Article by: Daniel McFadin of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Photo by: Adam Vogler
Among the most popular places in Little Rock on Sunday was one that's usually dead quiet.
For two hours, people lined a sidewalk on 13th Street, waiting to get into an unusual entertainment venue: a cemetery. The Mount Holly Cemetery -- with its roughly 5,000 deceased residents -- to be exact.
What brought throngs of people to a 183-year-old graveyard, wherein reside 11 state governors, 22 Little Rock mayors and two former Arkansas Gazette editors?
Theater, of course.
The people were in line for "Tales of the Crypt," an annual Halloween production put on by the Parkview Arts & Science Magnet High School theatre department and the Mount Holly Cemetery Association.
Spread throughout the 20-plus-acre cemetery were 20 Parkview students, each dressed in period costumes and performing scripted monologues or scenes to tell the story of a person interred at Mount Holly.
Sunday was the 29th time the school had put on "Tales of the Crypt," but it was the first one held since the passing of one of its founders, Fred Boosey.
Benton native Boosey was the original "Crypt" director, leading the first performance in 1995. He died in August at the age of 76.
Directing Sunday's event was Boosey's former assistant director, Tamara Zinck.
"We're doing this one in honor of Mr. Boosey," said Zinck, who has directed "Crypt" for 10 years.
The process for preparing each edition of "Crypt" starts in the spring when teachers begin looking at how students are doing in classes, "how responsible they are" and outgoing seniors they'll need to replace.
"We tell them every day is an audition," Zinck said.
Then teachers start pairing the students with subjects who are interred at Mount Holly, so they can spend the summer researching them.
"One year we had three ladies that had all been married off to the same man -- they were all sisters," Zinck said. "When that one died, then they married the next sister."
Helping lead and organize the event Sunday was senior Allyson Dillon. Typically a tech person on the school's theater productions, Sunday marked the fourth year she's taken part in "Tales of the Crypt" and been one of the students who guides people through the tour.
"My first year, I was pretty nervous, but it's actually not that bad -- and it's fun," Dillon said. "I like hearing all the stories. ... I know what they're (going to say), but I still like hearing them, because every year they're a little different."
When it comes to dead air or "awkward pauses," Dillon comes armed with a "list of dad jokes" to lighten the mood.
"It's just funny, cause I'm laughing, even though they're not that funny," Dillon said. "But I entertain myself."
However, fellow senior Mauri Kelley -- taking part in "Tales of the Crypt" for the first time -- had her own list ... of dead jokes.
"Most of the people around here won't be buried here," Kelley says.
Why?
"Because they're alive."
Of course.
Kelley said that preparing for and being part of the event had been a "bit nerve-wracking" but "exciting" overall, "because I still get to see all my peers and friends."
However, she could have done with a different venue. "I don't usually go to like cemeteries," Kelley said. "I'm scared of everything, so this is not my setting."
It could be worse: It could be at night.
Up until a few years ago it actually was, according to Zinck, who said the date of the event has been pushed back in order to escape late-summer heat.
The cemetery was divided into two sections with separate tours, and after going through one time many visitors got in line again for the other section.
One station was devoted to Carrick White Heiskell, the son of former Arkansas Gazette editor John Netherland Heiskell, and his wife, Bertha Coyle Heiskell.
Carrick Heiskell tragically died in 1943 during Word War II when his Army Air Force plane crashed while attempting to land in India.
Another station was devoted to David Owen Dodds, a 17-year-old who was hanged in 1864 after being caught behind Union lines with a notebook that had details of Union troops in Little Rock.
While the performances put on at these stations and most of the others were dramas, the students at one decided to have fun with theirs.
Logan Gould and Andersyn Van Kuren were tasked with telling visitors about the lives of former Little Rock Mayor Roswell Beebe and his first wife, Clarissa Eliot Beebe. It was Roswell Beebe who, along with Chester Ashley, deeded the land to Little Rock that would become the Mount Holly Cemetery.
The students spent their summer co-writing the script they brought to life right next to Roswell Beebe's tombstone.
"We had a version from last year, but we edited and revised some parts, updated some information," Gould said.
"I think this thing is more fun," Van Kuren said. "We have a little bit more joking around it."
Over the course of their scene -- performed roughly once every two minutes -- Van Kuren tells the audience that Clarissa died first in 1856, from pneumonia.
To which Gould as Roswell promptly follows up, saying he later remarried.
"Excuse me, you what?!" Van Kuren responded.
"Well, I never loved her as much as I loved my dear Clarissa," Gould declares.
"We'll talk about that later," Van Kuren said.
At the end of each scene repetition, the duo heartily sent tour groups on their way, telling them, "Thank you for paying us a visit!"
About 40 seconds later, it was time to start over again.