Above: Garrett Hastings creates immersive stories where myth and history collide in his Undersiders universe.
By Ken Mammarella
Photos by Jim Coarse
Garrett Hastings’ Undersiders universe is a complex multimedia creation, years in the making.
So far, it incorporates a film (Prudence, a campy ghost story set at his alma mater); a musical (The Horn, starring a sea captain haunted by his failed past); the first novel in a planned trilogy (The Undersiders, involving an ancient curse on Roanoke Island, the focus of his bachelor’s thesis); a related tale (Guarded Streets, set in 1968 in Wilmington, where he lives); and short stories.
The universe’s unofficial mascot is Veyman, a plush herring gull with just one foot who joins Hastings for readings and other events. The creature is a shape-shifter, “stuck with razor-sharp teeth no matter what his form is” — but not sharp enough to ward off an attack by the family dog.
Undersiders live outside of society, which is polytheistic in Hastings’ alternative future. “At the beginning of time, the universe was created by the five elements: Fire, Water, Air, Earth and Spirit,” he writes on his website, GRHastings.com. “When they did, they also created mistakes, one for each element.”
The tales are inspired by the past and also peer into an alternative future.
“Our universe resembles this one, but our future may look rather different,” he continues, referring to a “a nuclear holocaust in the 3000s, aka The Event, that “causes most of humanity to be destroyed” and “awakens something deep within that threatens survival on planet Earth.”
And as disturbing as that sounds, Hastings, who uses G.R. Hastings as his pen name, also wants his work to be fun. That word came up at least 20 times during an interview.
Theatergoers can judge for themselves when The Horn is presented as a free, staged reading May 2 and 3 at Newark’s Chapel Street Players. Hastings belongs to its playwriting group. He predicts people will be “creeped out” by the gothic horror production.
Hastings stands on Wilmington’s Market Street, inspiration for his novel Guarded Streets set during the 1968 National Guard occupation.
“I love the sea and a good ghost story,” says director Susie Moak. “Garrett managed to combine the two things I love, and his language and shanties were perfect! I want the audience to feel like they are a part of the crew and imagine the danger that is surrounding them. Perhaps to feel a bit of a chill on their neck when the ghost appears would be good, too!”
Hastings was 10 when he began making movies (stop-motion with LEGO figures) and crafting stories (Adventures of a Gecko ran 100 pages). Soon after, he learned about “one of America’s first mysteries”: the disappearance of the Roanoke colony, in the 1580s.
“That really began the journey of the Undersiders,” he says. That mystery also fueled his bachelor’s degree at Cornell, in archaeology and performing media arts, with a film concentration. He later earned a master of science in maritime archaeology and conservation from Texas A&M.
He moved to Delaware in 2022 to be the Kalmar Nyckel Foundation’s assistant director of education. In 2024, the Delaware Historical Society hired him as experience and education manager. Elements of his life and his personality feature in his writing.
“I like to include things that have happened in my life in these stories, which I think is funny,” he says.
There’s a humorously dark side to his life. At Cornell, he founded a storytime club called Scare Me, where he met his wife. They got married on Halloween. The name of the family dog? Merlin.
After hearing about these supernatural elements, he was asked if he’d ever met a ghost.
“Maybe,” he answers, laughing.
Hastings often appears at bookstores and elsewhere to promote his work and tell stories. “When I storytell, I try to pertain my stories to local things,” he says. So one involved Veyman shape-shifting into a camel cricket near Huxley & Hiro, a store that sells his books.
“At the Hockessin BookShelf, I created a monster living in Hockessin. If they whispered in your ear, you went mad,” he says, adding “it’s like a whisper bark, a play on words, because some people think Hockessin means ‘good bark.’ ”
He’s also a storyteller for Prime Time Family Reading, a nationwide program run locally by Delaware Humanities that builds foundations of literacy and critical thinking for children ages 6 to 10.
“He truly understands the historical and cultural role of storytelling in society; the ways stories bring us together and help us shape who we are as a community and, more broadly, as a nation,” says Claire van den Broek, founder of Huxley & Hiro. “Whether through his writing or in live shows, Garrett engages people in ways that bring them out of their comfort zone.”
The Undersiders is not enough to satisfy Hastings’ desire to create. He’s also designed three role-playing games to immerse visitors in places that he’s worked. The first involved time travel in the Beak of Destiny for the museum on Star Island, New Hampshire. The second was Dungeons & Krakens, a fictionalized version of the Kalmar Nyckel’s first trans-Atlantic voyage.
“The latest is Blue Hens & Bugbears,” he says. “It works even better, because not only is there a monster you fight, but there’s a reference to calling the Americans bugbears in a 1777 document in our collection. Which is amazing.”
— The staged reading of Hastings’ The Horn, at Chapel Street Players on May 2-3, is free and open to the public. Details at ChapelStreetPlayers.org.
