THE SPIRIT OF BAY MANOR (Thriller - 3f, 2m - character ages 31 to 65)
Five people gather in an alleged haunted manor house to try to prove whether the house either is, or isn't, haunted. Among them is a paranormal investigator, a real estate agent, the manors owner, a psychic, and the niece of the woman who died mysteriously in the same house during a ghost hunting experiment thirty years prior. Russ, age forty, is a paranormal investigator with a skeptical bent. Julie is a fifty year old real estate agent whose company will only list the house if they confirm it is not haunted. Barry, age 60, is the manor's owner who desperately needs to sell the house to raise much needed cash. Both he and Dalia, age 65, were part of the earlier experiment gone wrong. Emily, 37,is the niece of a woman who died mysteriously in the earlier experiment, present to try to find out what really happened to her aunt thirty years prior. The play is easily staged with simple but convincing effects. For licensing inquiries on this title, please contact: Joe Simonelli - jsimonelli3@gmail.com / jsimonelli4@aol.com or call 347-355-89891st class Broadway and West End rights thru law office of Gary DaSilva - gary@internationalauthors.com
To purchase this title on Amazon click the link below https://www.amazon.com/dp/B086PPJHHF PRODUCTION HISTORY Marco Players Theatre FL 2021 (premiere)
SAMPLE PAGES “THE SPIRIT OF BAY MANOR”was produced at The Marco PlayhouseTheatre on Marco Island, Florida in Jan 2021for 18 performances with the following cast:Barry……………….….Joe SimonelliEmily……………….…Shelley GothardRuss…………………...Paul LoPrestiJulie…………………...Lori SigristDalia…………………..Suzanne DaviesProduction StaffDirector……………….Joe SimonelliAsst. Director…………Lori SigristStage Manager………..Jeff HooverTech Director…………Ron ClarkArtistic Director………Beverly DahlstromSet…………………….Jim Swanker5CASTBarry Dyall - 65Emily Compton - 37Russ Johnson - 40Julie Bloom - 55Dalia Harris - 60ATHORS NOTE: never being a big fan of betweenscene stage hands resetting furniture and clearingglasses etc. All these tasks should be handled byactors if possible. (there are exceptions) It is ofcourse permissible for stage manager to reset props atintermission.SETTING: The second floor parlor of a large ManorHouse. A functional window is back right, a fireplace isback center. A dining room table with four chairs is downright. A couch with a coffee table is down center. A bar isback left. Main entrance door from hallway is stage left,another door stage right leads to a back staircase. Whenthis door is open a landing with a staircase leading upstairscan be seen. This staircase also leads downstairs to thekitchen. A wing chair with ottoman is down right. Pewtermugs and vases are on top of the fireplace mantle as wellas typical fireplace implements and two battery-poweredlanterns. Hanging on the wall is a picture of a nine-yearold boy (Barry) circa 1960.AT RISE: An empty stage is seen as we hear a windeffect. It softens and fades as Barry enters from attic doorcarrying a picture or portrait (covered with sheet) of KatyMadsen. He closes attic door behind him upon enteringand hangs the picture on back wall. He then goes to maindoor and calls to others as the attic door opens by itself.BARRY. In here you two.(Barry notices the open attic door and quickly crosses toclose it as Julie and Russ enter from main hallway door)7BARRY. And this is the second floor parlor where we’llset up our main observations.(Russ carries a computer bag or satchel. He places thesatchel down and takes out a notebook, pencil, and yellowlegal pad. He starts examining different areas of the roomand periodically writes down notes on the pad.)JULIE. Great. My least favorite room in a house full ofrooms I don’t like..BARRY. Come on, Ms. Bloom. With that kind of attitude,I’m inclined to call your real estate agency and ask to haveyou replaced.JULIE. Not very likely, I’m afraid. It’s not my fault thatyou live in a state that requires you to list whether a houseis haunted. You well know that no other realtor in townwould agree to spend one night in this manor, much less awhole weekend. But me being new to the agency and thistown…RUSS. And being far less superstitious than the locals?JULIE. That, too. I am willing to make the supremesacrifice and spend two nights here at the ‘hauntedmansion.’BARRY. Supreme sacrifice and a nice commission checkif you’re able to sell the place.JULIE. Given the reputation of Bay Manor, that wouldentail finding some way out-of-town buyers with deeppockets.RUSS. And a huge sense of adventure, I might add. JULIE. If we can give the manor a clean bill