The nonprofit Oscar Hammerstein Museum and Theatre Education Center (OHMTEC) is raising funds to purchase, restore, and preserve Highland Farm in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, Oscar Hammerstein II’s former home and creative epicenter.
A fundraising gala, featuring Broadway stars Christy Altomare (Anastasia), Derek Klena (Jagged Little Pill) and Justin Guarini (American Idol), hosted by Ted Chapin is planned for July 11, 2022. Tickets are available on OHMTEC’s website, hammersteinmuseum.org.
The mission is to honor Hammerstein’s work as a librettist and lyricist, and his legacy of mentorship and social activism.
In 1940, as the United States faced the prospects of entering World War II, Oscar and his wife, Dorothy, bought the seventy-two-acre working farm in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Like many New York-based artists of the time, Hammerstein was seeking a quiet place to work outside of the city, as well as a refuge should the conflict come to American shores.
The Hammerstein family lived at Highland Farm for the last 20 years of Oscar’s life. This is the place where he forged his legendary partnership with Richard Rodgers and that inspired many of their greatest musical works, including The Sound of Music, Carousel, The King and I, Oklahoma! and South Pacific. Here, Hammerstein wrote the lyrics to songs loved the world over, including the final lyrics he wrote before his death, “Bless my homeland forever,” from the song “Edelweiss” in The Sound of Music.
It is also the place where Hammerstein mentored a young Stephen Sondheim, and where he contributed to society by increasing our awareness of social issues and the need for tolerance of diversity, as illustrated in songs like “You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught,” from South Pacific.
Over 75 Academy Awards, Grammy Awards, Tony Awards, and Pulitzer Prizes can be directly traced back to Highland Farm.
Although Highland Farm is currently privately owned and not yet open to the public, the work of the theatre education center has already begun. Last year, OHMTEC held its first ever Hammerstein International Youth Solo Contest. The contest serves the very important job of educating young musical theatre enthusiasts about the tremendous influence Oscar Hammerstein II had on the development of the modern Broadway musical as we know it. The inaugural event attracted 238 performers from 28 states and two countries. Early results from 2022 applications reveal participation from six countries.
