After several months of research and preparation, 27 students of Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science are almost ready to help portray various figures from Columbus’ past in the 32nd edition of Tales from the Crypt.

The project’s historical research/dramatic performances are scheduled from 7-10 p.m. April 1, 4, 5, and 8 at Friendship Cemetery, 4th Street South, Columbus. They coincide with the Columbus Pilgrimage Jubilee of Homes, set for March 24-April 16.

Performance tours begin at 7 p.m. each evening, with each group’s tour lasting approximately 45 minutes.  Guests are asked to arrive at Friendship Cemetery before the gates close at 9 p.m.

Tickets cost $5 for adults and $3 for students. Preschoolers are free. Tickets and information can be obtained online at preservecolumbus.com/event/tales-from-the-crypt-special-event/2022-04-01/

The award-winning performance features 11th grade U.S. History students, who will creatively explore history, as well as honor people buried in the historic cemetery by attempting to uncover and tell their life stories, as well as the history of Columbus and Mississippi.

Each performance will be held by candlelight. Performers will tell their stories at the gravesite of the individual researched as a student guides lead groups of tourists through the cemetery.

“Incorporating dramatic performance into a history research program, has created an opportunity for students and their audiences to explore our cultural and mental roots from different viewpoints,” said Chuck Yarborough, project director and MSMS history teacher. “Tales from the Crypt performances create a space in which the performers and the audiences are allowed the freedom to twist and play with their conceptions and where they are temporarily free to create new realizations and new levels of understanding.”   

Work for the project began in the fall. Following an introduction and a brief overview of Columbus history, each student selected the name of a person buried in Friendship Cemetery from a master list of over 100 individuals who had not been previously researched. All of them died in the 19th or early 20th century, prior to 1930. Students then visited their subject’s gravesite in order to begin the research process.

Each student conducted primary and secondary source research through resources made available by the local archives of the Columbus-Lowndes County Public Library.  Additionally, students explored online collections available from the special collections at nearby Mississippi State University and Mississippi University for Women, as well as the Mississippi Department of Archives and History in Jackson and through an educational grant from ancestryclassroom.com .

Students wrote a paper based on their research exploring the life of their research subject and placing their subject in the larger historical context of their day.

In January, each student developed a character and wrote an original monologue script conveying the student’s interpretation of significant events which influenced and were influenced by their research subject. Yarborough and previous Tales participants assisted students as they developed their character for an audition. Students were encouraged to explore intersections of class, gender, race and religion, as well as to consider how their research might offer insights for today.

In auditions, seven students were selected based upon dramatic performance potential and historical accuracy.

“These students will develop their characters further and hone their performances in production teams with fellow students,” said Yarborough. “Students who are not selected to perform their character continue to participate in the project as production team members. These students also learn parts as narrators/guides for the performances during evening tours.

“This year, the seven junior performers will be joined by three seniors who were unable to publicly perform in 2021 due to the pandemic cancellations,” he added.

For 32 years, the project has been a successful partnership between MSMS, the Columbus-Lowndes County Library, and area preservation organizations.  Tales has also received national and regional awards while also gaining recognition through imitation and publicity throughout the country.

The research and dramatic performance project is the brainchild of founding MSMS faculty member and long-time Columbus resident Carl Butler. For the past 22 years, the program has developed further under Yarborough’s direction.

Each year, proceeds are donated to charitable projects selected by the students.

Over the past 10 performance years, Tales students have raised and donated over $50,000 to charitable causes, including over $25,000 to the Columbus Cultural Heritage Foundation and its historic preservation efforts.

Annually, approximately two thousand visitors have toured Friendship Cemetery and experienced Tales from the Crypt performances.

