Christ Wesleyan Theatre Productions
presents
THe Secret Garden The Musical
Book and lyrics by MARSHA NORMAN
Music by LUCY SIMON
Based on the novel by Francis Hodges Burnett
The Secret Garden The Musical is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals.
www.concordtheatricals.com
THE VIDEOTAPING OR MAKING OF ELECTRONIC OR OTHER AUDIO AND/OR VISUAL RECORDINGS OF THIS PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTING RECORDINGS OR STREAMS IN ANY MEDIUM, INCLUDING THE INTERNET, IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED, A VIOLATION OF THE AUTHOR(S)’S RIGHTS AND ACTIONABLE UNDER UNITED STATES COPYRIGHT LAW. FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE VISIT: https://concordtheatricals.com/resources/protecting-artists
Please respect our cast, crew, and other audience members by turning off your cell phones. For everyone’s safety, we ask that you keep the aisles clear of all personal belongings.
There will be a 25 minute intermission with concessions provided by Christ Wesleyan Global Missions. Proceeds benefit our upcoming missions trips.
About The Show
Time & Place: Misselthwaite Manor, Northern England in the early 1900s
Summary: After her parents pass away, Mary goes to live with her reclusive uncle and soon uncovers a mysterious garden that holds the key to finding hope and renewal in the face of grief.
Meet and Greet
Stick around after the show to meet the cast members in the foyer!
Cast
Lily - Holly Mestach
Mary Lennox - Maddie Fulton, Madelyn Gilbert
Archibald Craven - Tyler Boyles
Martha - Shanice Brandon
Dickon - Nolan Jusko
Colin Craven - Landon Secules
Dr. Neville Craven - Brent Mestach
EdithWeatherstaff - Carlie Dauberman
Rose Lennox - Jade Arwen
Albert Lennox - Dave Malone
Mrs. Medlock - Susan Diffenderfer
Mrs. Winthrop - Tracy Weaver
Alice - Sara Snyder
Claire Holmes - Angelina Santalucia
Ayah - Micaela Blas
Fakir - Richard Smith
Lieutenant Wright - Owen Greene
Major Holmes - Lon Diffenderfer
Lieutenant Shaw - Christopher Jones
Jane - Alexandria Jenkins
Mrs. Shelly - Evy Roberts
Ensemble
Mary Shoff, Ashley Blackmon, Landon Malone
Crew
Director - Cameron Edinger
Assistant Directors - Caryn Rehm, Maddy Bucher
Music Director - Linda Edinger
Stage Manager - Isabella “Izzy” Stafford
Choreographer - Abby Sigvaldason
Producer - Tracy Rhoades
Assistant Producer - Maddy Bucher
Set Construction Supervisor - Mike Mitchell
Costumes -Bryn Rhoades
Hair/Makeup - Sara Snyder
Logo Design - Brent Mestach
Props - Elizabeth Ripka
Special Effects - Jeremy Rhoades
Stage Crew Leads - “Izzy” Stafford, Ty Sigvaldason
Sound - Kyle Anspach
Lighting - Keegan Gill
Act 1
Prologue: India
Opening - Lily, Fakir
There’s A Girl I - Lieutenant Shaw, Major Holmes, Lieutenant Wright, Alice, Claire, & Dreamers
A Train Platform in Yorkshire
The House Upon The Hill - Dreamers
There’s A Girl II - Dreamers
Mary’s Room
I Heard Someone Crying - Mary, Archibald, Lily, & Dreamers
Scene 1: Mary’s Sitting Room
If I Had A Fine White Horse - Martha
Scene 2: The Ballroom
A Girl In The Valley - Lily & Archibald
Scene 3: In The Maze
It’s A Maze - Mary, Martha, Dickon, & Edith
The Greenhouse
The Edge of the Moor
Winter’s on the Wing - Dickon
Show Me the Key - Mary & Dickon
Skip, Skipped - Ayah & Fakir
Scene 4: Archibald’s Library
A Bit Of Earth - Archibald
Scene 5: Misselthwaite Manor in the Gallery
Storm No. 1 - Dreamers
Lily’s Eyes - Archibald & Dr. Neville Craven
Scene 6: The Hallway
Storm No. 2 - Mary, Ayah, & Dreamers
Scene 7: Colin’s Room
Round-Shouldered Man - Colin & Mary
Scene 8: The Maze
Final Storm - Rose, Ayah, Major Holmes, Lieutenant Shaw, Alice, Claire, Fakir, Lieutenant Wright, Albert, & Dreamers
Act 2
Scene 1: Throughout Misselthwaite
The Girl I Mean To Be - Mary
House on the Hill - Transition - Lieutenant Wright, Lieutenant Shaw
Scene 2: Archibald’s Dressing Room
Quartet - Archibald, Dr. Neville Craven, Rose, Lily
There’s A Man - Transition - Albert, Major Holmes, Alice, & Claire
Scene 3: Colin’s Room
Race You To The Top Of The Morning - Archibald
Maze Transition - Albert & Rose
Scene 4: The Grounds of Misselthwaite
