PBS AFFILIATES Ken Burns is coming out with his documentary celebration of Henry David Thoreau expected Spring 2026. Get your viewers ready for this amazing TV event and broadcast this one-hour doc/performance WALDEN:THE BALLAD OF THOREAU … a live audience TV play about the forefather of the Global green movement, America’s most quoted literary writer, flute player and pencil maker … to viewers in advance of the Ken Burns special. Available to your education desk with lesson plans for teachers and home schools in your viewing area (TRT 58:00 NETA NOLA Code: WALD 000000H1)
“Walden: The Ballad of Thoreau” film/TV Special is a combination documentary and theatrical play(AVAILABLE ON PBS.ORG) set during the final two days Thoreau spent in his cabin before leaving Walden Pond. The documentary that bookends the film is a look at the life of Thoreau and filmed at Walden Pond at the actual cabin site in the woods.
LISTEN to the gentle instrumental SUNRISE AT WALDEN
COMMUNITY THEATERS, TEACHERS & HOME SCHOOL PARENTS Introduce students to Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson by a) Performing the play b) in-class play reading or c) Show the film/WATCH the TV broadcast. The script & lesson plans are FREE. The dialogue are actual quotes taken from their literary work. Over 9,600 schools, colleges, community theaters, and home schools have performed the play in 42 countries.
“Walden: The Ballad of Thoreau should be a requirement in American classrooms. Kids badly need this element in their lives, and, to accommodate the exposure, a great little lesson plan that strongly encourages analysis and critical thinking. Sit back and take a journey in time to the final two days Henry David Thoreau spent in his cabin before leaving Walden Pond.” Mark S. Tucker, FAME reviewer
“Walden: The Ballad of Thoreau, like the text that inspired it, aspires to encourage a culture that takes the long view of nature’s value to humans … A play like Johnathon’s has the potential to have a salutary effect on the young people performing and watching it.” William Christopher Brown, University of Minnesota
NOTE: Many are preparing to perform the Walden play around Earth Day.
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WATCH the 58 minute Award winning Walden Play as shown on PBS stations nationwide, click the screen below:
