About the Author

Who Are We Becoming?

For C. Douglas Engh, the most enduring stories use history or spectacle to highlight the choices that still define us. Whether exploring imagination and reason in The Hatter, or fear and mercy in Comes a Stranger, his work is drawn to those moments when ordinary people face extraordinary moral decisions.

Inspired by true events and grounded in historical puritan communities, Comes a Stranger grew from a fascination with the remarkable—and still speculative—story of Dr. Francis LeBaron, a mysterious French physician from an enemy shipwrecked privateer, whose unexpected arrival in Plymouth Colony challenged an entire community to examine its deepest convictions. Rather than attempting to solve the mystery of who LeBaron was, the musical asks a more enduring question—one that every generation must answer whenever a stranger arrives: Who did he choose to become, and who did the community choose to become because of his arrival?

One note about Dr Francis Lebaron: For 300 years there has been considerable debate as to his identity, and his grave site is often visited by the curious. Fine, but there also is the persistent rumor that he was buried with his secret so let’s dig him up and find out what it is. Please don’t do that. Comes a Stranger isn’t a play about who he was, it’s a story about who we all become when we are obsessed about wanting to know who he is, just as the Plymouth Colony became obsessed.

Doug's goal is to create original musicals that honor history while speaking to contemporary audiences—stories that invite conversation long after the curtain falls.

Some stories survive because they happened, while others survive because they keep happening.