PHILADELPHIA -- In the evening quiet of Independence Hall, you can hear the voices of the famous men who helped bring forth a new nation.

If you're still enough, you can actually see the ghosts of Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams debating the principles and the wording of the Declaration of Independence.

Well, they're not actually ghosts, they're actors who portray those historic icons as part of the Independence After Hours Tour conducted by Once Upon a Nation, the Philadelphia-based group that brings history to life via community outreach, tours and storytelling.

While Pittsburgh may not have had any role in the life of the real Thomas Jefferson, for the three actors portraying him, there's a Pittsburgh connection.

Steven Edenbo, an actor/historian, was born in Greensburg and grew up in Carlisle, Cumberland County.

Nathan Edmondson is a native of Franklin, Venango County. The third Jefferson is played by Bryan Dawidowicz, whose wife, Karyn Osinski, also an actor, was born and raised in Munhall.

		If you go... Philadelphia Once Upon a Nation promotes history and Philadelphia's unique role in the creation of this nation through storytelling, tours and performances in the city's historic district and beyond. It's responsible for the programming at sites such as the Betsy Ross House, Independence Hall and Valley Forge and the newly renovated Franklin Square at Sixth and Race streets, which includes a carousel, mini-golf, playgrounds and fountain. The Independence After Hours tour will be available through Oct. 27. For more information on that tour or any other Once Upon a Nation tour or program, visit www.onceuponanation.org or call 1-215-629-4026.

"I think it's really satisfying working with the public because our mission is so important in bringing storytelling to life," said Ms. Osinski.

The Steel Valley High School graduate portrays two brave women of the 18th century, Molly Pitcher and Deborah Samson Gannett -- the only woman who received a pension from the Revolutionary War -- in a program called Girl Wonder.

"She actually disguised herself as a man and fought for 18 months in the war," Ms. Osinski said of Gannett.

During the peak summer months when tourists flock to Philadelphia for its smorgasbord of history, the actress does three shows a day, seven days a week.

Currently, she's doing two shows a day Thursdays through Sundays.

"I wasn't personally aware of all the strong women in the 18th century until I began working for [Once Upon a Nation]," said Ms. Osinski, who holds a bachelor's of fine arts degree from Shenandoah University in Winchester, Va. Like their World War II counterparts, women in the 18th century ran the cities and the farms while the men were fighting wars.

As a high school student, she spent her summers at the Pittsburgh Playhouse under tutelage of Ken Gargaro.

She met her husband while in college, and the couple moved to Chicago, where they spent seven years before heading for Philadelphia.

Both have been doing historical interpretations for the past two summers. Ms. Osinski, 30, works the stage at the Betsy Ross House and the storytelling bench there, one of 13 such benches scattered throughout the city's historic district and in nearby Valley Forge.

Mr. Edmondson, 27, moved to Philadelphia in 2002 after graduating from Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio.

"I wanted to go to a mid-size city on the East Coast," he said. It came down to Philadelphia and Chicago but Philly won.

He helped start an improv company called The Rare Bird Show.

"I'm very happy with that group. We've been doing solid shows for the past two years at good improv festivals," Mr. Edmondson said. "Then about a year ago I realized I was just doing improv and wanted to do scripted work again."

He auditioned to be a storyteller for Once Upon a Nation and then won the part of Jefferson.

What Mr. Edmondson knew about the drafter of the Declaration of Independence was "very basic high school history," he said.

He was recruited to portray Jefferson for some footage that will be used as part of documentary for the History Channel.

In other ventures, he's excited about the lead role in a Tennessee Williams play, "Vieux Carre," in which he plays a womanizing cad. It's put on by EgoPo Productions, which moved to Philadelphia after its theater in New Orleans was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.

Mr. Edenbo, who has lived in Philadelphia since 1996, still has a lot of family in Greensburg, where his brother and both his parents also were born.

The 33-year-old actor, who sports his own long red hair instead of a wig, is the same age Jefferson was when he wrote the Declaration of Independence.

He became interested in the third U.S. president after he and a friend from England visited the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C.

"I went on to pursue normal acting for a while because I didn't know [historical theater] existed," Mr. Edenbo said.

In 1999, he was contacted by the American Historical Theater, a nonprofit group.

"They saw me somewhere and saw that I bore a certain resemblance to Jefferson," he said.

Since then, he's also joined Once Upon a Nation's cast of actors and storytellers, portraying Jefferson for Independence After Hours Tours.

His portrayal of Jefferson is the only one during which the audience is invited to ask questions, he said.

Some are basic biographical questions while others seek to gain some kind of insight into what Jefferson and the other Founding Fathers would think of America today, Mr. Edenbo said.

Since he plays Thomas Jefferson in the first person, he tries to make historical analogies. "Things he did that might speak to modern day," Mr. Edenbo said.

He is often asked about one of the most controversial aspects of Jefferson's life -- his alleged relationship with his slave, Sally Hemings.

"What I say about it depends on the context and the situation," Mr. Edenbo said. "When I do a show about it there's very little I can say one way or the other about Sally Hemings because what I'm doing is what Jefferson would say about a particular issue."

While it was written about in newspapers and provided grist for the rumor mill, no member of the press actually asked Jefferson about this, Mr. Edenbo said.

"The problem is the problem of slavery and the very strong possibility of this relationship certainly accentuating that problem."

Though the behavior is not excusable, slave masters often slept with their slaves, he said.

"If Jefferson did not indulge, as it were, then he would have been unusual."