Our fabulous directing team shares why they’re excited about this new adaptation of The Secret Garden (native plants and mushrooms, plus punk music and Mt. Rainier)…what inspires them (healing relationships with parents and building community)…and the three words they’d use to describe this play (punk, Spanglish and puppets)!
OFT’s 2022-2023 season kicks off in just two weeks with the world premier of our imaginative twist on The Secret Garden. To find out more, one of nearest and dearest community members – Mandy Ryle – got a chance to sit down with the plays director, Emily McHugh (also Co-Director of String & Shadow Puppet Theater) and assistant director Melissa Rivera Bolaños to find our more about this unique production. Keep reading to find out more!
Mandy: So one thing I wanted to know first, is what made you excited to work on this project?
Emily: Secret garden is a movie that I grew up with, I watched it a lot as a kid and I haven’t revisited it since I was really young. Then Lily from OFT approached me about directing and we knew we were going to be making puppets for it. I guess that was kind of the main thing, with a garden there are a lot of opportunities for set and puppets. So yeah, it was a familiar story and I was excited about there being a rewrite and a new take on it and I knew I was going to be involved in the puppetry aspect so it seemed like a good fit.
Marissa: For me, I remember liking Secret Garden but I didn’t remember much about it other than there being a certain healing aspect about the garden, which I connect a lot with now as an adult with nature and gardens and healing through that connection. Then when Lily told me that they wanted to make a Latinx version of it I was like, wow that sounds really fun, let’s do this!
Mandy: What makes this version of Secret Garden unique or different?
Emily: I was excited for a variety of reasons. Like Marissa said, there is a Latinx cast and there’s a lot of Spanglish in the script. I had seen the play that Mabelle wrote for the Fully Vaxxed project and really loved it. I thought it had a lot of humor and wit and clippy dialogue, so I was excited about the writer. Also, it’s modern day and takes place in the Pacific Northwest so it’s like plant species that are native here and there’s just a lot of opportunity. I always like an opportunity for some mushrooms!
Mandy: String and Shadow loves their mushrooms!
Emily: Uh huh, it’s true!
Marissa: I did love reinventing the garden into being a more native garden as opposed to just like traditional European colonized gardening. So that’s really exciting for me. It’s going to be very different then what lots of people think in terms of Secret Garden. The music is going to make it very different!
Mandy: Yeah, that’s one of my questions, what is going to surprise people when they come to see this? Because they might be expecting something when they hear Secret Garden, but we are doing a different version.
Marissa: Oh yeah, It’s punk.
Mandy: Yeah? So is there punk music in the background or what is the music addition to it?
Emily: Yeah, so for folks who aren’t familiar with the story, Mary comes from a family where she’s sort of ignored and neglected. In the original, I don’t remember what they did but they were English colonizers, living in India and were very wealthy. So in this rewrite the parents are punk rockstars. She is growing up on the road and is missing her parents or not being around her parents. And that was part of what Mabelle associated with Olympia – and the Pacific Northwest – punk music is definitely a part of it.
Mandy: Yeah, Bikini Kill just came through.
Emily: Right, exactly.
Mandy: What’s been challenging about bringing this script to life? Have there been any bumps in the road so far bringing this brand new script to life?
Emily: I wouldn’t say it’s…well, I guess it’s been challenging in a positive way, for me I’ve never really directed or been involved with a production with a lot of dialogue and that was one of the things I was also excited about. I think it’s going really well, but that’s been a new territory to think about delivery, to think about where someones coming from and like the subtleties. Often in large scale puppetry the subtleties are not in tone of voice. There’s a lot that comes through in an acted play that is kind of new to me.
Mandy: Yeah, challenges don’t have to be bad, it’s just pushing you a little out of your comfort zone!
Emily: Exactly.
Marissa: I would say one of the challenging but exciting challenging parts has been working with Mabelle, she’s not from here and kind of helping her understand things about the plants here. You know she’s in the border so in that, I connect a lot with her and what she perceives. Like she is not very familiar with gardens and plants and all these different things so its been really fun to integrate her vision with adapting it to here. It also has been challenging because she is in San Diego and we are here and we are working on creating this thing together.
Mandy: I saw that you all went hiking at Mount Rainier to introduce her to some plants
Marissa: Yeah, that was challenging!
Mandy: What do you think has inspired you the most during this rehearsal process?
Emily: I mean I just think the teens that we’re working with have been really awesome and its been cool to see them jumping into the parts and they’ve been a really great group and it’s just been really fun to work with them.
Mandy: We love to call them our OFTeens.
Marissa: They are great! They are awesome. One of the things that has inspired me the most is how people have been connecting at an emotional level with the story. I think that there is a lot in terms of being immigrants and growing up Latinx in the states. There is a lot of intergenerational trauma that comes from colonization and how we are trying to break away from that. There is a lot that is coming through in terms of healing certain things about relationships with parents and stuff that is coming through the play in a subtle way that is very moving and that has been very inspiring. Like seeing how people get moved by that and different cast members and feeling it myself as well, that has inspired me a lot.
Mandy: It will be exciting to see how that inspires the audiences that come through as well.
Marisa: Mmhhmm
Mandy: How many puppets are actually being created for this production?
Emily: I just counted before you came in. I don’t know, I don’t want to give away too many spoilers. I think it’s around 6, there’s also some puppets that are going to be making an appearance that weren’t made specifically for this production. Its 6 new creations, 4 of those are masks and two of those are puppets.
Mandy: What do the puppets add to this production? Because normally it’s not done with puppets, but what inspired you to add them?
Emily: I think it’s a really natural fit for puppetry. There’s a robin character that has to direct a lot of the main character’s ideas and help lead them to the garden and then there’s this transformation of the garden and that leads really well into puppetry. Puppetry and set design are really able to achieve that. I think anything with gardens and nature there’s opportunities to introduce puppets.Puppets always make things better in my opinion.
Marisa: I think they add a lot of magic! There are certain things that would be harder to do in this play if we didn’t have the puppets. They just add that element of wonder and magic to the garden.
Mandy: Do you have any opening night traditions?
Emily: Yeah, I do a thing before every show that’s really not that remarkable but it’s just sort of like a low to high yell with everyone. But I do just like to bring it in right before we go out. I feel like it’s important to combine space and voices. I feel pretty strongly about a circle before a show and that everyone should look each other in the eye, be there, be present, and then go to your places.
Marissa: This is my first time working on theater so no, no idea.
Mandy: Exciting! Maybe you will find what your opening night tradition is during this show.
Marissa: Yeah, maybe I will learn traditions!
Mandy: Alright, here’s my last question. If you had to choose three words only to describe this show, what would they be?
Marissa: We were just talking about this, I think we said punk, Spanglish…
Emily: What was the last one? Puppets?
Marissa: Puppets!
Mandy: Those are good words, descriptive! Come see the show. Come see the puppets!
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You heard Mandy – come see the puppets! The Secret Garden Garden opens September 30 and runs through October 16.
Find out more and purchase your tickets here.
