‘The Secret Garden’ finally a reality for local directors
Husband and wife Jerry and Becky Jascoviak are directing “The Secret Garden” in Hammond after first trying to stage the musical in 2017.
“It’s been a bucket-list show for a while,” Jerry Jascoviak said. “This is our third endeavor of trying to put this up. Unfortunately, this was the most expensive show for rights back then, so the theater we were working with did fold.
“The bottom line was we weren’t able to afford it.”
The Jascoviaks then worked on a possible 2021 production to coincide with the 25th anniversary of The Genesius Guild staging “The Secret Garden,” which previously was directed by David Long of Chicago’s North Side, who is still involved with the group.
“We were trying to get it proposed and ready to go,” said Jerry. “Our goal was to get it up last year, but COVID shut it down. So the third time’s the charm.”
The Genesius Guild has partnered with The Hammond Arts & Performance Academy for “The Secret Garden” from Friday-Sunday.
The drama was adapted from Frances Hodgson Burnett’s 1911 children’s novel “The Secret Garden” and features book and lyrics by Marsha Norman and music by Lucy Simon. The original 1991 Broadway production received three Tony Awards, including best book of a musical for Norman.
“The show’s straight from the novel,” Jascoviak said. “Mary Lennox becomes an orphan child. Her family was originally in India.
“During the cholera outbreak everyone in her family but her unfortunately passed. Her only other living relative was her uncle Archibald. When Mary goes to live with him in England, she discovers the door to the secret garden that belonged to Lily. Lily is Archibald’s wife who passed.
“Lily’s garden was one of the most gorgeous places ever, but when Lily passed, he didn’t want anyone in there. Mary secretly rebuilds it with the help of her friend Dickon and her nursemaid Martha.”
Initially envisioned with a double cast, “The Secret Garden” now only features Ella Crane of Michigan City and Aniela Olczak sharing the role of Mary Lennox, and August Wigsmoen and Grace Reynolds of Crown Point sharing the role of Mary Lennox’s cousin, Colin Craven.
“When we started out we were going to have two people for every role, but we determined while working with lines, characters and timing that it was a little too complicated,” said Jascoviak, who is also a board member at large for The Genesius Guild.
“Our original intent was to have a double cast in case of COVID, but we felt it was only fair to leave the children double cast because they worked so hard on it.”
The cast also includes residents of Chesterton, Dyer, Gary, Highland, Lake Station, Portage, Valparaiso and Westmont, Illinois.
“This has definitely been a dream cast,” Jascoviak said. “Some of the people that actually were involved last time when we tried it five years ago are back.
“One — Julian Solis — has gotten a lot older, so he couldn’t play the same role. He was originally our Colin, but he is now playing Dickon. Then our Neville, who was Matt Byerly, came back from last time.
“People came out to audition that we never even thought about. Friends came out that we hadn’t seen for a while. It’s everything that I could dream of.
“Ella Crane, who is one of our Marys, is my adopted niece. Just to have family play a lead like that has been amazing.
“A lot of us have worked together in other theaters, and it’s like bringing a bunch of old family members back together.”
“The Secret Garden” also features a charitable component, with several handmade Ukranian-inspired headdresses, courtesy of musical director Dr. Michael Barr-Schinzel, being auctioned off. The funds will be donated to help with the refugee crisis due to the conflict in Ukraine.
“One of our children in our cast was adopted from Russia, but she was brought up with Ukrainian traditions, so she had a headdress to show us,” said Jascoviak of Grace Reynolds.
“We’re going to have some of the actresses wearing the headdresses in the show for when the garden is revealed ,so essentially bringing the garden to life.
“We decided it would be a great homage to Ukraine itself.”