Bindlestiff Family Variety Arts, Inc. and Walking the Dog Theater present: GhostWALK Hudson 

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GhostWALK Hudson 2009
GhostWALK 2009 video and news story available by clicking the link, below:




The Register-Star Building, 364 Warren Street - Hudson's early jail and site of hangings and haunts, 
hosted Natalie Cross' story "Devil's Prey" told by Aneli Poland

The Hudson Opera House
 327 Warren Street- 
An 1855 beauty, once Hudson's City Hall, Police Station, Post Office, etc...
hosted "The Opera" by Brendan Paholak , told by Lillias Teague

Hudson Area Library
 400 State Street 
Built in 1818, it was once an orphanage, an insane asylum, a private residence and an academy for females... - if these walls could talk! 

hosted "Purgation" by Christian Peterson, told by Saskia Zyglar

http://haalvhf.pbwiki.com/FrontPage


Space 360 
360 Warren Street
It appears to be a classic 1870's Arts and Crafts building, but parts date back to the 1700's... and the early spirits linger on to tell their tales! Hosted "Blood and Roses" by 
Kimberly Drahushuk, told by Caitlyn Mazzarano

Space 360 also hosted Ashley Mayne's original play, "Sounding the Hudson" telling of Henry Hudson's mysterious end... pictured here, Walking the dog Theater actors David Anderson and Friedolin Stockmaier.

image courtesy Nitin Vadukul


GhostWALK Hudson... how it came to be
by Stephanie Monseu
In November of 2008, I dreamed of an event which would incorporate Bindlestiff’s commitment to youth and to popular, accessible culture; a personal interest in history and  literature and the great resources of my new home-town’s rich arts and architectural resources. After collaborating with Hudson’s Walking the Dog Theater in the Columbia County Chamber of Commerce’s ‘Perform Columbia’ arts committee, I knew they would make  a great partner for the project. Walking the Dog's creative directors Benedicta Bertau and David Anderson are not only consummate artists, their creative energy is of the highest order and their commitment to community is inspiring. They agreed to contribute in many ways, and their work with young actors was a great way to partner in the GhostWALK concept.
 GhostWALK Hudson was devised as a three-phase project. Beginning with an open call to all teens in Columbia County, Phase 1, the GhostWALK HudsonWriting Contest was announced in early February 2009. Our major media sponsors, The Register-Star and Chatham Courier newspapers published the contest rules and guidelines and donated printing for 1,000 contest application packets, in addition providing valuable advertising and editorial support and serving as a host venue for a story!
Starting in early January, 2009, Bindlestiff reached out to all Columbia County schools, making presentations to Hudson High Shcool, Taconic Hills Central School, and the Hawthorne Valley School English teachers and students, and inviting them to submit stories for the Contest. Bindlestiff hosted Free Information sessions in February at three local Libraries (Hudson Area Association Library, Roe-Jan Community Library, and the Chatham Public Library). Tips on researching and writing a ghost story as per the contest rules were offered ( stories had to be set in Columbia County;  featuring a historic building, person, or event). I also met with Columbia County Historical Socitey curator Diane Shewchuk, who then made an amazing array of research materials and documents available for teen writers.
In April, 8 local writers (authors,playwrights, and journalists) enlisted to serve as a panel of judges for the Contest. They agreed to review the stories and give feedback on how the teen authors could improve their writing. By May 30 the deadline had come, and all stories were submitted for review. By early July, our judges had done their work and 4 winners were selected. The winning stories, with their respective re-writes were published in the Register-Star and Chatham Courier in late August. Our teen authors reported that the suggestions offered by the Contest judges were extremely helpful, and the rewrites proved it.
In October, Phase 2 of the project unfolded. At Hawthorne Valley School, Walking the Dog Theater’s Afterschool Drama program  teen students begin working on the winning GhostWALK stories, turning them into monologues which would be presented on November 6th’s GhostWALK Hudson Walking Tour. I also began seeking volunteers from Columbia County communities to act as tour guides, set decorators, docents and greeters at our four Hudson host venues, which included The Register-Star building, the Hudson Area Library, the Hudson Opera House, and Space 360.
Friday, November 6  signalled Phase 3. The GhostWALK Hudson event proved succesful beyond our expectations. We expected 60-80 attendees, but were inundated with 185 tickets sold, and almost 40 tour-crashers, who jumped into tour groups unpaid. Attendees represented a great variety of Columbia County families. We kept our ticket price at $5 so as to be affordable for the majority of residents.
Donated refreshments came from local businesses, such as Tirform Bakeries, Strongtree Coffee, and Micosta Enterprises. Over a dozen volunteers, ranging from a film-industry professional set decorator to a Hudson Middle School student and her grandmother, gave their time and resources to create sets, lead tours, and greet tour groups at host venues. 
GhostWALK Hudson served to weave together many threads of Columbia County’s richest resource- our residents! In our efforts to create a bigger, better event for 2010, we will attempt to reach out to more teachers, more young authors, and add venues to the Tour so as to accomodate more attendees- keeping the ticket price affordable for families. Our focus in 2010 is on Hudson's Lower Warren Street area, one of the oldest parts of the city and rife with history!
Finally, in the words of two of the participating teen authors:
Christian Peterson, age 15
“I thought the idea for the ghostwalk was an awesome idea in the first place, and I really have no suggestions at the moment on improvement. The judging helped me out because this was the first writing contest I had ever entered and it was nice to get feedback from someone other than my teachers. Rewriting was helpful, although a little difficult because some judges enjoyed certain things that others did not, or vice versa. I thought Walking the Dog and the actors did a great job of setting everything up and portraying the different stories. And for 2010, I'm highly considering entering again, I'd love to see how next year turns out!”
Kimberly Drahushuk, age 15
On getting feedback on her story from our panel of published authors who served as contest judges:
“ It was amazing. The feeling of....admiration in a way made me feel important and well like an author”
On using the judges’ feedback to re-write her story: “It helped me figure how to make my story more creative and more enjoyable” 
On seeing and hearing her story brought to life by another teen: “Seeing someone else bring my story to life it has no words. I can't even explain the feeling. I really thought all of the stories were awesome.”


