Stage 9
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Mark your calendars for October 21st at 5:00 or 7:30 for Stage 9’s production of Talking Tombstones. Tickets are $10, $15, and $20 and can be purchased on the stage 9 website or at Eastside cemetery before the show. Please bring your own lawn chair.
If the dead could talk, they would have a lot to say. Well, for one day in October, Stage 9 will bring to life the stories of nine deceased people who are buried in Hutchinson. The following is a brief look at the lineup of characters this year.
Our first deceased character is Barney Shamberg, who moved to Hutchinson, opened a Mercantile and spearheaded a campaign to open a Jewish Center here.
Father Ted Blakeley will portray Barney’s life from Germany to Hutchinson.
W.C. Boyd is next. He was gruesomely murdered, but who was the culprit. Joe Woody will relate the sordid tale full of twists and turns.
Returning to tell her woeful tale is Mattie Blanchard, whose five children were bludgeoned to death and left to die in a house fire. P.J. Ford will explain the heinous crime.
Two well-known sisters will also make an appearance. Isabel and Phyllis Obee were pioneering women at the beginning of the 1900s and both excelled in law and politics. Diane Roth will depict Phyllis, a teacher and politician. Deanne Martin will become Isabel, who became a renowned Garden City lawyer.
Ellen Fairchild, played by Rachel Hein ,was a child of pioneers. She will relate the stories of frontier life, traveling and living in Kansas and Oklahoma and meeting some famous people.
James O’Loughlin returns with a somber firefighter’s tale. Tony Carpenter plays James, a hardworking man with little luck who died early in life from a fatal accident.
Auriol Lee, actor, director, and pilot joins us because she made an offhand remark to a friend about where to be buried. Deb Teufel will paint a vivid portrait of this famously talented woman.
John Shamberg, portrayed by Matt Christian, will be the finale for this year. John was Barney Shamberg’s son and became an eminent Kansas Lawyer, always battling injustice for famous and ordinary people.
We thank the following for sponsoring a deceased person this year: Woolsey Monument, Salt City Brewing, A New You Day Spa, Bogeys, The Fox Theater, Will, and Mr. and Mrs. Lew Rothman and Jackson Meat.
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