Wick - Dickon & Mary
Race You To The Top Of The Morning - Transition - Alice
Scene 5: Colin’s Room
Come To My Garden - Colin & Lily
Scene 6: The Garden at Night
Come Spirit, Come Charm - Mary, Fakir, Martha, Dickon, Colin, & Dreamers
A Bit of Earth - Reprise - Albert, Rose, & Lily
Scene 7: The Library
Mary’s Tantrum - Mary, Fakir, & Ayah
Disappear - Dr. Neville Craven
Scene 8: Mary’s Room
Hold On - Martha
Letter Song - Mary, Archibald, & Martha
Scene 9: Paris
Where in the World - Archibald
How Could I Ever Know - Archibald & Lily
Scene 10: The Garden
To The Day Garden - Mary, Colin, Martha, & Dickon
Finale - Ensemble
A Note concerning “The Dreamers”
Throughout the show many characters appear as what the show refers to as “the dreamers.” After the events of prologue, the dreamers represent the lingering memories and spirits of those significant to Mary and Archibald. The dreamers are present throughout the show, silently urging Mary, Archibald, and Colin towards resolution. Their exact nature – whether that be as ghosts of the dead and departed or as Mary or Archie’s memories – is left ambiguous.
Coming up Next From Christ Wesleyan Theatre Productions
About the Writers
Marsha Norman
Marsha Norman, award-winning playwright, won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize, Blackburn Prize, Hull-Warriner and Drama Desk Awards for her play 'Night, Mother. In 1992 she won a Tony Award and a Drama Desk Award for her book for the Broadway musical The Secret Garden. She also wrote the book for the Broadway musical The Color Purple, for which she also received a Tony nomination. Her play The Master Butcher's Singing Club premiered at the Guthrie Theatre in the fall of 2010. She won a Peabody Award for her writing on the HBO television series In Treatment, starring Gabriel Byrne and Dianne Wiest. Her most recent work is the adaptation of The Trumpet of the Swan: A Novel Symphony for Actors and Orchestra, with music conducted and written by Jason Robert Brown. The CD has been released by TRW and PS Classics.
Her other plays include Getting Out, for which she won the John Gassner Medallion and the American Theater Critics Association Citation; Third And Oak: The Laundromat, The Pool Hall, The Holdup, Traveler In The Dark, Sarah And Abraham, Loving Daniel Boone, Trudy Blue and Last Dance. Her television and film credits include: 'Night, Mother, starring Sissy Spacek and Anne Bancroft, The Laundromat, starring Carol Burnett and Amy Madigan; The Pool Hall, starring James Earl Jones; Face of a Stranger, starring Gena Rowlands and Tyne Daley; Cooler Climate, starring Sally Field and Judy Davis; The Audrey Hepburn Story, Custody of the Heart and Samantha, An American Girl. She spent one year as co-executive producer of Law and Order: Criminal Intent, and wrote the "Gina" episodes of Season 2 of HBO's In Treatment. Her other published work includes Four Plays, Collected Works Of Marsha Norman, Vol 1, and a novel, The Fortune Teller.
She has Grammy and Emmy nominations as well as grants and awards from, among others, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation and the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. She has won the Margo Jones Award, and the Sidney Kingsley Award and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Guild Hall Academy of Arts and Letters. Ms. Norman is co-chair, with Christopher Durang, of the Playwriting Department of The Juilliard School. She writes and lectures frequently on the theatre and has 18 honorary degrees from American colleges and universities. She was elected to membership in the Fellowship of Southern Writers and serves on the Governing Board of the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. She sat on the Board Trustees of Agnes Scott College from 2001-2011, and was the Chair of the Academic Affairs committee from 2008-2011. She is a former Vice-President of the Dramatists Guild of America. She is a native of Kentucky and currently lives in New York. Most recently, she received the William Inge Distinguished Lifetime Achievement in Theatre Award.
