and friends about Time Travel into Florida 1776, May 29-31, at Goodwood Museum & Gardens in Tallahassee.
