Amy Woodruff, McNeese State University theater graduate and “intermedia” artist, will present her performance piece, “Moon
Cove,” and re-enact a traditional Cajun cemetery vigil at Istre Cemetery in Acadia Parish south of the Mermentau community
overnight on Nov. 1.
The installation is planned for 2 p.m. Thursday through 10 a.m. Friday, Nov. 2.
Woodruff, a 10th-generation Louisianian, wrote “Moon Cove” and first produced it in 2008. In the interim it has gone through
revisions, she said.
“It is the story of a girl who hears from an aunt family stories that she had never heard,” Woodruff said. “In a supernatural
twist, she realizes she has the power to contact her Louisiana French ancestors’ ghosts.”
She spoke in a telephone interview from her home base in New Orleans. “Moon Cove” is subtitled “A Louisiana Tale of Horror
from the Cajun Prairie.”
“I have always been fond of ghost stories,” she said.
The presentation involves solo theater
performance, multimedia projection, and handmade objects and garments.
It weaves together
live-narrative storytelling; music (she does a little fiddle
playing); and the projection of photographs and videos to tell
an epic story of the heartbreak, tragedy and resilience of a south
Louisiana family, she said.
Woodruff, who was born in Lake Charles, was separated from her father for many years because of her parents’ divorce, but
later connected with him.
“We got really close and enjoyed a really fine relationship for a number of years,” she said. He was a Thibodeaux from Acadia
Parish and is buried in Istre Cemetery, along with many of his ancestors.
“Istre Cemetery is a country family
cemetery,” Woodruff said. “It may be the only remaining one with wooden
Cajun houses constructed
over some of the graves, where they used to be all over south
Louisiana.”
This distinguishing feature and burials dating to 150 years ago helped the site attain a listing on the National Register
of Historic Places.
Woodruff graduated with a bachelor’s in
theater arts from McNeese and received a master’s in interdisciplinary
art from Goddard
College in Vermont. She has performed “Moon Cove” in New Orleans
and at Goddard College, where she said it was well-received.
She will present a fully staged version
Nov. 30, Dec. 1 and Dec. 3-4 at the Shadowbox Theatre of New Orleans.
It will be presented
in documentary style.
The production in Istre Cemetery will also be a “Tousaint-a-Thon” fundraiser, she said. Thirty percent of the proceeds — there
is no charge, but a collection will be taken — will go to the Istre Cemetery preservation organization, and the remainder
will be used for future productions of “Moon Cove.”
Directions: Drive U.S. 90 east of Mermentau and turn right on La. 92 (Mermentau Cove Road, which becomes West Whitney Road)
to Everglade Road, which becomes Swift Road. The cemetery is several miles south on the left side of Swift Road.