The Final Reel 

Reading and Discussion

By Walter Freeman and William Ivers

The Final Reel is a uniquely entertaining ghostly dark comic thriller set in a haunted mansion on the coast of Maine in the present. A wonderfully inept and dysfunctional team of paranormal investigators for a staged present-day reality show entitled Ghost Encounters has come to the mansion for one final production that they hope will boost their flagging ratings. The group includes a pretentious director who idolizes the spirit of Orson Welles, a diva, a put-upon flunky, two bumbling tech nerds, a sleazy producer, a flaky psychic, and a burned out professor. At the mansion, they meet Judy Leman, a tragic figure from the days of old Hollywood. Judy managed her daughter Jackie’s stellar 1930’s film career as child star Dolly Dancer. Tensions mounted between mother and daughter as Dolly’s film career flagged. Dolly was set to make a comeback when she flung herself from the balcony of the mansion under mysterious circumstances. Judy has remained in the mansion for decades, haunted by guilt, claiming her daughter still walks within its walls. It is within this dark mansion, isolated from the outside world, where the film crew encounters something their show has never experienced before: an actual haunting. One by one, the cast begins to die in mysterious ways. Is it the vengeful spirit of Dolly Dancer or something more earthly and sinister at play? Old Hollywood meets modern television on the stage as the mystery of the death of Dolly Dancer unfolds in The Final Reel.

THIS READING IS PART OF THE RING-WORKS, A PROGRAM AIMED AT THE DEVELOPMENT OF NEW PLAYS AND EMERGING PLAYWRIGHTS