Staff Photo Nick Brothers
The Evergreen Cemetery in downtown Fayetteville is a historical landmark is the final resting places of several key Fayetteville and Arkansas leaders, including Arkansas’ second governor, Archibald Yell.
A couple of Fayetteville’s most storied and celebrated citizens will soon be portrayed by local actors near their graves at an event at the historic Evergreen Cemetery.
In collaboration with The Artist’s Laboratory Theatre and the Evergreen Cemetery Association, the “History Comes Alive” theatre production will take place Saturday, Dec. 10 at 1 p.m. A cast of actors will portray seven of the cemetery’s most famous residents — Archibald Yell, Roberta Fulbright, Adeline Blakely, Sophia Sawyer, Stephen K. Stone, Col. Alexander Spotsworth Vandeventer and Peter Van Winkle — in a promenade performance throughout the grounds of the cemetery.
The cast consists of Cole Wimpee (Yell), Katherine Forbes (Fulbright), NaTosha DeVon (Blakely), Mischa Hutchings (Sawyer), Grant Hockenbroth (Stone), Marshall Prettyman (Vandeventer) and Chris Tennison (Winkle). Jason Shipman is directing.
Most of the cast consists of Masters of Fine Arts acting and directing students currently studying at the University of Arkansas. The actors will each be reading monologues about their historical figure’s lives from original scripts written by local writers Willi Goerhring, Rodney Wilhite and Rachel Lynett in collaboration with local historian Jerry Hogan.
Courtesy Photo
As the event progresses, the audience will be split into groups that will revolve around the cemetery to each historical person’s grave where they will watch the monologue performed. During the performance, there will be old-time music performed to enhance the immersion of the time in which these people lived.
The event is part of the Evergreen Cemetery Association’s effort to bring awareness to the history and significance of the site, which started in 1847. Proceeds from the event will be put toward repairs and improvements needed at the cemetery, starting with restoring or replacing Archibald Yell’s grave monument, which has fallen into disrepair.
“There are 3,000 people buried there throughout its four acres,” said Marilyn Heffner, director of the Evergreen Cemetery Association. “We want to promote the cemetery, because it has some fascinating stories. We want to bring those founders to life. They are the origins of Fayetteville history.”
Archibald Yell may be the most significant person in the cemetery, as he was Arkansas’ second governor and a congressman, and fought in the Mexican-American war, where he died in 1847.
Staff Photo Nick Brothers
The monument for Archibald Yell’s gravesite has fallen into disrepair, and the Evergreen Cemetery Association hopes to raise money through the History Comes Alive events to raise funds to help restore it.
Stone and Winkle were both successful, prominent business people in their day as a merchant and a lumber mill magnate. Vandeventer was the Confederate Army’s youngest colonel, who was awarded a medal of valor from Robert E. Lee and went on to work as a lawyer and later the mayor of Fayetteville in 1877.
“My favorite character is Roberta Fulbright,” said Erika Wilhite of Artist’s Laboratory Theatre. “She’s the mother of Senator J. William Fulbright. She’s particularly awesome. I found in my research of Fayetteville there’s this undercurrent of feminism, where women were running things and having political pull. She owned the paper, which went on and became the NWA Times. She’s a fascinating character.”
Blakely is the cemetery’s only person of color buried there. A former slave freed by the Blakely family, who had to be brought in a closed casket to be buried with the Blakely family in the cemetery.
Sawyer was an advocate and pioneer for education in Fayetteville, and formed the first Fayetteville female seminary and ran her own school.
“I think we’ve done a good job picking the people and bringing to light the way these people shaped Fayetteville, but also their role in the larger world of the time,” Wilhite said.
Admission for the event is $10 and tickets can be purchased at the door, at artlabtheatre.comor at the Fayetteville Visitors Bureau.
History Comes Alive at Evergreen Cemetery
Where: Evergreen Cemetery, at the corner of West Center Street and North University Avenue
When: Saturday, Dec. 10 at 1 p.m.
How Much: $10
