With Halloween just around the corner, The Church has a play about witchcraft and a visit to a nearby Sag Harbor cemetery on tap for this weekend, starting Friday at 7 p.m. with a dramatic reading of "Goody Garlick," a play by Lucy Boyle.
While Goody's story is familiar to many here, it bears repeating for those unfamiliar with it. Thirty-five years before the Salem witch trials, Elizabeth (Goody) Garlick of East Hampton was accused of putting a hex on Elizabeth Gardiner Howell, a daughter of Lion Gardiner, Lord of the Manor of Gardiner's Island. Elizabeth Howell had moved from the island to East Hampton, and it was there, at age 16, that she became very ill. According to historical records, she told her doctors she'd seen Goody Garlick hovering at the foot of her bed.
Long story short, Elizabeth Howell died in 1658 and, because Long Island was under Connecticut's jurisdiction at the time, three East Hampton Town magistrates delivered Goody Garlick to the authorities in that state to stand trial for witchcraft. Though indicted, she was found not guilty, and returned to East Hampton with her husband. Her grave can be found in the village's South End Burying Ground.
Ms. Boyle, an alumna of Ensemble Studio Theatre's Youngblood Playwrights Collective and the Dramatists' Guild Fellows, has had readings and short plays produced at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, the Hangar Theatre, Roundabout Theater Company, Ensemble Studio Theatre, and has written for the ABC television show "Huge."
Friday night's reading will be directed by Sheryl Kaller, a Tony Award nominee whose Broadway shows include Terrence McNally's "Mothers and Sons" and Geoffrey Nauffts's "Next Fall." Her work has also been seen at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, Geffen Playhouse, Philadelphia Theatre Company, and Ensemble Studio Theatre.
The cast includes Jennifer Mudge (Goody Garlick), Christopher Henry Coffey (Goody's husband, as he is in real life), and three Sag Harbor natives, Reilly Rose (Elizabeth Howell), Lola Lama (Honor and Birgitta), and Matthew Schiavoni (Sam Parsons).
In addition to the reading, Hugh King, the East Hampton Village historian and director of Home Sweet Home Museum, will tell the story of Goody Garlick. His knowledge of the case was informed by "It Were as Well to Please the Devil as Anger Him," written by Loretta Orion, his late wife.
Tickets are $25, $15 for members.
As for the cemetery visit, there is nothing ghoulish about that. April Gornik, The Church's co-founder, will lead a guided tour of Sag Harbor's Oakland Cemetery, the resting place of many 18th and 19th-century sea captains as well as such cultural icons as Nelson Algren, George Balanchine, Gordon Matta-Clark, Spalding Grey, Daisy Tapley, James Salter, and Lanford Wilson.
The tour will begin at 11 on Sunday morning. The cost is $15, $10 for Church members.
This article has been changed from its original and print versions to reflect the fact that "Goody Garlick" is a finished play, not a play in progress.