Our GhostWALK story writing contest judges came from various points on the spectrum of Columbia County's literary community, and, generously offered helpful style and technical advice to the young authors. Meet them here:

Andrew Amelinckx- Hudson-Catksill Newspapers' Register-Star Crime Reporter, author of History Happened Here Column; artist and journalist

Wesley Brown is the author of three published novels, TRAGIC MAGIC, DARKTOWN STRUTTERS, PUSH COMES TO SHOVE, three produced plays, BOOGIE WOOGIE AND BOOKER T, LIFE DURING WARTIME, A PROPHET AMONG THEM, co-editor of the multicultural anthologies, IMAGINING AMERICA (fiction), VISIONS OF AMERICA (non-fiction), editor of the TEACHERS & WRITERS GUIDE TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS and wrote the narration for a segment of the PBS documentary, W.E.B. DUBOIS: A Biography in Four Voices.  He is Professor Emeritus at  Rutgers University, currently teaches literature at Bard College at Simon's Rock and lives in Spencertown, New York.    

James Farrell is the author of the plays "Here and There", "Old Times, Good Times",  "In the Recovery Lounge", "Bing and Walker",  "Migrant Moon", "Donnie", "Djibouti", "Purple Haze", "Kelly", "Flying Blind", "Correspondence",  “A Believer in Those Things Which Cannot Be Proven To Be True”, “Transplant”, “Black & White & Blue” and “The Velocity of Geography”, a full length work in progress. His plays have been produced at Circle Repertory Company in New York City, South Coast Repertory in Los Angeles, Northlight Theatre in Chicago, The Cleveland Playhouse, Jewish Repertory Theatre in New York City, Seattle Public Theatre, Theatre of the Riverside Church in New York City, City Theatre of Miami, City Playhouse in Los Angeles, Peterborough Players in Peterborough, New Hampshire and Stageworks/Hudson Theatre Company in New York.  He has been a resident playwright at Circle Repertory Company in New York City and has served as Literary Manager for Circle Repertory and for the New York State Theatre Institute in Albany. Mr. Farrell is the recipient of a Drama League of New York Playwriting Grant and a New York State Council on the Arts Individual Artist Award and has been a writer in residence at Yaddo, the MacDowell Colony, Blue Mountain Center and the Sundance Playwrights Laboratory. He has also served as a script reader for the Royal Court Theatre in London and as a juror for the Edna St. Vincent Millay Colony for the Arts playwriting jury. He currently teaches Playwriting at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts Dramatic Writing Program and at the University at Albany/SUNY. Mr. Farrell is the Co-Founder, Co-Artistic Director and a Resident Playwright in the Hudson Valley Theatre Collective, a new play development workshop initiative for primarily New York City based playwrights, directors, actors and designers. He is an active member of Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas and the Dramatists Guild of America, Inc.  and is a member playwright at the Ensemble Studio Theatre Playwrights Unit in New York City.

