The Woman in Black: Director's Perspective by Jessica Callahan Gelter

Proud and solitary, Eel Marsh House surveys the windswept reaches of the salt marshes beyond Nine Lives Causeway.  Arthur Kipps, a junior solicitor, is summoned to attend the funeral of Mrs. Alice Drablow, the house’s sole inhabitant, unaware of the tragic secrets, which lie hidden behind the shuttered windows.  It is not until he glimpses a wasted young woman dressed all in black at the funeral, that a creeping sense of unease begins to take hold.  This feeling is deepened by the reluctance of the locals to talk of the woman in black – and her terrible purpose. And so, the story unfolds.

Years later, in a desperate attempt to exorcise the ghosts of the past, Arthur Kipps hires an actor to tutor him in recounting to family and friends a story that has long troubled him concerning events that transpired when he attended the funeral of an elderly recluse. The play unfolds around the conversations of these two characters as they act out the Arthur’s experiences on Eel Marsh all those years ago.

The play is an adaptation of a 1983 gothic novel by Susan Hill.  The book has also been adapted for a movie starring Daniel Radcliffe; but, although based on the same source, their interpretations of the story are quite different from each other.   

The production premiered in London's West End in 1989 and is still being performed there, becoming the second longest-running non-musical play in the history of the West End, after The Mousetrap. [1]

Vermont Theatre Company's production of The Woman in Black features Clark Glennon (Willy Wonka in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Claudio in Much Ado About Nothing) and Richard Epstein (Rev. T. Lawrence Shannon in Night of the Iguana, and Dwight in Dead Man's Cell Phone), and is directed by Jessica Callahan Gelter.

To enhance the production experience, Vermont Theatre Company has rented the gallery at the Hooker- Dunham Theater and Gallery as well, and is hosting selected photos from David Mazor's advanced photography class.  Imagery in the photographs is haunting and lends itself to an air of otherworldliness, just as the play does.  Join VTC on Friday, January 4, from 5-7:00 P.M. for a Gallery Walk reception.  Dancers Zoe Perra and Sarah Craver will perform throughout the evening on the Hooker-Dunham Theater stage.

Quotes from the director:

• "I chose this play because it seemed like it would be a delightful challenge.  I've directed Shakespearean dramas and comedies and histories; children’s' theater; a musical; farces; Commedia; contemporary drama; and new, ensemble-created, metaphor-driven adaptations of classic literature, dreams, and art. But I have never directed a ghost play - there really aren't many out there."
• "I fell in love with Poe when I was very young, and I really relished those stories that gave you chills and made you wonder what was out there in the darkness."
• "There is something very basic, human, and visceral about fear.  I think fear makes us human, and confronting it allows us to understand our own fragility, mortality."
• "The framework of this play really appealed to me because I love the idea of processing trauma through storytelling, and that is what the character of Arthur Kipps is trying to do.  This sort of therapeutic sharing is an ancient practice and sharing one's own trauma can help others grow and move on from their own."