The Haunting of Hill House
Cast
ELEANOR VANCE.............................................................Laura Simmons
MRS. DUDLEY..........................................................................Beth Fanning
THEODORA................................................................................Avery Saylor
DR. MONTAGUE.......................................................................Jim Richards
LUKE SANDERSON............................................................Joshua Bennett
MRS. MONTAGUE.............................................................Sarah Simmons
ARTHUR PARKER................................................................David Womack
Crew
DIRECTOR............................................................Julia Farrell Diefenbach
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR........................................................Renee Wright
STAGE MANAGER.........................................................Peggy Harrington
ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER................................................Cassi File
TECH DIRECTOR/LIGHTING................................Matt "Dolphy" Clark
SOUND DESIGN................................................Julia Farrell Diefenbach
SET DESIGN............................................Cassandra Hora, Bill Bartloff
COSTUMERS.......................................................Reta Trux, Barb Stepka
PROPERTIES/SET DRESSING..............................................Juliet Golob
SET CONSTRUCTION.............................................................Bill Bartloff
SET PAINTER........................................................................Cindy Jakeway
HAIR/MAKEUP..............................................................................Beth Ward
Director’s Note:
Director's Note
“It might not be too fanciful to say that some houses are born bad”, as Shirley Jackson once put it. As a child I felt my house was haunted. The old house, creaking every time something moved within its walls. As a dreamer and introvert, it was only natural for me to take this as a kind of conversation. The house became a friend to hear my cries of impatience for a world bigger than my resources would allow me at the time. And now, after years of being away, I still hear it whispering back to me, telling me how much farther I still have to go. Urging me to continue on my creative path, and come back to share the stories when I have the time.
Eleanor Vance never had such a kind house. Her life, filled with misery, was one rejection after another, until she finally found her way to Hill House. Jackson was inspired to write the novel after reading about a group of 19th century “psychic researchers” who rented a house they believed to be haunted in order to study paranormal phenomena. The researchers studiously recorded their experiences in the house in order to present them in the form of a treatise to the Society for Psychic Research. “They thought they were being terribly scientific and proving all kinds of things,” she explained. “And yet the story that kept coming through their dry reports was not at all the story of a haunted house, it was the story of several earnest, I believe misguided, certainly determined people, with their differing motivations and backgrounds.”
The timing of this production does not go unnoticed by me. It’s the first show at Twin City Players that started completely fresh since the pandemic. With all the demons we’ve been facing, and the realities of the world, the energy brought by the cast and crew was absolute. We were all searching for moments of reprieve, of safety, of home. Not a day goes by where I think this play could have been produced more aptly than the here and now. And in some respects, I suppose this means Hill House has captured me too, not able to go back into the world as I once was, knowing now the comfort of this play, and the family we have created within. I do hope you join us, as this is now a home we share with you.
Welcome to Hill House, you won’t be leaving any time soon.
~ Julia Farrell Diefenbach
Laura Simmons, Avery Saylor & Joshua Bennett
