Alabama's beloved author and storyteller, the late Kathryn Tucker Windham, and tales from her book "13 Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey," will be brought to life Monday in a reading by actors on a New York stage.

The play version, "13 Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey: The Musical," written by Birmingham playwright Don Everett Garrett, will be read at the American Theatre of Actors, John Cullum Theatre, in New York City. It will be read, rather than fully acted, by players from the Actors' Equity union.

"In character, they read the script and sing the score in front of invited private audience," Garrett explained.

It is the first of three steps to bringing the play to family audiences as an off-Broadway musical, said Garrett, who will attend the reading. Garrett, who wrote the play in 2009 and never thought it might make it to New York, said it features the real voice of Windham recorded before her death in 2011 to introduce the show, as well as an actress who portrays Windham. As a retired Jefferson County teacher who used Windham's books in his history classes, he wanted his play to have as much of her essence as possible.

"It's not scary; it's a family show," Garrett said. "Kathryn herself once said, 'One of the most sinful things you can do is scare a child."

Windham is survived by her daughter Dilcy Hilley and son Ben Windham, who wrote an introduction for a 2014 re-release of "13 Ghosts of Alabama and Jeffrey."

Hilley said of the show, "I wish them all the very best and hope the show is tremendously successful. Don has worked long and hard on this production."

After securing a musical score by composer Kevin Francis Finn, who most recently has been the conductor for national tour of "Beauty and the Beast," the play was performed several times across Alabama to tighten the script and work out bugs.

The cast of "13 Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey: The Musical." (Source: Glen Kinnaird)

Then, in 2015, Garrett met Glen Kinnaird, an Alabama native who lives in New York, when Kinnaird was in Birmingham on another project. Kinnaird created Open Doors Productions and Theatricals in 2006 as a way to "nurture and develop new plays and musicals by lesser known playwrights and composers," he said. When Garrett mentioned his play, Kinnaird, who also fondly recalled Windham's books, optioned the rights.

Following the reading, the play will go through two other phases while funds are raised in an effort to bring it to the stage. It will be followed by a workshop in which any "bugs are worked out" of the dialog and choreography. The final stage is mounting the production on stage.

Kinnaird said the workshop will cost between $40,000 and $60,000 and could be held in New York or perhaps the Alabama Shakespeare Festival. To stage a play off-Broadway costs about $350,000 for an eight- to 10-week run, Kinnaird said but the earning potential "is very high" if the number of cast members is correct and "we do creative things with the set and costumes."

Real Sites Featured in the book 13 Alabama Ghosts 7.9.14 47 Gallery: Real Sites Featured in the book 13 Alabama Ghosts 7.9.14

Garrett said the main difference between a Broadway show and an off-Broadway show is the size of the theatre and Kinnaird felt "13 Ghosts" was a good fit for off-Broadway, where ticket prices would also be in a more manageable family range. Garrett said when he was a drama teacher he took young students to New York each year and often had difficulty finding plays suitable for children and mostly relied on Disney shows.

"We're going to be reaching out and asking Alabama to support our project," Garrett said.

The beginning

Years ago, Garrett wrote Windham and sent a long letter to her Selma home, explaining he wanted to write a musical adaptation of her book. She responded on a postcard featuring the image of Jeffrey, the friendly ghost who some claimed haunted Windham's house and encouraged her to write ghost tales, asking him to call her.

Windham, who was 91 at the time, said, "I don't know how you're going to do it, but if you think you can, go for it." After she received a draft from Garrett, her response was a second ghostly postcard that read, "I love it!"

Kathryn Tucker Windham on her 90th birthday. The beloved author broke ground as a female reporter in the 1940s. (Contributed by Dilcy Windham Hilley)

In 2010, Keith Cromwell, director of the Red Mountain Theatre Company in Birmingham, agreed to produce the play at the conservatory. That production was praised, Garrett said, and the musical has since been produced by a few regional theatre companies across the state, resulting in five Broadway World Theatre Award nominations in 2015.

Because of the assistance from Red Mountain Theatre Company, Garrett said he requested using some Alabama actors who attended the conservatory in the play as a means to give their careers a boost. Several cast members are from Alabama, he said.

The story

Garrett said the 13 ghost tales are framed by the tale of a juvenile who was "up to no good" and pulling pranks on Halloween. He encounters Windham at this stage when his life could make a wrong turn and she tells him the ghost stories as a means of showing consequences of people's actions.

"She's letting him know decisions matter," Garrett said.

He got the idea when he heard someone say he was raised in a juvenile home and "no one ever told me a story." Garrett wondered how stories would make a difference in a child's life.

Kinnaird said the portrayal is as much like the real Kathryn as possible. "We bring Katherine along with these stories of these ghosts," he said.