TDF Stages

Playwright Kate Trefry on her Stranger Things journey, from Hollywood to London to Broadway

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Netflix's Stranger Things was already a pop-culture phenomenon when Kate Trefry was hired as a writer its second season. Set during the 1980s in the small town of Hawkins, Indiana, the nostalgic sci-fi series features a lovable cast of characters, both adolescents and adults, battling monsters from a nightmarish parallel dimension called the Upside Down. Trefry's first days on the job—her inaugural TV gig—felt almost as perilous. "I had a lot to learn," she admits. "It was really terrifying. I think I threw up every day for a week!"

Eight years later, Trefry knows the Stranger Things universe inside and out. That's why she was tapped to help translate the series into a theatrical spectacle as the playwright for Stranger Things: The First Shadow, a prequel exploring how all the weirdness began. After becoming a sensation in London, the show transferred to Broadway's Marquis Theatre this past spring where it won four Tony Awards, including a special trophy for its stunning visual effects that recreate cinematic jump scares like the enormous, spiderlike Mind Flayer onstage. But Trefry's script is what delves into the heart—and the heartbreak—behind the horrors.

Prolific Tony-winning theatre and film director Stephen Daldry (the movie and musical Billy Elliot, The Inheritance) was the one who initially approached Stranger Things creators the Duffer Brothers about a stage incarnation of their supernatural juggernaut. "Of course he came up with this idea—no one else would be crazy enough!" Trefry says with a laugh. "He's an absolute madman with a brain that is unparalleled."

Because Trefry had been instrumental in crafting the brand's ever-evolving mysteries, notably the character of Henry Creel, whose dark history was the focus of season 4 as well as this play, she teamed up with Daldry and co-director Justin Martin to bring his backstory to theatrical life. The Duffer Brothers wanted "a human face for our Lovecraftian bad guy," explains Trefry, rather than the literally faceless villains of the early seasons. Fittingly for a show that takes place in the 1980s, A Nightmare on Elm Street's undead child killer, Freddy Krueger, served as their main inspiration for Henry.

Based on a story devised by the Duffer Brothers, Trefry and Tony-winning Harry Potter and the Cursed Child scribe Jack Thorne, The First Shadow is set in 1959 and centers on Henry (the incredible Louis McCartney), the new outcast in town, a teen struggling with his demons and a challenging homelife. When Henry ends up being cast in a school play, he interacts with characters both new and old—fans of the series squeal with delight when teenage versions of Joyce Byers, Jim Hopper and Bob Newby turn up. Still, Stranger Things newbies should have no problem following this self-contained tale.

When writing the script, Trefry pulled from her own experience with obsessive-compulsive disorder to communicate Henry's inner turmoil. "Is it part of you? Does it define you? Does it come from you, does it come from somewhere else? Those are all the big questions when you struggle with any type of mental illness," Trefry says. "I have bad thoughts, I've done bad things, does that mean I'm bad?"

Daldry was the one who "pitched the idea of a play within a play" after he and Trefry decided to build the plot "around a big school event, like a prom," she says. "Then it was a matter of trying to find something that was thematically in line with our story." In a show as packed with fantastical elements as The First Shadow, picking Dark of the Moon, a supernatural drama produced on Broadway in 1945, was quite clever. The doomed love story of a so-called witch boy and a human girl, it echoes Henry's storyline to an extent that's "just bizarre," says Trefry. "It's a really cool play. There's a couple of monologues about the loneliness of being a witch out of body in a human's shell… it's really powerful."

The agony of being in a body that cannot be controlled is relatable for any teenager, but it's particularly acute for Henry. In one of Trefry's favorite scenes, Henry is beset by ghastly visions in a school restroom. "That experience of being in the bathroom, having these horrific, dreamlike images of what you could do—'Do you want to kill her? Look, you just killed her—oh no, you didn't kill her'—that's like the OCD loop," she explains. "I was really excited to see that come together. It's always fun to make your demons dance for you. Every time I watch the play now, I do a little salute to my OCD monster."

With Stranger Things' fifth and final season scheduled for release later this year, Trefry's tenure with the series has come to an end. "It's just been a joy. I've had so much fun," she says, adding that she's glad The First Shadow means the denizens of Hawkins will continue fighting evil eight times a week, both in London and New York. "Everybody has their Mind Flayer, you know?"

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TDF MEMBERS: At press time, discount tickets were available for Stranger Things: The First Shadow. Go here to browse our latest discounts for dance, theatre and concerts.

The show is also frequently available at our TKTS Discount Booths.