Annual Living History Cemetery Tours in Kingston

KINGSTON – Theatre on the Road and the Old Dutch Church in Kingston will offer “living history” tours Saturdays in October in the cemetery of the church. Guests will take a trip across three centuries and meet seven characters who made Kingston the place to be.

On this tour, guests will meet Calvert Vaux, an architect who designed New York’s Central Park and many of the Hudson Valley’s finest residences. Visitors will also witness the banter between Sadie and Elsie Reher, two sisters whose family owned a bakery on the Rondout. Jenny Hasbrouck, an enslaved person who took her own freedom, will make an appearance, along with Father Divine, a celebrated African-American spiritual leader. Emily Crane Chadbourne, an art collector and philanthropist, will regale us with her story and Rachel Hasbrouck, a young woman who survived a Tory attack while escaping the burning of Kingston, will finish the tour.

Live tours will take place on October 3, 10, 17 and 24 at 7pm and each will be limited to 60 people. There will be no more than 10 people at each gravesite; masking and social distancing will be enforced. A virtual version of the tour will be available on www.livinghistoryny.com beginning November 1.

Tickets are must be purchased by visiting www.livinghistoryny.com. For information: 845-475-7973.

Theatre on the Road is the creation of actor, writer, and director Frank Marquette and his wife, Kristen. Theatre on the Road offers original scripts, professional actors, period styling, and handmade costumes. Original productions include, Poe’s Last Mystery, Voices from the Past, A Taste of Shakespeare, Whiskey Women, and seasonal “living history” tours at the Old Dutch Church in Kingston.

All research and monologues for Theatre on the Road’s living history cemetery tours were provided by Jessica Boyd, a local teacher, writer, actor based in Rhinebeck.