of health,then I’m going the commercial route. Why try to convincea private owner that it isn’t haunted when I can convince adeveloper to turn it into condos, or a nice country inn?RUSS. You’ve got a point. Nothing pulls in the touristslike a nice haunted country inn.JULIE. Touché.RUSS. You know you can’t hide facts about this house theway you could thirty years ago when….well, you knowwhat happened; you were here, Barry.BARRY. Yes. I was here.RUSS. And yet you came back after that horrible incident.After you swore publicly that you never would. That, if Iremember the quote from the newspaper correctly…JULIE. What incident, and what quote?RUSS. “They should tear it down. Tear the house to theground and have the timber laced with sage andincinerated.” Something like that, wasn’t it ?(Barry crosses to the bar and picks up a decanter ofScotch.)BARRY. Close enough. But in fairness to myself, I wasvery upset at the time. (as he pours a drink) Would anyoneelse care for some aged scotch?JULIE. How aged?BARRY. At least thirty years, I’d say. 9JULIE. Count me in.RUSS. So has time softened your attitude toward BayManor?JULIE. From what I hear, a desperate need for quick cashand the wolves at the door might cause anyone’s memoryto fade a bit.BARRY. (hands her a drink) I might choose yourexpressions more carefully, Ms. Bloom, considering thereare real wolves as well as bears roaming around in thewoods out there. I’ve seen both from the third-floorwindow quite often. As a matter of fact, no workmen orservice people will even come here after nightfall. And asfor me being here voluntarily? You’re both wrong. Adrafty manor house is the last place I’d choose to spend aweekend when I have a nice, comfortable apartment intown. But since I now own it, and the real estate companyinsisted, and since, as Ms. Bloom mentioned soeloquently, the wolves are indeed at the door—yes, I’mhere.JULIE. You mentioned an unfortunate incident, Russ.Care to fill me in?BARRY. I’m not so sure you’d like the story, Ms. Bloom.JULIE. First of all, if we’re going to spend the weekendtogether, can we keep it to first names? It’s Julie. Ms.Bloom sounds like a money-hungry real estate broker…which I am, by the way.BARRY. Gladly…Julie. (to Russ) So, you’re the expert insuch matters, aren’t you Russ? I’m sure you’ve done theresearch. Perhaps you’d like to tell her the story. After all,isn’t that why the real estate agency hired you? Toinvestigate. To debunk or identify any paranormaloccurrences in the house. To spend the weekend and verifythat the house either is, or isn’t, haunted? Isn’t that whatyou ghost hunters do?RUSS. I prefer the term parapsychologist to ghost hunter.And since I’m one of the more skepticalparapsychologists, I feel it’s fair to warn you that inninety-five percent of the cases I’ve investigated, it’s beennothing more than the wind coming down an openchimney or some doors that weren’t hung correctly andrefuse to stay closed. Strictly a case of physics and shoddyworkmanship.JULIE. And the other five percent?RUSS. Well, Julie, as Barry mentioned, I have indeeddone the research. So perhaps I will tell the story, at leastfrom a clinical outsider’s perspective, and you can be thejudge. Barry, please feel free to fill in the blanks if I straytoo far from the stated facts of the case.(Barry sits silently in the chair, deep in thought, sippinghis scotch.)JULIE. I’m all ears. 11RUSS. (periodically referring to previous notes in hisnotebook) The short version is that in nineteen eighty-six,Barry here, representing the owners of the manor, alongwith three others, spent two weeks in this house. Theexperiment was headed by Dr. Kurt Mueller, a Germanparapsychologist who came to upstate New York toinvestigate and gather scientific evidence of anyparanormal occurrences happening at Bay Manor. He hadselected as his research assistants Amy Compton and apsychic named Dalia Harris. Amy was chosen because shehad been the victim of a continuing paranormal experienceover a number of years. Drops of water, from no apparentsource, would randomly fall on her hands and body whileshe was inside her house. This phenomenon was lateridentified as spirit drops.JULIE. Spirit drops? Come on, it had to be a leak in theceiling or moisture forming on a humid day.RUSS. It’s been documented to have happened in airtight,sealed rooms under experimental conditions. No oneknows where the water comes from.BARRY. I didn’t believe it then and I don’t believe itnow!RUSS. Careful, Barry, Bay Manor is not a place whereyou want to spend a weekend with a closed mind. Nomatter how much you may want to sell it. Especially beingone of