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ALTON - Vintage Voices promises another great year of storytelling and history.
As part of Vintage Voices, actors portray real people who are buried in the Alton Cemetery. They tell stories about each person’s life and how they impacted the community. This year, the Vintage Voices tours are scheduled for October 5, 6, 12 and 13, 2024.
“We are a group of people very committed to keeping the history of Alton and the surrounding community alive,” said Jody Basola, chair of the Vintage Voices committee. “There is so much great history and so many great stories to be told. “
Basola explained that the Vintage Voices committee begins their work in January. They partner with Hayner Library to research people who are buried in the Alton Cemetery.
Once they’ve narrowed down their search to eight or nine people, they hold auditions in June. The actors are given information about their characters and then, with the help of the directors and the Hayner Library librarians, they write their own scripts.
Accuracy is key, Basola said. The actors “put their heart and soul” into making sure their scripts are correct and they are portraying their characters as accurately as possible. The end result is impressively lifelike.
“Obviously, we can't talk to that person that they’re portraying and know exactly what they were like, but if you read enough stories that are put in the paper about this person, you can kind of get a feel for what kind of a person they were,” Basola explained. “I feel like sometimes that person literally just got up out of that grave and came to talk.”
The costumers also do a lot to ensure the authenticity of a scene. They will go to great lengths to make sure the actors are in period-accurate clothing. This year, three baseball players from Alton Sportsman’s Park will be featured on the Vintage Voices tour. Basola said the costumers have worked hard to find accurate baseball uniforms.
In addition to the baseball players, this year’s attendees can expect to learn more about an Alton teacher whose money is still benefiting the community today, a member of the Committee of Negro Women and Children who did a lot for Alton’s Black community, and the first person to be entombed in the mausoleum at Alton Cemetery.
It’s important to Basola and the rest of the Vintage Voices committee to keep the history of Alton alive. They want to help immortalize the stories of the people who came before us and share their lives with the current Alton residents.
“Everyone on this committee is so into the history of Alton, and the deeper you get into it, the more fascinating it is,” she said. “There’s just so many things that shaped who we are today. You go by a cemetery, and you don’t know what those people in there did for this town.”
You can find out more on October 5, 6, 12 and 13, 2024. The walking tours start at 12 p.m. and run every 15 minutes until 2:30 p.m. at Alton Cemetery. There will also be a non-walking tour on Oct. 6 at St. Mary’s Middle School.
Tickets cost $15 for adults and $10 for students ages 6–18. Kids ages 5 and under are free. You can purchase tickets online or at Picture This and More on Broadway, or at the gate.
“We’re just feeding a hunger for history, for people who love history. Even people who didn’t know they liked history come through, and they’re like, ‘Wow, I’m fascinated,’” Basola added. “You’ve got to have a passion for history, and we have close to 600 people come every year. So we’re not the only ones passionate about history.”
For more information about Vintage Voices, visit their official Facebook page.
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