DOROTHY VERNON OF HADDON HALL A ROMANTIC COMEDY DRAMA FOUNDED ON CHARLES MAJOR’S NOVEL OF THE SAME NAME PERFORMED IN LONDON AS DOROTHY O’ THE HALL BY PAUL KESTER Edited by David Trutt DOROTHY VERNON OF HADDON HALL BY PAUL KESTER, 1903. INTRODUCTION Page 3 CHARACTERS Page 4 ACT I THE TERRACE, HADDON HALL Page 5 ACT II DOROTHY’S ROOM, HADDON HALL Page 29 ACT III THE WATCH TOWER ROOM, RUTLAND CASTLE Page 47 ACT IV THE TERRACE, HADDON HALL Page 58 STAGE SETS FOR DOROTHY’S ROOM AND THE TERRACE Page 70 ACT I DERBYSHIRE, 1560’S ACT II THREE WEEKS AFTER END OF ACT I ACT III ONE HOUR AFTER END OF ACT II ACT IV ONE HOUR AFTER END OF ACT III Published 2010 by David Trutt Los Angeles, California USA email:
[email protected] Web Site: www.haddon-hall.com 3 INTRODUCTION American author Charles Major produced the all-time best-selling story of the Dorothy Vernon / John Manners romance with his 1902 novel Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall. American playwright Paul Kester adapted the story for his play of the same name. The play Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall opened on December 14, 1903 at the New York Theatre for forty performances. Bertha Galland was twenty seven when she first played the eighteen year old Dorothy Vernon. The following is from a New York newspaper, written shortly after the opening. It would tend to explain why the play was renamed Dorothy o’ the Hall when Fred Terry (as John Manners) and his wife Julia Neilson (as Dorothy Vernon) opened the play in London in 1906.