the three who were able to escape from it unscathedthirty years ago.JULIE. Escape from it? Why? Who didn’t?BARRY. Amy Compton. Unfortunately. She died in anaccident the day before we were all to leave.RUSS. Are you so sure it was an accident, Barry? Afterall, this house has had a very checkered past even beforethat experiment in eighty-six. A checkered past since itwas first built in the late nineteenth century, perhaps. Theman who built it, Barry’s great grandfather, OliverMadson, was a British actor who retired to America withhis second wife, a young Broadway actress bride, thirtyyears his junior. Katy was her name. Barry’s grandmotherinherited the house after Oliver and Katy Madson’suntimely demise..JULIE. How untimely?BARRY. The story my family tells is that my greatgrandfather Oliver was still finishing construction on thehouse in eighteen ninety-six, supervising building thesecond floor servants’ quarters, when a support beam, forno apparent reason, dislodged and crushed him to death.Almost like a warning to others not to finish building thehouse. (beat) Of course, his young, gold-digging actresswife did go ahead and finish.RUSS. Such disrespect for your great-grandmother,Barry?BARRY. Step great-grandmother, if you please. Anyway,she eventually got what was coming to her.JULIE. (a look to Russ and sarcastically) Okay..BARRY. With the money from the estate securely in herhands, she did in fact finish building the house. And filledit with extravagant furniture and a number of servants tocater to her whims. She also liked to spend money. Onwild parties with actor cronies mostly. When the moneyran out she let most of the servants go, save for onehousekeeper and a butler, Henry Jenkins. It’s with Jenkinsthat the history of the house really starts to turn dark. 13JULIE. (crossing to refill her drink) Why is it always thebutler? It’s never the upstairs maid or the gardener. Sowhat happened with this Jenkins fellow?RUSS. (takes the room but never indicates the stairwaydoor) From what I read of the case the widow returned toher sporadic acting career in New York City for the winterand would spend a month or two at Bay Manor for thesummer. She would sometimes return with some rowdyroaring-twenties house guests. By now, thirty years hadgone by since her husband’s death. Jenkins, who for themost part had the run of the place and had grown veryfond of the house, didn’t appreciate what he thought weredownstate New York City trash debauching his sacredtemple. Fortunately for him, and rather unfortunately forthe widow, shortly after her guests had left one latesummer day… she fell down the back staircase of theservants’ quarters, breaking her neck. It happened after aquarrel with Jenkins. Overheard by the only other personpresent in the house at the time, the maid, who had seenthe widow come up the main staircase and enter theservants’ quarters. She heard the argument from thehallway, not daring to enter the room to face eitherJenkins’ or her employer’s wrath by intervening.JULIE. Wait a minute. Something’s not making sense.Why would Katy Madson, the owner of the manor, use theback staircase to leave the servants’ quarters?BARRY. Maybe she was in the mood for some tea andcrumpets after setting the butler straight.RUSS. I doubt it.BARRY. Why don’t you ask her yourself? That’s herportrait sitting on the mantle. I just brought it down fromthe attic before you came in. My step great-grandmother,Katy Madson.(He leads Russ and Julie to picture, and uncovers it sothey can see it.)RUSS. Wow, vintage nineteen twenties. What color wouldyou say that hair is? Not platinum blonde?JULIE. No, more like a strawberry blonde. But shecertainly doesn’t look like a tea and crumpets kind of girlto me.RUSS. And she wasn’t on those stairs to fetch a snackfrom the kitchen. The rumors were that Jenkins wantedthings his own way, so he pushed her down those stairs.BARRY. As you said, Russ, they were only rumors. (Herecovers portrait with sheet.)RUSS. The local sheriff didn’t think so. Although hecouldn’t prove anything. (He pulls out a copy of newsarticle.) Here’s a copy of the news article dated September3rd, nineteen twenty-six. The maid quit the very next dayand disappeared after giving a brief statement to thepolice. The manor then passed to Barry’s grandmother andshe decided to keep Jenkins on since he asked for no salarybut was happy to receive only room and board. All wasquiet for a while until another incident happens in theservants’ quarters around nineteen fifty-six. Not a fatalincident, mind you. But a significant one, I think. (beat)Funny, isn’t it? How paranormal incidents seem to happenat Bay Manor in thirty-year cycles. Oliver Madson dies ineighteen ninety-six. His wife falls down the stairs innineteen twenty-six. Jenkins in nineteen fifty-six.15BARRY. Then our paranormal experiment-gone-bad innineteen eighty-six.JULIE. And now here we are in two thousand sixteen.Never a dull moment in the fun house. What happened toJenkins the butler in fifty-six?BARRY. You want the story second hand or direct fromthe source, my mother? As much as I doubt its veracity, Ido believe in full disclosure.