STUDENTS, EDUCATORS, HISTORY FANS, GHOST-STORY LOVERS:

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THE TURN OF THE SCREW by Jeffrey Hatcher is based on Henry James’s 1898 gothic novella of the same name. The story concerns a young Governess who ventures to an English country estate to care for Miles and Flora, orphans living under the care of their wealthy but distant uncle. Upon her arrival, the Governess learns of the sudden deaths of the children’s previous caretakers, whose presence now haunts the home and seduces all who remain. It is her gravest charge, the Governess decides, to rid the lingering ghosts from the hallways of the home and the minds of its inhabitants.

HENRY JAMES, THE NOVELIST: Born in 1843 in New York City, Henry James spent his youth traveling back and forth between Europe and America. At 21 years old, after a brief stint at Harvard Law, James published his first short story, “A Tragedy of Errors,” officially marking the beginning of his work as a writer. His prolific publications included 22 novels, 15 plays, two full-length biographies, and two volumes of childhood memoirs. James died in 1916 in London at the age of 72.

"What remains fascinating for a novelist about Henry James -- that isn't as fascinating, say, in someone like Whitman -- is that James is not open. Everything about him is ambiguous. Everything he was, he was also the opposite. He loved his family, he longed for them; he longed to be away from them. He loved England, he dreaded England. He loved going out at night, he hated going out at night. He loved women, he loved men. He loved working, he dreaded working. And the matter of his sexuality remains so strange and hidden, open sometimes, back enclosed again. He's constantly glittering, appearing briefly, clearly, and then going back in again in almost every way, including the fact that some of his short stories are so bad, for example, so clunky, so crude." ~ Colm Toibin, author of The Master (a novel about James), writing in The New York Times

JEFFREY HATCHER, THE PLAYWRIGHT: Jeffrey Hatcher grew up in Ohio and attended New York University where he briefly studied acting before turning his hand to writing. In addition to The Turn of the Screw, his many award-winning original plays have been performed on and off Broadway and regionally across the US and abroad. They include Compleat Female Stage Beauty (which he also adapted for the screen), Three Viewings, Scotland Road, Neddy, Korczak’s Children, A Picasso, Mercy of a Storm, Work Song (with Eric Simonson), and Lucky Duck (with Bill Russell and Henry Kreiger). Hatcher wrote the book for the Broadway musical Never Gonna Dance, based on the film Swingtime, and co-authored with Mitch Albom the stage version of the bestseller Tuesdays with Morrie. A four-time participant at the O'Neill Playwrights Conference, he is a member of the Dramatists Guild, New Dramatists, The Playwrights’ Center, and the WGA and author of The Art and Craft of Playwriting.

Other dramatic adaptations inspired by THE TURN OF THE SCREW include:

1954 - The Turn of the Screw, an opera written by Benjamin Britten
1959 - The Turn of the Screw, a television movie directed by John Frankenheimer, starring Ingrid Bergman
1961 - The Innocents, a film directed by Jack Clayton, starring Deborah Kerr
1974 - The Turn of the Screw, a TV movie starring Lynn Redgrave
1999 - The Turn of the Screw, a TV movie starring Jodhi May and featuring Colin Firth
1999 - Presence of Mind, Spanish adaptation starring Sadie Frost and Harvey Keitel
2001 - The Others, a movie starring Nicole Kidman

http://henryjames.org.uk/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_James

http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/people/j/henry_james/index.html

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