A new season begins this week at the renowned Chautauqua Institution. Over the next nine weeks, more than 100,000 people will visit Chautauqua for lectures, concerts, classes and recreation. WBFO's Mark Scott is back with his Chautauqua Preview -- the week one theme, "Our Elegant Universe."
This week features an exploration into the wonders of the cosmos, our understanding of space and time, and the most basic questions of existence.
"It's a week that's ambitious," Becker said. "But there's a sense that there's a science camp on the grounds."
Making his first visit to Chautauqua is former astronaut Story Musgrave. He'll be sharing his experiences from his six missions aboard the space shuttle in the 1980s and '90s, Wednesday night at 7:30 at the Amphitheater.
The highest profile of his missions was the one to save the Hubble Space Telescope. Engineers didn't realize it had a faulty lens until after it was launched. Musgrave tells us that he had plenty of preparation before he headed into space to fix the problem.
"I designed it (Hubble) for 18 years," Musgrave said. "I tried to come up with any failure it could get into and how I would fix it with a spacewalk."
Musgrave retired from space flight long before the shuttle program ended a couple of years ago. At least for now, the US does not have a way of getting astronauts into orbit. NASA is dependent on the Russians to do so. Musgrave was blunt when asked about the current state of the US space program.
"It has no vision," Musgrave said. "There's no leadership. There's nothing."
But don't expect Musgrave to delve much into space policy Wednesday night. He says he's going to present "performance art."
"I will provide a program which is massively artistic," Musgrave said.
Other highlights of the week include the premier of Chautauqua Theater's first production, Tennessee Williams' "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." It's in preview Friday night at 8 and opens Saturday night at 6 at the Bratton Theater. Director Vivienne Benesch says the cast includes a familiar face.
"We have the great joy of welcoming Harris Yulin here to Chautauqua for the first time," Benesch said. "As soon as you see him, you will recognize him. (Harris) is quite a ubiquitous actor on television and Broadway. We're thrilled to have him."
Another star takes to the Chautauqua stage Friday night. Steve Martin performs with the Steep Canyon Rangers and singer Edie Brickell. Chautauqua Vice President Marty Merkley says this is not a comedy performance -- it's all about bluegrass music.
"Steve Martin is a Grammy Award winning Bluegrass banjo player," Merkley said. "He's very serious when it comes to this."
And the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra opens its season Saturday night at 8:15 at the Amphitheater with a program of Elgar, Beethoven and Brahams. The concert will air live on Classical 94.5, WNED.