Arnie Hummasti, left, and Marc Weaver, as two men who work to describe a tragedy in "The Woman in Black," a recent show at Astoria's Ten Fifteen Theater.

Mick Alderman adores spooky stuff.

His latest assignment is directing an upcoming play at the Ten Fifteen Theater in Astoria. “The Woman in Black” opens 7:30 p.m. Friday and runs through Oct. 12.

“As a child, I used to create haunted houses for Halloween,” Alderman said. “That was my first introduction to live performance. I like making things that are scary — that is always fun.”

“The Woman in Black” was a 1983 gothic horror novel by English writer Susan Hill, which is used as a study text in British schools.

The story highlights how a Victorian-era lawyer is hired to attend a funeral, then winds up the estate of an elderly recluse. He encounters haunting images amid tales of a horrible accident in which family members, including an illegitimate child, are killed.

The novel was made into a British television play and a 2012 movie featuring “Harry Potter” actor Daniel Radcliffe.

The stage version, by Stephen Mallatratt, an actor long associated with writer Alan Ayckbourn, has seen 13,000 performances in London, second only to Agatha Christie’s classic whodunit “The Mousetrap.”

Alderman said he read the theater script some 20 years ago and saw its potential, years before becoming aware of the novel or screen versions.

“It is so ‘in my wheelhouse,’” he said. “My favorite genre is period mysteries, and this has a supernatural element.”

The Ten Fifteen production features Arnie Hummasti as the lawyer, who hires an actor to help him learn how to tell an improbable, somewhat ghostly story.

Marc Weaver plays the actor, Cyndi Fisher and Jaime Lump appear in other roles. Crew members are Jill Norris, Jayne Osborn, Conner Price and Susi Brown, a longtime expert in costumes and props.

Alderman said one of the challenges was casting. Hummasti and Weaver are experienced performers, bonding offstage over shared backgrounds with the Portland State University theater program, though many years apart.

“I was trying to find actors who are willing and able to take on that much memorization,” the director said. “They just jumped in with both feet. They seem to be enjoying themselves and are not too intimidated.”

Weaver, who appeared in the Ten Fifteen’s “Tiny Beautiful Things” in 2023, confirmed that. In the script, the characters of the lawyer and the hired actor almost reverse roles in a play-within-a-play format.

“It is make-believe within make-believe, with a very real tragedy at the center,” Weaver said. “We are trying to put on a play through the audience’s imagination, going back in time. It is a very simple dollhouse set, so the sound and lighting is as much a character as we are.”

Alderman, a professional light, sound and set designer, said that was an additional challenge for the production.

“The soundscape is almost the full length of the play,” he said, “so I had to create that and have the actors react to the effects. Without it, we really have no play. I really enjoy doing that kind of thing.”

‘The Woman in Black’

‘The Woman in Black’

Adapted by Stephen Mallatratt from the book by Susan Hill, directed by Mick Alderman.

Opening at the Ten Fifteen Theater, 1015 Commercial St., Astoria, 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

Additional evening shows Oct. 4 to 5 and Oct. 10 to 12; matinees at 3:30 p.m. Sunday and Oct. 6.

Tickets are $25 at www.thetenfifteentheater.com