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(Worcester, Mass.) -- As part of a multi-year commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the U.S. Civil War, the Worcester State University History and Political Science Department presents two performances by James A. Getty as Abraham Lincoln on Wednesday, February 15. Getty has portrayed Lincoln in Gettysburg since 1978 and has been featured on television and in special appearances throughout the United States and Canada.

The first performance, at 10 a.m. in the Sullivan Auditorium, will be followed by a bibliographical presentation at 2 p.m. in the Eager Auditorium in which Getty will describe the research necessary to develop his dramatic interpretation of Lincoln. A second performance will be held in the Student Center North/South Auditorium at 7:30 p.m.

Lincoln was the sixteenth President of the United States and is considered by many scholars to be the greatest American president, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through the American Civil War – preserving the Union and ending slavery, and promoting economic modernization. In 1863, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation and supported passage of the Thirteenth Amendment. Abraham Lincoln was assassinated on April 14, 1865, just six days after the surrender of the Confederate Army.

Getty holds a master‘s degree in music from Illinois Wesleyan University. He taught high school choral music in St. Charles and Naperville, Illinois, Sandusky, Ohio, and was director of choral activities at The University of Maine. Getty has spent years researching Abraham Lincoln and his contemporaries and has developed several “first person” presentations as the sixteenth president.

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