“The worms go in, the worms go out, they eat your guts and spit them out…”

“The Hearse Song”, New Jersey shore version

Hurricane Sandy cancelled many events the last few weeks, but she could not stop the storytelling duo of Bady and Estroff in The Green-Wood Cemetery on November 4, 2012.

Oh for so long I have wanted to tell stories in a graveyard.  It started with my falling in love with an old cemetery on a hill in the village of Chatham in upstate New York that I drove past each day. The stones were worn down, tablet style, and dated back to the founding of the town. The place called to me. I responded, “Yes!”.  I knew I needed to create a theater piece that would be performed in the graveyard.

Well, that was a long time ago.  That theater piece never happened in that cemetery, and I switched my love for performance to storytelling.  So of course, now I wanted to tell stories in a cemetery!  But until a few weeks ago I had only gone to cemeteries for the customary usage…to bury someone or visit a grave. 

Then, drum rolls, on November 4, despite the after effects of Hurricane Sandy, I co-led a storytelling tour of the fabulous, famous, historic Green-Wood Cemetery!

We weren’t sure if anyone would be there; we had had so many cancellations from people in Manhattan and Queens, and on Long Island, who could not navigate the mess of the subway system post-Sandy. Or drive without gas. But to my surprise, there were lots of walk-ins and the tour was almost completely filled!

My partner in this artistic endeavor was Steve Estroff, the Manager of Public Programs and an incredibly knowledgeable expert on Green-Wood.  He seems to know where everyone is buried, who they are and what their story is.  We spent many hours tramping up and down as I learned the stories of the different people and breathed in that magical atmosphere.  I mean, George Tilyou, who practically invented Coney Island, is buried there.  And more mobsters than you would imagine in such a beautiful and reverential place.

If you do not know anything about Green-Wood Cemetery:  It is huge!  It is almost as large as Prospect Park in Brooklyn, which is also enormous.  It was designed to be a rural cemetery, with hills and small lakes and winding paths.  Green-Wood has always been a destination to walk through, filled with beautiful statues and magnificent mausoleums along the hillsides.  It was a privilege to be there.

We had so much fun planning this!  We created a tour that combined ancient mythology with the true stories of the dead buried there, and took them deep into the cemetery, up on the highest point of Brooklyn overlooking the harbor and the Statue of Liberty, to the magnificent chapel by the small pond of water. 

The tour started at 4:00, and ended at 6:00; started in light and ended in darkness.  Sitting in the chapel drinking champagne and Martinelli, we drank a toast to the coming dark of winter.  My toast was also to that first long-ago cemetery, to the beautiful Green-Wood Cemetery and to the storytelling that Steve and I will make happen at Green-Wood in the Spring.