Stories in the Stones: Underwood Shares Voices from Phelps Cemetery

We hike Pulpit Rock for the views — and for the stories waiting at the top. Support Decorah News today. DECORAH — Kristen Underwood will share how she gave voice to some of Decorah's long-dead citizens in a presentation that's part of the Porter House Museum's After Dark lecture series. In "Voices from the Grave: Reflections on the Cemetery Walks," Underwood will reflect on her experience directing walks at Decorah's Phelps Cemetery in 2005, 2007, 2009 and 2018, where local children and adults acted the parts of persons by whose gravestones they stood. Underwood founded Upstart Crow Theatreworks in 2002 with the goal of producing plays that are accessible yet challenging and interesting to performers and audiences of all ages. She says the cemetery walks also fit with her mission of "bringing the past to life." Underwood developed scenes and monologues based on obituaries, newspaper articles, cemetery plot maps and other archived materials, and directed players to perform these in costume at the appropriate plots as groups were led from place to place through Phelps Cemetery. "Phelps Cemetery has the ideal geography for a walking tour like this," Underwood says. "In addition to simply being a beautiful spot, the hilly terrain allows for scenes to occur throughout the cemetery simultaneously, without the audience overhearing what's coming next." As part of her presentation, Underwood will share examples of what she considers highlights of the four walks. "One of my favorite stories was imagining the lives of young newlyweds Irene and Charles VanBrocklin, buried in the paupers' section of the cemetery," Underwood says. "Newspaper accounts of the couple's murder in 1921 and the subsequent Chicago-style media frenzy around a trial offered juicy material for theater." In addition to her cemetery walks, Underwood produced walks at Luther College and along the Upper Iowa River. Collaboration with Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum resulted in 10 original theatre pieces inspired by exhibits. Underwood also produced children's theater adaptations of works by Carroll, Kipling, Dickens, Molière and Shakespeare, as well as solo performances including Lessons from Cancer College, Women and Fiction: Virginia Woolf Speaks and Natural Shocks. Underwood's talk, which is free and open to the public, will be presented twice on Thursday, Oct. 23, at 6 p.m. and again at 7:30 p.m. at the Porter House Museum, 401 W. Broadway St., Decorah. Advanced registration and ticketing are required to ensure a seat through the museum website at www.porterhousemuseum.org or by emailing info@porterhousemuseum.org. The talk is supported by the museum's Kurtich Foundation Stay Curious Grant. Feed your curiosity! Subscribe to the free newsletter and indulge in all that's local. Your friends will be impressed.