A theatrical performance will transform Newport’s Common Burying Ground into an immersive storytelling experience next month, bringing the lives of some of the 8,000 people buried there back to life through drama and music.
“Life After Life” will be performed four times over two days, Nov. 1-2, featuring more than 45 local actors, musicians and choir members who will guide audiences through the historic cemetery and adjacent God’s Little Acre. Free tickets become available Oct. 15 at centeraquidneck.com, with performances at 1 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. each day.
Director Rebecca Noon said the production emerged from historical research and will weave together the “intertwining, overlapping stories” of people resting in what she called “this fragile and sacred space.”
The performance, co-directed by Noon and Jed Hancock-Brainerd, will feature encounters with cemetery residents’ dramatic and everyday stories, including their quirks and regrets. Music Director Elizabeth Woodhouse will lead both children’s and adult choirs for the production.
Lewis Keen, chair of Newport’s Historic Cemetery Advisory Commission, called the Common Burying Ground “a colonial treasure that few people know” and said the production will support the commission’s mission of promoting the historic burial site.
Free morning tours of the cemetery will be offered during the performance weekend, led by Keen, Keith Stokes, Mark Stickney of Historic Music of Newport and representatives from the Newport Historical Society. Tour registration also opens Oct. 15 at centeraquidneck.com.
The production is fiscally sponsored by the Arts & Cultural Alliance of Newport County and funded by grants from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, Rhode Island Foundation, Collective Fund of the Distracted Globe Foundation and Discover Newport, along with individual donors from a crowdfunding campaign. Additional support comes from Viking Tours, Bert Lippincott, the Newport Historical Society and St. Michael’s School.
For more information, visit centeraquidneck.com.
