Tales from the Crypt Begins
Kenadi Freeman, Regan Conner, Ta’Kiya Moore, and Alana Andrus perform as the Decoration Day Ladies, four Columbus women who were the first in the nation to decorate the graves of both Confederate and Union dead after the war, inspiring our current Memorial Day celebrations.
April 3, 2017
With the spring semester coming to its close, it is finally time for the “Tales From the Crypt” performances. Taking place in the historic Friendship Cemetery, this year’s event marks the 27th annual production of the MSMS tradition.
The program is the result of year-long research conducted by “Tales” students and adapted into scripts describing the life of an individual buried in the cemetery. The “Tales” class is a topic of discussion among upcoming classes.
Junior Harpreet Singh said that he decided to enroll in the class based on recommendations from previous students. He also remarked, “I thought it would be really different from a traditional U.S. History class.”
Students worked for months preparing stories to audition with. Junior Hayden Stoakley, a performer for this years event, said that writing her script took “a lot of brainstorming.”
“I basically just took the most interesting part of what I briefly touched upon in my research paper…and then I kind of ran from there,” Stoakley said.
The performers this year take a great range, from a prisoner of war to the father of the first woman tried for murder in Columbus, all with unique personalities of their own.
Junior performer Kamal Bhalla briefly touched on being nervous about the performance. “I’m worried that I’ll go way too fast because my character is really sassy, but then I get too sassy.” When asked what she was most excited for, Bhalla said “being sassy.”
The students have also been given plenty of advice by previous years’ performers on how to interact with a crowd, be convincing, and bring their individual character to life.
The famous Tales From the Crypt “Decoration Day Ladies” will also continue as a main feature in the show this year. The Decoration Day ladies, as described by Junior Christina Comino (who will be performing as Maddie Morton and Katy Hill, two of the Decoration Day ladies), are “the four original Columbus women who got together and decorated the graves of both Union and Confederate soldiers buried in Friendship Cemetery.”
However, this year’s script will be slightly different, as “Tales” instructor Chuck Yarborough notes that “the Decoration Day ladies talk a lot about loss, as opposed to just memorializing the event that they participated in.”
Yarborough mentioned that the theme of loss is very prevalent in this years performances, with one character facing the loss of his brother.
Yarborough noted his confidence in the students preparedness. “I am not apprehensive at all, they are ready, and they will get better as they adjust to working together.”
The “Tales from the Crypt” program benefits the community as well as the student participants. Yarborough described the mark that “Tales” leaves on the community monetarily as well as educationally.
“In the past 27 years, the community has come to value the cemetery as more of a historical place, which is beneficial. The thousands of dollars that the program has raised over the years have benefited the community greatly. It has also inspired spin-off programs as well as programs similar to ‘Tales’ across the country,” Yarborough explained.
The “Tales” program has received many awards since its founding, including features on NPR and in The Atlantic, the 2014 Heritage Award for Preservation Education, the 2009 Award for Outstanding Use of Historical Documents in the Mississippi K-12 Classroom and the 2005 Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts recipient. It was also named a 2005 national Finalist for the History Channel’s Save Our History Classroom Award.
This years performances will be taking place on March 31, and April 5, 7 and 9
