The Sedona International Film Festival is bringing the legacy of the 26th and youngest — at a mere 42 years — President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, to the Mary D. Fisher Theatre with two performances of Joe Wiegand’s “The Teddy Roosevelt Show” on Friday and Saturday, Jan. 5 and 6.

“The Teddy Roosevelt show is my attempt to bring to life on stage Theodore Roosevelt in flesh and bone. His words, his enthusiasm for life, the glory of work and the joy of living, stories of his legacy,” Wiegand said, adding that he tailors his T.R. stories to the location where he is performing. “So, a salute to Arizona. And T.R. has many connections with Arizona, from the Rough Riders mustering in Fort Whipple to naming the Grand Canyon and the National Monument, coming back to enjoy the Snake Dance after his presidency. We added the baby state in 1912. T.R. had a great deal to do with Arizona Territory up to statehood, including appointing its last territorial governor, Alexander Brodie, one of his Rough Riders.”

Wiegand also noted the use of his name for the Theodore Roosevelt Dam on the Salt River as evidence of the growth of Roosevelt’s legacy throughout Arizona.

Elsewhere in the nation, Roosevelt’s legacy has been reevaluated in recent years, as in a decision by the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan to remove a 1939 bronze statue that depicted African and American Indian men walking alongside T.R. on horseback on the grounds that it glorified racism and colonialism.

The show will serve as a chronological retelling of Roosevelt’s life based on Weigand’s research. Wiegand said he also invites audience questions about T.R’s legacy as seen through a modern lens during a formal question-and-answer portion of his shows.

“The story of Theodore Roosevelt during his lifetime, 1858 to 1919, is a story of a great deal of change going on in the relationship between the United States and the native peoples across the country that we have, and then the territories,” Wiegand said. “On the whole history, will continue to judge him well, for the friendships that he had amongst native leaders, for the mature viewpoint that he had and the responsibility that he obligated himself to. Through the Department of the Interior, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, [he] advanced relations as he thought best in his time … If any audience member wants to engage in a public Q&A in any way that challenges [his legacy], you can at least ask me the cause of the Civil War. And I think I’ll do a better job than one of the presidential candidates recently did.”

In his former professional life, Wiegand was also immersed in politics. He received a political science degree from The University of the South in Sewanee, Tenn., before running political campaigns and serving on the DeKalb County, Ill., Board of Commissioners for six years. He started portraying T.R. in 2002.

“I came to my subject through a career in public policy … in the land of Lincoln, where one can observe that the governors make the license plates on a bipartisan basis,” Wiegand said. “The number of governors that have gone to prison — it is a significantly corrupt state. The city of Chicago and Cook County — significant public corruption. I spent about 20 years trying to make a difference there. After those Sept. 11 attacks, in 2001, [I was] 36 years old, too fat and too old to join the military. [But] I was gifted for Christmas a copy of the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography 

“The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt” by Edmund Morris, published in 1978. I didn’t read it until 2001. But I remember being a youngster inspired by [T.R.]. His overcoming of asthma by building his body was not unlike my experience of being bronchial as a youth, but being raised by hippies, so I just couldn’t breathe. Eventually, I became an ultra-marathoner.”

Wiegand left politics in 2008 following that year’s primary election in Illinois and hit the road with his family, taking his performance across the nation.

“[Wiegand’s] Theodore Roosevelt performances are endorsed by the congressionally-chartered Theodore Roosevelt Association of Oyster Bay, N.Y., and have been featured annually at the Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National Historic Site, Sagamore Hill National Historic Site, and the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site,” the SIFF press release stated. “As Theodore Roosevelt, [Wiegand] has been featured as a keynote speaker at national conferences, conventions, and leadership retreats to rave reviews throughout the nation.”

“Given the fact that the show is the first weekend in January, I think this is going to set the tone for a wonderful 2024,” Wiegand said. “Audiences are going to leave feeling better about themselves and their country and the role that each and every one of us has to play in a very important [election] year ahead of us … But the importance is every day, how we treat one another, what we do to make our community a better place. The glory of work and the joy of living will be the theme, and I hope that’s a theme that people will carry with them for the year.”