This week, the Navasota Theatre Alliance is set to pull back the curtain on a few of the grand, Southern mansions that line Washington Avenue.
NTA’s Twelfth Annual Lanterns & Legends: Faces in the Windows will feature some of the people who lived in those actual homes and are buried at Navasota’s historic Oakland Cemetery.
This year’s Lanterns & Legends will portray historic figures from six different homes on
Washington Avenue (in order of appearance):
·Mattie Brigance Foster (portrayed by Laura Vaughn)
·Robert Augustus Horlock (portrayed by Henry de la Garza)
·Artie Fultz Davis (portrayed by Patti Sexton)
·Robert Andrew “Buck” Sangster (portrayed by Mark Taylor)
·Joseph & Mary Ann Brooks (portrayed by Bryan and Brittany Smith)
·Ward & Annie Templeman (portrayed by Grant and Mary Jane Jones-Holt)
Tour groups at Oakland Cemetery this Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights will leave every fifteen minutes to visit the six grave sites. At each site will be actors dressed in period costumes, who will be interviewed by the tour guides. This year, the focus is on individuals who built, and lived in, the iconic homes along Washington Avenue.
The original script, written locally by Mark Taylor and Bill Murray, includes historical facts about historic Navasotans with remarkable accomplishments, historical anecdotes, and even a healthy dose of humor.
“These people were community leaders,” said Taylor. “They were in the business and society pages of the newspaper every week, and their decisions shaped the community we live in today. Lanterns and Legends honors these individuals by remembering not only their accomplishments, but their personalities, their character, and their work ethic, too.”
This year’s Lanterns & Legends is directed by Joyce Yorek, who also serves as NTA Board President. “It’s fun for us to bring these characters to life at their actual grave sites,” Yorek said. “Tour guides use lanterns to lead groups through the cemetery to visit six different grave sites. At each site are actors dressed in period costumes who are then interviewed by the tour guide.”
This year, in addition to Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night performances at Oakland
Cemetery, NTA will offer a Sunday matinee performance at the Sunny Furman Theater in the Ketchum Building at 104 W. Washington Avenue.
For more information, or to purchase tickets, click https://www.navasotatheatre.org/
Graphic from Navasota Grimes County Chamber of Commerce