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Director’s Notes

by Rebecca Timmins

When I was a fairly young kid, I somehow got permission to watch a movie called The Haunting.  Oh how it frightened and thrilled me, and it was the beginning of a lifelong love of all things haunted.  The movie was based on author Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House, and I read that book many years later.  As books do, it filled in the gaps of the story.  Only recently did I discover that a play by the same name existed, and that caused a spark in me.  This was a play I wanted to direct.

Before I moved to the Brainerd Lakes Area in 2016, I spent a lifetime on the stage singing and acting in all manner of entertainment.  Upon my arrival to this area, I found like-minded people in the CLC Performing Arts arena and found a theatrical and musical home here.  I feel honored to now be a part of ART as well.  I have appeared on stage at CLC but knew from the past that I also loved to direct. It is so gratifying to see a vision become a reality on stage.  ART founders Patrick Spradlin, Beth Selinger and Curtis Jendro threw caution to the wind when I asked if could direct this play under the auspices of ART.  They said “yes”, and here we are.

I hope you enjoy this production and that you allow yourselves to explore the phenomenon of a haunted house.  Can houses be “born bad” as the character of Dr. Montague muses in an early scene, or are they fashioned by the negative energies manifested in the dwellers? 

This production is presented in partnership with

Central Lakes Community Performing Arts Center