Hardiman’s creation comes to life

SPRINGFIELD — For Mark Hardiman, the voices he was hearing were of his characters trying to tell their stories for his upcoming production of “Revenge: Treasure Island.”

“(They) just wouldn’t shut up,” Hardiman said of his experience with writing the original “Treasure Island” script two years ago. “They keep playing in my mind and demanded to be written, and I just had to tell their story.”

That is exactly what the Lincoln Land theatre professor did.

The original “Treasure Island” is a coming-of-age story for a young boy, but Hardiman wanted to create something to showcase women, too. Over winter break, he sat down to cover the plot outline and the characters just started speaking to him. This led to some of the scenes, happening in ways that he didn’t intend, Hardiman said, because of how the characters were
interacting with one another.

Hardiman had to shelf the production at the beginning of the semester, so he could gain a new perspective. It was only a couple days before auditions that he read through and made final adjustments to the script.

In 2012, Hardiman started actual productions for Lincoln Land with “Treasure Island.” That was an adaptation of the novel. However, “Revenge: Treasure Island” is the first original show Hardiman has written cover to cover for Lincoln Land.

“This is really an action-adventure,” Hardiman said.

He said the scenes are very short, very intense. There are lots of excitement, drama and often combat. The peak moments are truly dramatic, Hardiman said.

“The show has great female roles”, Hardiman said, “and they just progress to become more powerful throughout the entire show”. Hardiman explained, in the very last moments of the show there is a very intense scene and the women end up saving the men.

One of the characters says, “We survived.” Another character replies, “That, my dear, is what women of character do.”

Hardiman said: “I have no idea where that came from. It just came out of me. That was it.” It was like it needed to be said “in light of the Me Too movement,” Hardiman said. And he was glad to be the one who wrote it.

Mason Finch and Braden Hewitt, both freshmen at LLCC, auditioned for the production. They said Hardiman is a unique and great teacher who has encouraged them to explore their acting talents. Besides being Hardiman’s first original script for Lincoln Land, it will also be the first performance to take place outside on the college’s campus.

“Revenge: Treasure Island” will be performed in the Helen Hamilton area, which is the seating area outside the Student Union near the campus lake. The show is set for 8 p.m. on May 11-13 (Friday-Sunday) and May 19 and 20 (Saturday and Sunday).

Kate Cook can be reached at [email protected]