A Brand NEW Staging of The Secret Garden Comes to Mendham

Hexagon Players presents their 2016 Fall production of a brand new, never-before-seen staging of The Secret Garden at Grace Lutheran Church of Mendham from November 11 through November 19 for a limited 7 show engagement. With spectacular Asian-inspired
choreography, amazing stage illusions, fanciful puppetry, dazzling period costumes, and a staging that is both hauntingly suspenseful and whimsically magical; this is one family-friendly production that is sure to leave an indelible imprint on all who experience it.

ABOUT THE SHOW

This enchanting classic of children's literature is re-imagined in brilliant musical style by composer Lucy Simon and Marsha Norman, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright of 'Night Mother. Orphaned in India after a cholera epidemic, 10 year-old Mary Lennox is brought to the foreboding moors of Yorkshire to live at Misselthwaite Manor with her embittered, reclusive Uncle Archibald and his invalid son Colin. While there, Mary begins to have dreams and visions as the manor almost seems to speak to her through the memories and voices of her past, as they do her uncle, as well.Among the many mysterious wonders of the manor is a seemingly dead garden which begins to beckons Mary and Colin with haunting melodies. The frail, sickly Mary and invalid Colin gradually begin to gain new-found strength and passion in their lives as the garden begins to blossom and bloom again and the manor and its inhabitants, once cold and hardened, begin to soften and radiate with new happiness and joy as they all discover their own abilities to let go of their dark and painful pasts and instead focus on the brightness and beauty of the future. This musical is a beautiful work of art that powerfully brings the beloved children's novel by Frances Hodges Burnett to vivid and astonishing life. Full of a sweeping score, beautiful costumes, illusions and touching storytelling magic - this show is a must-see for those of all ages.

The Secret Garden premiered on Broadway at the St. James Theatre on April 25, 1991. The musical was directed by Susan H. Schulman with choreography by Michael Lichtefeld. The cast featured Daisy Eagan as Mary Lennox, Mandy Patinkin, Howard McGillin, Rebecca Luker, Robert Westenberg and John Cameron Mitchell. It won the 1991 Tony Awards for Best Book of a Musical, Best Featured Actress in a Musical (Daisy Eagan for her role as Mary), and Best Scenic Design (Heidi Landesman). Eagan, at age 11, was the youngest female recipient of a Tony Award.

ABOUT THE SECRET GARDEN AT HEXAGON PLAYERS

The Secret Garden was written by Frances Hodgson Burnett in 1911 and was not produced on Broadway until 1991, 80 years after the story of Mary Lennox and her discovery of the secret garden began to enthrall and captivate the mind of generations of young readers.

According to director, Patrick Francis Mahn, though, “labeling the story as simply a children's book somehow seems to give it a mark of injustice for the amazing depth of symbolism,themes, and motifs found in Burnett's work, and while the book by Marsha Norman for Broadway did indeed win the Tony Award in 1991, it was still missing, I felt, so much of the heart and soul found in the pages of the original story.”

Mahn goes on to explain that when he decided to take on The Secret Garden, he knew he wanted to create a production that stayed true to the award winning book, but that also helped delve more into the essence and meaning of Burnett's story, which he explains is so much more than a little girl who discovers and brings
back to life a dying garden in her uncle's Yorkshire manor.

“I have seen many splendid and beautiful productions of The Secret Garden,” Mahn expresses, “but I've
always left the theater feeling as though the show's characters often seemed to loose depth of intention and struggle in place of elaborate sets ad costumes and pitch-perfect singing. But in preparing to do this show, and in rereading the book I read over twenty years ago in school, I found there was so much more to the characters in the story and the manor itself - which is almost a living and breathing entity of its own - that the musical could evoke without sacrificing music, costume or set.”

With this explanation as his anchor, Mahn describes how he has decided in this production to veer away from the standard approach to The Secret Garden, which he says relies very much on the garden itself, and instead focus on the people bound by its spell, for better and worse.

Mahn offers the following explanation as elaboration: All the characters are in some way, shape, or fashion,
"dead" inside and as a result the garden really is the manor itself and the flowers are the people within it. As the story progresses the wick of life in each of the characters is slowly reawakened thanks to the incessant proding of memories and ghosts of the past mixed with the almost angelic and up-lifiting help of a few
who have been brought to Misselthwaite as workers that already have this wick of life burning in them. and slowly they start to light that same wick in others. Taking this concept, Mahn says, Hexagon Players had created a very new, exciting, and modern approach to a piece that Mahn refers to as “a bit Victorian”.

Mahn hopes that audiences will be able to watch in vivid and illustrious color and breathtaking wonder the way in which these characters and the manor itself begin to transform into a living, breathing, and beautiful garden of love and life.

Visit the PRODUCTION WEBSITE to learn more about the Cast and Crew of this show and to purchase tickets.

ABOUT HEXAGON PLAYERS

Founded in 1970 by Les Fredericks, Hexagon seeks to provide a consistently high quality community theater experience for both its members and all the residents of the Morris County area.

Hexagon took its name from the shape of the Grace Lutheran Church in Mendham, its "home base" all these years. While most of our original members were also members of Grace, the current membership rolls show representations of many religious denominations, and a widely spread geographical base.

Our not-for-profit organization has presented more than 80 productions over the past 30 years. We have featured hundreds of talented New Jersey performers in several stage classics, all to the delight of our faithful audiences.

Hexagon Players is a member of the Tri-County Community Theater Association, which represents six community theaters in northern New Jersey (Essex, Morris, and Union counties). Production schedules and
auditions notices for these theater groups can be viewed online at www.tricountycta.org.
Visit their WEBSITE to learn more or to be added to their mailing list.

PERFORMANCE DATES AND TIMES

Friday, November 11 @ 7:30pm

Saturday, November 12 @ 2:00pm and 7:30pm

Sunday, November 13 @ 2:00pm

Friday, November 18 @ 7:30pm

Saturday, November 19 @ 2:00pm and 7:30pm

Visit the PRODUCTION WEBSITE to purchase tickets. (on sale October 11 to general public)

LOCATION

Grace Lutheran Church

65 East Main Street

Mendham, NJ 07945