Armchair Cemetery Tour August 23 and 24

MIDDLETOWN — Seven people from the past and a narrator to introduce them will be featured in the Historical Society of Middletown's 2025 Living History Cemetery Tour August 23 and 24.

Instead of a walking tour through a cemetery, this year’s event has been reimagined as an “Armchair Tour” for the stage at Open Eye Theater in Margaretville. The stories will be just as compelling as in past years, however, with the addition of background visuals. 

In this 11th living history event sponsored by the Historical Society of the Town of Middletown, seven characters, individuals who are buried in cemeteries throughout Middletown, will tell their stories. They include:

Fanny Hubbell, the “fourth Hubbell Brother,” who was crucial to maintaining the family business in Kelly Corners, portrayed by Rebecca Newman;

Conservation Officer Bryan Burgin and his outdoorsman friend Burt Tubbs, played by John Bernhardt and Frank Ryan;

Mathew Halcott, first postmaster of Halcottsville and the son of a British soldier who switched sides during the American Revolution, played by Burr Hubbell;

Maria Haner, who bore the loss of a son and her husband in the Civil War, portrayed by Amy Taylor;

Tillie Edelstein, better known as radio and TV star Molly Goldberg, who discovered her passion for performance at her family’s boarding house in Fleischmanns, played by Adrienne Gusoff; and

Boaz Searle, an early settler in Middletown who ministered to his neighbors as a physician, played by Ward Stevenson.

Kent Brown, narrator, will introduce the characters, linking them in the continuum of Middletown history.

Directing the production will be Joyce St. George and Frank Canavan.

Reservations are not needed to attend the performances, scheduled for 4 and 7 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 23, and 2 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 24. Admission is $20. Children under 15 get in free.

For more information on HSM events visit mtownhistory.org where there is much more local history to be enjoyed.