Photo provided Laird Tyndall, portrayed by Michael Beavin, rehearses a scene with Laird Drummond, played by Kevin Spiker, from the 21st Fairy Tale Musical Theatre production written by Cecile Beavin. The stage production of “Great Adventures on Tyndall Isle” will be performed at 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 10, at the Pixy Theatre in Edinburgh.
EDINBURGH — A fantasy world of pirates, sorcerers, treasure, damsels in distress – and even an invisible monster in the audience will come alive during the 21st annual production of Cecile Beavin’s annual Fairy Tale Musical Theatre.
“Great Adventures on Tyndall Isle,” will be performed at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 10, at the Pixy Theatre, 111 S. Walnut St., Edinburgh. Although there is no admission charge, with donations at the door will go towards the theater’s upkeep and renovation.
With a name like “Fairy Tale Musical Theatre,” parents might anticipate a family-friendly fantasy filled with songs – and that’s exactly what the performance is intended to be.
But there is something deeper here for adults.
For the past 40 years, the playwright’s full-time job has been mental health counselor and therapist. Rather than be inspired by folklore like the Brothers Grimm, Beavin regularly borrows anonymously from human challenges emerging from her clinical social work practice, as well as her own life.
“This brings to surface thoughts and emotions that may have been lying dormant within each of us,” Beavin said.
On Tyndall Isle, the damsel in distress is Heather Mary, the daughter of a Scottish Lord who oversees an island. Heather (played by physician Marian Poorman) is experiencing unresolved grief following the disappearance of her mother, feels unable to go on with her life.
“She is quite isolated,” Beavin said. “She does not take part in anything on the island.”
Heather Mary believes her mother was whisked away by a half-man, half-seal creature who hides in the auditorium. She is frequently mistaken as a ghost by island inhabitants as she sleepwalks regularly to a tower built in honor of her mother.
A sea sorceress places a curse on Heather Mary that prohibits her from ever knowing passion and pain. She believes she is doomed to sit along in a tower and only see rain.
“That translates into being numb,” Beavin said. “That is the curse.”
However, the storyteller – who has unique powers of her own – tells Heather the curse will end when she can hear the drumbeat of her own heart.
“That means truly listening to your inner self,” said the therapist and playwright, who also serves as storyteller.
If other mental health professionals want to discuss deeper meanings, Beavin is more than capable about talking clinically about how Jungian therapy fits in her story. Developed by Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961), the term essentially means a form of psychoanalysis that calls for a patient to look at the “real” self, rather than the false persona they present to the outside world.
But after 21 years of writing and producing fairy tales plays, Beavin knows to keep the presentation entertaining and free of sanctimonious sermonizing. In fact, Fairy Tale Musical Theatre was born partly from Beavin’s observation that many adults have grown so serious about life that they have forgotten the balancing effect of sheer whimsy.
In earlier productions, the age of the fairy tale cast has been typically 12- to 15-years old. But in “Greater Adventures on Tyndall Isle,” the youngest is 19 and the oldest is over 80. Featured cast members include Faith Talkington, Isaiah Warren, Michael Beavin, Kevin Spike and Lance Fane.
There are 12 written roles, but Beavin plans to raise the fun factor by recruiting children from the audience and casting them as treasure-seeking pirates.
It was after the 2023 production of “King Cole – Maladies and Melodies” was over that Beavin began writing this year’s fairy tale from her home in Brown County, Beavin said. Her writing process begins in late autumn and is completed sometime in the spring.
Beavin says she doesn’t think about becoming a writer.
“I just think about letting a story come forth, and see if that story can resonate in the lives of some people who say they want to act,” she said.
It was in mid-June that auditions were held and the casting is made. But since many of the participants have never been on a stage, they receive lessons in acting, singing and dancing, Beavin said.
Despite the demands on the cast, Beavin says she -works to ensure that merriment is a part of weekly rehearsals. After the performance, cast and audience will gather for a reception to celebrate their achievement.
