‘Parcel From America,’ based on a story Tomáseen Foley told in Ashland in 1998, is green-lighted for a musical production in New York

By Jim Flint for Ashland.news

A musical born from a story told in an Ashland community hall more than two decades ago is now headed to New York.

“Parcel From America” — a heartfelt tale of love, loss and neighborly grace set in 1950s rural Ireland — has received the green light for an Off-Broadway run in fall of 2026.

The creative team, with deep roots in both Ashland and Ireland, includes husband-and-wife duo Jahnna Beecham and Malcolm Hillgartner (book, lyrics, and music), Oregon Shakespeare Festival veteran Michael J. Hume (book and lyrics), and Irish composer Kevin Corcoran (music and arrangements).

The musical is adapted from a story by Tomáseen Foley, the renowned Celtic storyteller and musician who splits his life between Ireland and Ashland.

An Irish story reimagined

Set in the rolling hills of West Limerick during the 1950s, “Parcel From America” follows a lonely widow and a well-meaning neighbor boy whose innocent promise leads to a ripple of compassion through their small village. As the community bands together in a desperate act of kindness, they rediscover what it means to live “in the shelter of our neighbors.”

“It was magical,” Beecham said of the night she first heard Foley perform the story in 1998 at the Ashland Community Center. “Its message — that it is only in the shelter of our neighbors that we all can live — stuck with us. More than 20 years later, we optioned the rights to turn Tom’s beautiful story into a musical.”

Ashland to Off-Broadway

The path to New York has been anything but quick. Beecham, Hillgartner and Hume have spent seven years shaping Foley’s short story into a full-scale musical that balances humor, music and drama.

For Hume, who has spent nearly three decades acting with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the transition to producing has been eye-opening.

“Three decades at OSF as an actor are a walk in the park compared to stepping into the shoes of producer,” he said. “Raising funds is a completely different animal altogether.”

With donations nearing $200,000 toward a $600,000 operating budget, the producers are planning four weeks of rehearsal followed by a five-week New York run in 2026.

On Saturday, Oct. 25, an invitation-only event at OSF’s Hay-Patton Rehearsal Center will bring together Foley’s family and the creative team with donors and potential supporters. Attendees will meet executive producer Andrew G. Levine, director J.R. Sullivan and the Ashland-Ireland collaborators They will hear songs from the show performed live.

Finding the right voice

Hillgartner said that from the start, he and Corcoran worked to capture an authentic Irish sound while still giving the score dramatic muscle.

“We searched for the right blend of traditional Celtic folk feel and modern musical theater technique,” he said. “The songs are scored with traditional instruments — the penny whistle, fiddle, bodhrán and mandolin — but break free from simple folk song structures.”

The team continues to refine the piece, experimenting with “through-scoring,” in which music flows under dialogue to heighten emotion. “It’s a work in progress,” Hillgartner said.

An Irish story for all

Director J.R. Sullivan has been attached to the project since its early development in Chicago. He said he was immediately drawn to the humanity in Foley’s story.

“It’s a moving story of the transformational power of decency,” he said. “Decency is a universal — and the need for it today all the more so and profoundly apparent.”

Sullivan said the musical’s emotional core, with neighbors helping one another endure hardship, transcends its Irish setting.

“It’s connection,” he said. “The connection to family in America, and our connection to this story of love and the decency to look out for your neighbor.”

He envisions the Off-Broadway staging as intimate and truthful, resisting spectacle in favor of authenticity.

“Whatever the venue, it’s most important to connect with the beautiful truths of Tom Foley’s tale,” he said. “Shows like “She Loves Me” proved that even in a Broadway house, intimacy and surprise can thrive.”

Lessons from Dublin

The team first saw “Parcel From America” come to life in Dublin in 2022. That experience, Beecham said, was invaluable.

“We learned that our research had paid off. We had written a piece that resonated with the Irish audience as authentic,” she said. “Now our task is to ‘get a little more dirt under the fingernails,’ as J.R. puts it, and use music to raise the stakes and deepen the sacrifice at the heart of the story.”

A community effort

From its earliest readings, “Parcel From America” has been nurtured by the Ashland arts community.

“Our local community of theater artists and theater lovers has supported this project from the beginning,” Hillgartner said.

Actor friends helped test songs and read scenes in living rooms. In 2021, a group of 16 local actors, musicians and technicians from OSF, Camelot Theatre and other companies staged a reading at Mountain Avenue Theatre.

“We expected a couple dozen friends to attend,” Hume recalled. “To our surprise, more than a hundred showed up and gave us a standing ovation.” That same spirit continues to propel the project forward.

“That audience of old friends and new have traveled this journey with us from Ashland to Dublin to New York,” Beecham said. “They are our team. Without them we would not be where we are today. It really does take a village.”

A story coming full circle

For Foley, who performed “Parcel From America” for years as a solo storyteller, the musical form brings his childhood memories to life in a new way.

“What delighted me was seeing everything my fellow artists brought to the project — and the abiding interest they had in its development,” he said.

He sees in it both nostalgia and universality.

“As a child, I was part of a slow, intimate, measureless way of being in the world that had not changed much since the Middle Ages,” Foley said. “And within a few years it would slip away, vanquished by the modern world.”

Now, as “Parcel From America” prepares to reach a global audience, Foley’s simple village story seems poised to echo far beyond the hedgerows of West Limerick.

“Tolstoy said if you want to be universal, sing the song of your own village,” Foley said. “Here’s to hoping he was right.”

Hopeful horizons

After seven years of collaboration and countless rewrites, the creative team feels both exhilarated and humbled as their project nears its New York debut.

“New York City is the ephemeral mecca of all things theatrical,” Hume said. “It involves constant hoops to leap through, much capital to be raised, lots of boulders to roll up lots of hills. But it’s nothing I’ve ever done before — therefore very exciting. And scary.”

For now, “Parcel From America” continues to do what it’s always done: bring people together. Whether in an Ashland rehearsal hall or an Off-Broadway theater, its message remains the same — celebrating community, compassion and the enduring gift of decency.

There are a few seats still available for the Oct. 25 presentation. People interested in supporting the venture and wishing to attend, or who want more information about how to support the project, are invited to email Beecham at [email protected].

Freelance writer Jim Flint is a retired newspaper publisher and editor. Email him at [email protected].