Tales of the Crypt performers

• Addie White (parents: Amanda & Calvin White; junior from Olive Branch): White researched and portrays Arthur Franklin Durrett. A socially popular young man, Durrett was drafted for service in World War 1. Durrett contracted the flu and died during the Influenza global pandemic just before his 19th birthday and prior to departing for military service in the fall of 1918. White’s performance explores the impact of the Espionage and Sedition Acts on awareness among Americans during the 1918 pandemic.
• Jay Snodgrass (parents: Dr. Michelle Boucher-Snodgrass & Dr. Ed Snodgrass; senior from Meridian): Snodgrass researched “Columbus City Minute Book, II; 1850-1866” and portrays the Honorable George R. Clayton, a member of the Columbus board of selectman and a judge during the 1840s. A political figure who unsuccessfully campaigned for governor, Clayton died in 1867. Snodgrass’ performance questions the importance of temporal things in the light of eternity.
• Alyssa Newsome (parents: Angie & Arrik Newsome; junior from Sallis): Newsome researched Henry Baker Sr. and portrays Phebe Baker, Henry’s wife. Born in to slavery, as were her husband and children, Baker’s husband was an important black business, political and church leader. Her son, Henry E. Baker Jr., was the first black Mississippian appointed to the U.S. Naval Academy and went on to become an author as well as the highest-ranking African American patent examiner in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Newsome’s performance celebrates the struggles and contributions of the Baker family in 19th century America.
• Sophia Williams (parent: Anna Myers; junior from Meridian): Williams researched and portrays Tallulah Harris Lipscomb. Lipscomb’s husband was Dr. William Lowndes Lipscomb, early historian of Columbus and author of “A History of Columbus, Mississippi, During the 19th Century.” Williams’ performance challenges the audience to consider what might be absent from published histories.
• Lauren Varner (parents: Sandra McCurley and Darrell Varner; junior from Raymond): Varner researched Horace Chandler and portrays Rebecca Wyckoff Taylor. Born in New York, Taylor and her sisters lived with their aunt and uncle in Columbus during the 1850s. After marriage she lived in Mobile, Alabama, and her husband served in the Confederate Army. Varner’s performance relates the fears and anxieties of soldiers’ wives during a time of war. 
• Zaria Cooper (parents: Charline and Eddie Oliver; senior from Jackson): Cooper researched the “Franklin Academy Minutes books, 1821-1835,” and portrays a household servant of Major Richard Barry. Born in Virginia, in 1821 Barry was a member of the committee that first surveyed the town of Columbus as well as the first Board of Trustees of Franklin Academy, Mississippi’s first public school. Cooper’s performance contrasts the accomplishment of establishing a free school with the educational opportunities and other rights denied to enslaved local people before the Civil War.
• Nora Courtney (parents: Sean & Rebecca Courtney; junior from Wiggins): Courtney researched Titus Gilmer and portrays Susan Gilmer. Gilmer’s husband, John Gilmer, was a successful businessman and state senator who coauthored the “Married Women’s Property Act of 1839.” Courtney’s performance recounts Mississippi being the first state in the U.S. where women could own real estate independent of their husbands and explores norms and expectations for women in 19th century Mississippi.
• Jordan Isbell (parents: Jeffery & Katrina Isbell; senior from Okolona): Isbell researched the “Record of Apprentices, Bonds, and Indentures for Lowndes County, Mississippi, January 1866-October 1870” and portrays Allen Moody. Born into slavery, after the Civil War, Moody and his brother were indentured as field hands to Joseph Lockhardt in Lowndes County. Isbell’s performance surveys socio-economic limitations confronting poor black boys immediately following the Civil War.
• Ben Tabor (parents: Benjamin & Amy Tabor; junior from Biloxi): Tabor researched and portrays Julius Rubel. Born in Germany, Rubel immigrated to the U.S. in 1903 and became a successful merchant in Columbus, where he was also a member of Temple B’Nai Israel, the local Jewish synagogue. Tabor’s performance recounts moments of collaboration and community between Jews and Christians in early 20-century Mississippi.
• Madison Echols (parent: David Echols; junior from Hattiesburg): Echols researched Blannie E. Mustin and portrays Ida Betts. Betts’ brother was convicted of murder and executed at the Lowndes County Courthouse in 1910. Betts’ brother implicated Mustin’s husband in a conspiracy to commit the murder. Echol’s performance explores the potential impacts of race in early 20th-century Mississippi legal proceedings.

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