Lucy Simon
When Lucy Simon was in grade school, a class assignment was to memorize a poem and recite it in class. The only way she could do it was to put it to a melody. The poem she chose was “Wynken Blynken and Nod” by Eugene Field. It is the first song she ever wrote. Several years later, when she and her sister Carly were folk singers, they recorded the song and it became a chart hit. Her continuing joy is to be able to reach under the word, poem, lyric or text and find an emotional musical translation.
When The Secret Garden opened at the St. James Theatre in 1991, Ms. Simon was the third woman in history to compose for the Broadway stage. Ms. Simon has garnered multiple honors for her work, including Grammy and Drama Desk Awards and a Tony nomination for Best Score. She recently received the 2018 Samuel French Award for Sustained Excellence in American Theater.
The Secret Garden has enjoyed numerous productions internationally and throughout the United States. In 2020, Alexis Soloski chose The Secret Garden cast album as one of the top cast albums she would bring to a desert island.
Ms. Simon composed the music for the stage musical of Boris Pasternak’s Nobel Prize-winning novel Doctor Zhivago. It was produced on Broadway in 2015 after a successful, award-winning production in Australia in 2011, starring Anthony Warlow. It is currently enjoying sold-out performances in Germany and Austria, with cast recordings, and was awarded 2018 Best New Musical in Poland.
Ms. Simon wrote and produced the songs and soundtrack for the multi-award-winning HBO movie The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader Murdering Mom, and received two Grammy Awards for her In Harmony albums, which she co-wrote and produced.
MEET THE TEAM
Cameron Edinger
Bio
A note from the director
Loss is perhaps the hardest thing in life to accept.
As I’ve listened to the achingly beautiful music in this show, I’ve found myself thinking of the things that I’ve lost. Loved ones who have passed away. Lost time. Pains that felt so difficult that I wasn't sure I could make it through.
Yet in the midst of each of those losses, God has shown himself to be faithful. Whether it be through the help and compassion of friends and family, or through a provision of supernatural grace needed to get through the day.
The story of The Secret Garden: The Musical begins with great loss. Yet on the other side of that loss lies something beautiful. A new life for Mary, Archibald, and Colin, as they each grapple with their pain and emptiness. Just as winter comes and life seems to fade away, spring returns and green things grow up from the ground. Beauty blooms once again.
This story is a timeless one — one that tells one of the hardest things about living in a way that can be understood by children.
No matter what it is that you are facing, no matter what or who you’ve lost, no matter what pain you are feeling, God is there. He sees you in your pain and he offers a peace that passes all understanding.
I have found that peace and comfort in my faith. I find that renewal regularly as I gather with other believers and worship on a Sunday morning. It is my hope that something as resonant as this story told in our church can show you that peace can be found here.
On behalf of the Christ Wesleyan Theatre Productions Team, thank you for being here and I hope that we see you again, either at our next show or on a Sunday morning at CWC.
Cameron Edinger
You are why we’re here!
Christ Wesleyan Theatre Productions exists as an extension of the desire we have at Christ Wesleyan Church to reach out to our community. We believe that God blesses every artist with their gifts and talents. We hope through our theatre program, everyone involved finds a positive, creative, family-friendly environment where they can cultivate their skills. It is our desire to bring delight and awe to our community through our performances. By delivering excellent theatre to the area, we seek to build a bridge between the community and the church.
We seek to provide a memorable experience for cast, crew, and audiences that brings people together. Our auditions are open to all and we invite any interested to explore roles behind the scenes. We encourage our audiences to invite friends and family to enjoy our shows together. And maybe through our community theatre, you might see that the church is full of vibrant, diverse people discovering life-changing faith together.
Theatre has a special way of turning strangers into family. We pray our theatre is as much of a blessing to you as we work towards delivering incredible performances to our community.
Thank you for choosing to be a part of Christ Wesleyan Theatre Productions!
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Past shows at Christ Wesleyan Theatre Productions
Something For THe Whole Family
We have great programs for kids and teens on a Sunday at CWC.
CWC Kidz is for ages 9 months - 5th grade at both campuses.'
CWC Youth is for students in 6th. - 12th grade.
