Treasure Island

Our production, "Treasure Island" is currently in pre-production and will sail into New York City at the Hitchcock-Rockefeller Auditorium in fall 2005. Sign up for our mailing list and we'll drop you a line when we dock.

The Story

Join us for a rollicking musical adventure through the pages of Robert Louis Stevenson’s most beloved novel "Treasure Island". Join Jim Hawkins as he takes the journey of a lifetime. While seeking buried pirate treasure, he comes to find the real treasure – within himself. This is a tale about courage, discovery and the voyage everyone must make to find their true self. Colorful characters and costumes make this a swashbuckling production you will never forget!

About Robert Louis Stevenson

Robert Lewis (later: 'Louis') Balfour Stevenson was born in Edinburgh on 13 November 1850. In 1857 the family moved to 17 Heriot Row, a solid respectable house in Edinburgh's New Town.

A fortuitous turning-point in Stevenson's life had occurred when on holiday in Scotland in the summer of 1881. The cold rainy weather forced the family to amuse themselves indoors, and one day Stevenson and his twelve-year-old stepson, Lloyd (Fanny's son by her first marriage), drew, coloured and annotated the map of an imaginary 'Treasure Island'. The map stimulated Stevenson's imagination and, 'On a chill September morning, by the cheek of a brisk fire' he began to write a story based on it as an entertainment for the rest of the family. Treasure Island (published in book form in 1883) marks the beginning of his popularity and his career as a profitable writer, it was his first volume-length fictional narrative, and the first of his writings 'for children' (or rather, the first of writings manipulating the genres associated with children). Later works that fit into this category are A Child's Garden of Verses (1885), The Black Arrow (1883), Kidnapped (1886) and its continuation Catriona (1893). The four narrative works mentioned in this paragraph, though they all have youthful protagonists and were all first published in magazines for young people, are also clearly intended for adult readers. The last three, based on careful documentary research, are fictions exploring history and culture; and the last two are interesting studies of Scottish culture and could also be placed in the following section.

The Pre-show Workshop

In addition to the one hour musical, the audience receives a special treat - interactive arts workshops prior to the performance. Here the audience learns about the original book and how we turned it into a musical. We discuss the themes of the show and how the arts bring literature to life. Then the kids and their families make their own treasure chest which they fill with things that are special to them and then take it home as a souvenir. Now when they watch the show, they are familiar with the art forms and themes represented in the production.

The whole program (pre-show workshop and actual show) is approximately 2 hours long.

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