NOVEMBER 19, 2023

Seeking Mister Hyde

Premiered November 3 - 19, 2023 at Love Street Playhouse, Woodland, Washington

I wrote the script for this project, of course, but I also had the honor of directing the show with its amazing cast featuring John San Nicolas as Robert Louis Stevenson.

This project began as a proposal to Melinda and Lou Pallotta back in 2022 when I was directing Miss Holmes. Melinda was working on Love Street's 2023 season and needed a fourth show. I had run across the factoid that RLS wrote Jekyll & Hyde is a 6-day (and possibly chemically-induced) fervor, and I was playing around with the idea for this story. I wrote up a quick synopsis of where I thought the story would go and pitched it to Melinda. Perhaps she liked it, perhaps she was just desperate--but she gave the greenlight to the idea and announced it for the next season.

I approached the idea from at least two different angles before landing on the story that made it to the stage. The first draft tried to cram too much historical facts into too short a time and lacked a compelling conflict; the second was actually from Adelaide's point of view (I think I had just watched Enola Holmes). Neither were quite right. Both ideas got to my dreaded 40 to 50 page range where half-baked ideas go to die. Often, when I hit this wall I take the easy road: I simply throw up my hands and move on to something else. However, with the press announcement already out and a hard deadline looming (like auditions!) I had no choice but to keep going.

Learning that Stevenson's friend William Henley directly inspired the iconic Long John Silver was a light-bulb moment. My research had already discovered a wealth of wonderful dramatic tidbits about the people in the author's life as well as Stevenson's own belief that he had a "Little Theatre" in his head with stories acted themselves out. From there, it was a short leap to incorporating the real-life personas of Stevenson's friends into the imaginary characters he uses to build stories. From that backbone the script was born.

It has been an absolute joy working with this cast. I am indebted to Lou Pallotta for suggesting John San Nicolas be considered for the role of Louis. Lou had worked with John way back when Who Stole My Dead Husband? was in its first Portland run, and he knew Louis was a demanding role that needed a consummate professional. This show would not be what it is without John. Many, many thanks.

Back

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse