Music emphasized in Summer Place Theatre's 'The Secret Garden'

Actress Meaghan McGarry is conjuring up a ghost.

She plays Lily in the upcoming Summer Place Theatre production of "The Secret Garden," a musical drama that McGarry says features "beautiful, haunting melodies."

The story, about a family torn apart by a series of tragedies, begins when 11-year-old Mary Lennox, newly orphaned, is transplanted from India to live on her uncle Archibald Craven's English estate.

Her uncle is a broken man, still grieving the loss of his wife, Lily, who was killed in an accident 10 years earlier.

"He is beyond despair," said McGarry, of Plano. He's also unaware that the ghost of his dead wife is hovering over the family, watching as they struggle through life's challenges.

"She's kind of stuck there," McGarry said. "She's kind of watching over the family and encouraging Mary. She kind of shows Mary where the garden is."

The garden Mary finds, untended and overgrown with weeds, is brought back to life under her care, a metaphor for how Mary herself, along with her family members, are renewed.

"Our emphasis is the love story, the love of family, learning to live with loss," said director Heather Hutchison.

Hutchison, a veteran director, actress and producer, recently produced "Some Enchanted Evening" and "West Side Story" for Summer Place.

She said she was intrigued when she read the script for "The Secret Garden," a play that has been made into several movies and is based on a 1909 novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett, for several reasons.

"It's a very theatrical piece. The set is very minimal. The costumes are elaborate and the lights are elaborate," she said. "We wanted the emphasis to not be on the set pieces or the furniture. We're trying to put the focus on the story."

Much of the story is told through music, she said.

"It's not an operetta, but there are many songs. Each character has a song," she said. "The music is so rich, there's lots of ballads. It's a very intense show. Luckily, the actors that we have are very, very powerful singers."

McGarry said the music, written by Marsha Norman and Lucy Simon, songwriter Carly Simon's sister, includes Lily's solo, "How Could I Ever Know."

"She sings this song to Archibald and it's absolutely heart-wrenching," she said.

There's also a sort of Greek chorus known as the "dreamers," ghostlike apparitions that Hutchison said have been omitted from several productions of the show. She gives them prominent play in this version, she said, because they fit in so well thematically.

Hutchison also chose to have her actors use dialects, a feat accomplished with the help of her husband, Peter Hutchison, who hails from London, and Kim Scott, who comes from Yorkshire, a village in northeast England near the Scottish border.

"It's been very, very fun for the cast," she said.

An alumni night for people who have worked on Summer Place Theatre shows over the past 41 years will be presented at 7 p.m. Friday, one hour before the opening night curtain.

The evening will feature a chance to mingle while refreshments are served, said Matt Whalen, who is sharing producer duties with Don Gingold. Alumni also can purchase tickets for that evening's performance for $10.

"The Secret Garden" opens the summer's three-show season, a season dedicated in memory of the late Roger Place, a longtime Summer Place actor, director and member of the theater company's board of directors, Whalen said.

If you go
What: "The Secret Garden"
staged by Summer Place
Theatre
When: 8 p.m. Friday,
Saturday and June 27 and 28;
2 p.m. Sunday and June 29
Where: Naperville Central
High School, 440 W. Aurora
Ave., Naperville
Tickets: $15 for adults,
$12 for seniors and students,
$8 for children under 12
Info: (630) 355-7969 or
summerplacetheatre.org

'Secret Garden' cast and crew

The actors

Mary: Isabelle Hanson

Archie: Terry Foster

Lily: Meg McGarry

Colin: Kenny Lumb

Neville: Mike Placzek

Rose: Harmony Barry

Dickon: Scott Stuart

Martha: Kelly Calpin

Ben: Don Gingold

Albert: Bob Stelletello

Ayah: Emily Gingold

Fakir: Olivia Krauss

Claire: Sarah Keysor

Medlock: Patti Shore Kaden

Major Shelly: Robert Griegoliet

Major Shelly's Wife: Suzanne Compton

Major Holmes: Jim Liesz

Lt. Wright: Anthony Berg

Alice: Whitney West

Teens: Emily Crowe, Delaney Erickson, Christina Ferrari, Christian O'Kelley

Dreamers: Linda Luxion, Linda Miller, Kerrilee Meeker, Joshua Nelson

The crew

Director: Heather Hutchison

Musical and vocal director: Sandy Jozef

Producers: Don Gingold, Matt Whalen

Assistant director/stage manager: Lynda Christophoer

Technical director: David Lindley

Costume designers: Kris Visher, Lauren Visher