Video: Tales From The Crypt

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COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – For lovers of history and drama, this year’s annual performances of Tales from the Crypt are shaping up to be timely.

This is the 150th anniversary marking the end of the Civil War, 75th Pilgrimage, and 25th anniversary of the acting presentations.

Friendship Cemetery, a place where both soldiers of the blue and the gray are buried, MSMS history students are sharpening up their skills and bringing to life characters from a period not soon forgotten.

“But this is an opportunity for the students to practice performances in costume on their plots. Practice their blocking, audience reaction, narrators practice the route,” said MSMS Director of Tales from the Crypt Chuck Yarborough.

The material gathered for the performances, is old as the war between the states itself, with new meaning to include freedom and race, gender role expectations for women, and even immigrants fighting in the civil war.

“We have ten performances but the research is done anew with new research subjects So it is a brand new tour for the 25th time, although we are in the cemetery and we do have the decoration Day ladies once again,” said Yarborough.

Ladies decorating the graves of Union and Confederate war dead inspired the poem The Blue And The Gray, creator Carl Butler becomes responsible for Tales from the Crypt, an award-winning project honoring him this year. One performer mimics a student who knew Butler.

“I actually, I’m quite a history nerd myself, so he was very involved with history. He was historic sites Commission Chairman, President/Founder of Historic Columbus, and Chairman of the Columbus Bicentennial. So if I could be him and do that kind of stuff involving history, I would. But you know I’ve got time,” said performer Jacob Bosley.

By helping to recreate the sights, sounds, and characters of a past era, hopefully thoe students will walk away with a new sense of pride in keeping alive a drama affecting us all.

“And what I want the audience to get from it, is to come and understand that these performances are trying to challenge our understanding of the past. To help us understand things we might no have understood. Or maybe to challenge things that we assume to be correct about the past that might not be,” said Yarborough.

The first performance will be next Wednesday.