PORT TOWNSEND — John Tornow feels more at home with nature and animals than with other people.
A gentle soul, he spends most of his time in the woods. Some view him as strange, referring to him as the Wild Man.
John tries keeping to himself, but he clashes with his brother Ted, a logger who covets the land John inherited from their father. John seeks solace among his beloved trees, avoiding everyone except his sympathetic older sister Minnie.
Then his life takes a turn. John accidentally shoots and kills his nephew Will, mistaking him for a bear after his sister’s cattle.
He is accused of murder. John flees, and the local sheriff assembles a posse to hunt him down.
Drawn from true events, this is the story of “Wild Man of the Wynoochee,” the season-opening musical about to premiere at Key City Public Theatre.
The wild man out in the woods, the mysterious feral creature — he has long fascinated Hollywood screenwriter Jessica Welsh. When she learned the early 20th century story of Tornow, she said, the tale “got under my skin.”
After a series of fortuitous coincidences, Welsh found herself working in Port Townsend with composer Linda Dowdell, who also was in the legend’s thrall.
Together they have created “Wild Man of the Wynoochee,” a folk-rock musical set deep in the woods of the Olympic Peninsula. The show starts this Thursday and runs through Oct. 27 at the renovated playhouse, 419 Washington St. Information and tickets are available at keycitypublictheatre.org or by phoning 360-385-5278.
The cast is a blend of new faces and well-known performers. The fugitive John Tornow is portrayed by Casey Raiha, while his love interest Amanda — a woman ostracized because of her divorce — is played by Anna Mae Beyer. Bobby Winstead plays John’s brother Ted; Ricky Spaulding plays Sheriff Giles Quimby. Key City players Christa Holbrook and Bry Kifolo portray sister Minnie and ambitious reporter D.P Lea, respectively.
Dowdell and Welsh shaped this musical as an immersive experience, “set in the mysterious, shadowy wilds of the Pacific Northwest,” as Welsh puts it.
Like other Dowdell productions at Key City, a live band provides added pulse and drama. This time around, the band includes violinists Joey Gish and Rachel Gribben, drummers Angie Tabor and Sal Michael, and bassist Isaac Jasinski. They play Dowdell’s original score, which is wrapped around the pursuit of the titular wild man.
So tumbles forth the tale of suspense, love, betrayal — and the wildness in us all.
“Wild Man” begins the 2024-2025 season for Key City Public Theatre, which won an armload of awards from the Sound on Stage, a regional organization promoting the performing arts. These prizes include Best Theatre Experience, Best Stage Manager for Bry Kifolo and the Best Musical People’s Choice Award for last spring’s “Gunmetal Blues.”
Before “Wild Man,” Welsh made her name as a writer of screenplays for television and film. She’s worked with Netflix, Disney, Warner Bros., Sony, Nickelodeon and DreamWorks, and was a staff writer on the Peabody Award-winning series “Stillwater” for Apple TV.
Then Welsh met Dowdell at a conference. They clicked and collaborated on the “Wild Man” musical, shepherding it through developmental readings at Key City.
For this Los Angeles-based writer, the process has been an awakening.
“We got so many great insights from the audiences [at the readings],” Welsh said.
“Hearing how the room experiences it,” and seeing how warm and collaborative and alive the world of theater is — all of this has captivated her.
________
Diane Urbani de la Paz is a freelance writer and photographer who lives in Port Townsend.
Christa Holbrook portrays the “wild man’s” sister Minnie while Angel Vargas is his nephew Will in “Wild Man of the Wynoochee” at Key City Public Theatre in Port Townsend. (Diane Urbani de la Paz)