Hallie Goodman (Hudson) is a freelance journalist and copy writer with a penchant for writing and performing sketch comedy. Her beauty, fashion and lifestyle pieces regularly appear online on popular Web sites, and in print in top national magazines. Currently, Ms. Goodman is a daily blogger for MSN.com, where she writes about married life. 

David King is an author with a background in teaching, educational consulting and curriculum development. He has written over 4 dozen books about US history for young readers, and authored textbooks and short classroom materials for grades 4-12. Mr. King  has been honored by the Children's Book Council and the Education Press, and awarded numerous "Best of the Year" awards for multi-media learning materials. 

 Kate McLeod is a journalist, author and playwright. Her plays have been produced and performed in New York at EST, Looking Glass, Midtown Festival and Noor Festival; throughout the Northeast as well as Alaska and London. Residencies: America-In-Play, Jentel Artist Residency Program, Ledig House. She was a finalist for EST Marathon in 2007. McLeod is a member of the Dramatists Guild and has an MFA from Catholic University.  She writes a column about cars and the auto industry and is published in about 25 newspapers around the country and also on various blogs and websites.  Her book, Beetlemania: The Car that Captured The Hearts of Millions, was published in 1999.  Ms. McLeod lives with her husband, Forbes Columnist, Jerry Flint.  They divide their time between New York City and Stuyvesant, NY.

Rebecca Stowe- author of three novels: Not the End of the World (Pantheon, 1991); The Shadow of Desire (Pantheon, 1996); and One Good Thing (Sceptre, 1999). Her short stories, essays and book reviews have appeared in The Michigan Quarterly Review, The Florida Review, Chronogram, Cottonwood, Countryside, Our Town, and in numerous anthologies. She has received grants from the New York Foundation for the Arts and the Barbara Demming Fund. She was a Visiting Writer at the University of Oregon and teaches a Fiction workshop at the 92nd Street Y in New York City.

Bindlestiff and Walking the Dog Theater offer our sincere thanks to the following local businesses and institutions for their support:

The Register Star Newspaper

The Chatham Courier 

The Spotty Dog, 440 Warren Street, Hudson

The Hudson Area Library Association, 400 State Street, Hudson

The Chatham Public Library, 11 Woodbridge Avenue, Chatham

Roe-Jan Community Library, 2609 Route 23, Hillsdale

The Columbia County Historical Society, Kinderhook 

The Stewart's Foundation

Columbia County Tourism

Columbia County's Hudson-Fulton-Champlain Quadricentennial Foundation


And to the following educators, who encouraged students to participate:

Theresa Cipollari, Hudson City School District

Steve Tiger, Taconic Hills Central School District

Stanley Koroleski, Taconic Hills Central School District

David Anderson, Hawthorne Valley School

Naiomi Klavun, Hawthorne Valley School

Darren Rosenbaum, Chatham Central School District

Kathy Overington, Germantown Central School District

WHAT'S COMING UP NEXT?


November  5, 2010 The Second Annual Ghost Walk!  Winning stories to be told in  historic venues on Warren Street. More details soon!

HOW IT STARTED...

February 1, 2009  Ghost Story Writing Contest announced to all Columbia County youth ages 13-19.  

March and April 2009- Workshops led by Bindlestiff Family Variety Arts co-founder Stephanie Monseu, featuring research tips, reading lists, historical  materials,  and photographs were held at:

Hudson Area Library, Roe-Jan Community Library, Chatham Public Library, and The Columbia County Historical Society- Curator Diane Shewchuk  generously donated her time and resources to compile a moving collection of early photographs of Columbia County residents. There is great information and inspiration in the Historical Society's publication Columbia County History & Heritage. For details on how to arrange a visit, please go to http://www.cchsny.org/

2009 Tour Locations:

 The Register Star Building- 364 Warren Street - Hudson's early jail and site of hangings and haunts!

The Hudson Area Library-  400 State Street, Hudson - built in 1818, it was once an orphanage, a private insane asylum, an academy for females... - if these walls could talk!

http://haalvhf.pbwiki.com/FrontPage

Space 360-  360 Warren Street, Hudson - it appears to be a classic 1870's Arts and Crafts building, but parts date back to the 1700's... and the early spirits linger on to tell their tales! 

The Hudson Opera House-  327 Warren Street-  an 1855 beauty, once Hudson's City Hall, Police Station, Post Office, etc...

http://www.hudsonoperahouse.org/history.html

Content copyright . Stephanie H Monseu. All rights reserved.
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