(He moves upstage and points to the picture of the boy)That picture is me taken in this house when we used tovisit my grandmother. In nineteen fifty-six my motherwas visiting the manor and reading a book in her oldbedroom when she heard a scream from the servants’quarters. She entered and found Jenkins, writhing in painon the floor, cursing a blue streak and gripping his leg.Apparently a fireplace poker he was polishing slippedfrom his hand and smashed into his ankle, breaking it..JULIE. (incredulous) What? Okay, I grant you a fireplacepoker of that era was probably very heavy, but having itslip from your hand couldn’t possibly cause that kind ofinjury. A bad bruise, maybe.BARRY. Good observation. And since he was lying wellaway from the fireplace when it happened, my mother wasapt to wonder if he was really polishing it at all.JULIE. Are you suggesting, he was hit with itintentionally? By whom? You said he was alone in theroom.RUSS. Actually, things like that have been documented ashappening in hauntings. Bricks flying about. Furnituremoving. Books being tossed aroundBARRY. In any event, his ankle never properly healedand he walked with a distinct limp from then on. Mygrandmother said she always knew when he was walkingaround the hallways after that as she heard the clip clop ofhis shoes on the wooden floor. He also used to whistle apopular tune from his youth all the time. “The BandPlayed On.” You’re all too young to remember it.JULIE. I know it. ‘Casey would waltz with a strawberryblonde and the band played on.’BARRY. That’s the tune. Good for you, Julie. My favoritetune from that era was always “The Sidewalks of NewYork.”RUSS. I know that one. (sings) ‘East side west side allaround the town.’BARRY. (joins the singing of “all around the town)That’s it, Russ. We used to sing those songs all the time inglee club when I was young.RUSS. And so Jenkins is mysteriously maimed in nineteenfifty-six, fulfilling the thirty-year pattern. But wait, it getseven better. Jenkins’ accident befalls him on September3rd, nineteen fifty-six. The same day Katy Madson diedfalling down the stairs. Thirty years to the day, as a matterof fact.JULIE. And so whatever happened to the butler?RUSS. Jenkins? He died in Bay Manor around nineteensixty at the ripe old age of ninety-one.JULIE. Natural causes, I hope.17RUSS. About as natural a cause for Bay Manor aspossible. He choked to death on a piece of meat he waseating.BARRY. I met Jenkins once. Right before he died. I was achild at the time and was here on a visit to myGrandmother. I had the whole run of the manor to play in,save for the servants’ quarters, where Jenkins was stillliving in retirement. He left orders that he didn’t want tobe disturbed; and out of respect for his age and length ofservice, my grandmother was happy to comply, as he gaveher the creeps as much as he did everyone else. Well,naturally, when a nine-year-old boy is forbidden to gosomeplace, that’s the first place he’ll go. I knocked on theservants’ quarters door.“Who is it?” said a voice from inside the room. “Barry,” Ireplied. “Come in, then.” I opened the door and there hesat in the corner of the room. I don’t know if I was moreterrified or curious when I saw him. “You’re the grandson,aren’t you?” “Yes, sir,” I replied. “What are you doingsnooping around this part of the house where you’re notwanted?” I immediately started to turn for the door whenhe said, “Wait.” I stood frozen in my tracks, still facing thedoor. “Are you sleeping over tonight?” “No sir” Ianswered. “Turn around, boy,” I did as he stood up fromhis chair. To a little boy, he seemed seven feet tall. “It’sgood you’re not sleeping in this house tonight, boy. Andit’s good you’re not alone. Strange things happen in thismanor when you’re alone. You never want to be alone inthis house. Alone is when they like to show themselves.”Then he started laughing, slowly at first then maniacally asI ran from the room. “Never be alone,” he shouted afterme, “never be alone.”JULIE. That Jenkins was quite a charmer. So he diedeating a ham sandwich?RUSS. The coroner’s report wasn’t that specific, but h