The Call Is Places

Frankenstein – Playing with FireSept 15 – Oct 27

2018–2019 SUBSCRIBER NEWSLETTER

Wurtele Thrust Stage

WELCOME

The idea for Frankenstein came to 18-year-old Mary Shelley in a dream. After reading a volume of ghost stories with Percy Shelley and Lord Byron and attempting to pen ghastly tales of their own, Mary awoke one night from a chilling vision of a scientist bringing a “hideous phantasm of a man” to life. That striking image was the impetus for her novel, which was published in 1818 and kept alive through stage and film adaptations for the past 200 years.

But her ghost-story-turned-cultural-phenomenon isn’t the only notable anniversary. We’re also heralding the 30th anniversary of Barbara Field’s haunting Frankenstein – Playing with Fire script. This brilliant adaptation was commissioned by the Guthrie under the artistic direction of the late Garland Wright and opened in July 1988 following a five-month national tour. Barbara’s work and artistry are woven into the fabric of the Guthrie’s history, and I’m thrilled to once again examine the questions Mary Shelley raised two centuries ago.

The riveting and deeply personal catechism between Frankenstein and his Creature draws us in from the first question — “Do you dream?” — and never lets us go. What follows is an examination of the ethical limits of science and an intense grappling with the age-old quandary: Just because we can do something, does it mean we should?

Thank you for joining us at the top of the 2018–2019 Season — our 56th and counting. I hope you enjoy the show and return to experience more incredible stories on our stages.

Yours,

From Artistic Director Joseph Haj

Dear Friends,Frankenstein – Playing with Fire

Sept 15 – Oct 27, 2018Wurtele Thrust Stage

Noises OffOct 27 – Dec 16, 2018

McGuire Proscenium Stage

A Christmas CarolNov 13 – Dec 29, 2018Wurtele Thrust Stage

The Great LeapJan 12 – Feb 10, 2019

McGuire Proscenium Stage

As You Like ItFeb 9 – March 17, 2019Wurtele Thrust Stage

Cyrano de Bergerac

March 16 – May 5, 2019McGuire Proscenium Stage

MetamorphosesApril 13 – May 19, 2019Wurtele Thrust Stage

Guys and DollsJune 22 – Aug 25, 2019

Wurtele Thrust Stage

Floyd’sJuly 27 – Aug 25, 2019

McGuire Proscenium Stage

Visit guthrietheater.org for additional productions and

play descriptions.

2018

–20

19

SEA

SON

PHOTO: JOSEPH HAJ (KERI PICKETT) 2 \ GUTHRIE THEATER

CREATURE

VICTOR

KREMPE/OLD MAN

FRANKENSTEIN

ELIZABETH

ADAM

DIRECTOR

SCENIC DESIGNER

COSTUME DESIGNER

LIGHTING DESIGNER

SOUND DESIGNER/COMPOSER

DRAMATURG

RESIDENT VOICE COACH

MOVEMENT DIRECTORS

FIGHT DIRECTOR

INTIMACY CONSULTANT

STAGE MANAGERS

ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR

NYC CASTING CONSULTANT

DESIGN ASSISTANTS

Elijah Alexander*

Ryan Colbert*

Robert Dorfman*

Zachary Fine*

Amelia Pedlow*

Jason Rojas*

Rob Melrose

Michael Locher

Raquel Barreto

Cat Tate Starmer

Cliff Caruthers

Carla Steen

Jill Walmsley Zager

Jonathan Beller Beth Brooks

Aaron Preusse

Lauren Keating

Chris A. Code* Jamie J. Kranz*

Jane E. Heer*

Tracey Maloney*

McCorkle Casting, Ltd.

Ryan Connealy (lighting)

Lisa Jones (costumes) Reid Rejsa (sound)

Frankenstein – Playing with Fireby Barbara Field (from the novel

by Mary Shelley)

Creative Team

*Member of Actors’ Equity Association

Castin alphabetical order

The Guthrie gratefully recognizes Steve Thompson & Ron Frey and Kendrick B. Melrose as Executive Producers; Patricia & Peter Kitchak and Louise W. Otten as Producers; and Tyrone & Delia Bujold as Associate Producers.

SettingThe North Pole and various stops in a voyage of memory. It is the summer solstice — the last day or the first day, depending on the point of view.

Run Time Approximately 2 hours, 10 minutes with one intermission.

UnderstudiesChina Brickey (Elizabeth), John Catron* (Victor/Adam), Steven Epp* (Frankenstein/Krempe/Old Man), Jason Rojas* (Creature)

Understudies never substitute for performers unless announced prior to the performance.

Acknowledgments Commissioned and originally produced by the Guthrie Theater and presented by special arrangement with Dramatists Play Service, Inc., New York.

Barbara Field wishes to acknowledge the dramaturgical expertise of Michael Lupu, whose assistance was invaluable when the play was written 30 years ago.

Delta Air Lines is the official airline of the Guthrie Theater.

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THE PLAY

At the North Pole during the summer solstice, Frankenstein and his Creature meet after a years-long chase. Frankenstein wants to avenge the destruction of his family; the Creature wants to avenge his abandonment. Their temporary and wary truce takes the form of a question-and-answer catechism that encompasses topics people have wrestled with since God created Adam. As Frankenstein marvels at the achievements of his creation and the Creature demands answers from his creator, memories from their disparate pasts are conjured and entwined.

A young, ambitious Victor pursues knowledge and pushes the boundaries of science, ultimately creating and giving life to his Adam, whom he immediately rejects as a monster. Adam doesn’t know what it means to be a monster, but his painful education among humanity soon teaches him. Even though he is an outcast, he has an unbreakable connection to Victor that will forever test the bounds of love, responsibility, life and death.

Synopsis

CHARACTERS

Frankenstein, a scientist

Creature, Frankenstein’s creation

Victor, a memory of Frankenstein as a young man

Adam, a memory of the newly made Creature

Elizabeth, Victor’s betrothed

Krempe, Victor’s professor at Ingolstadt

Old Man, a memory from the Creature’s past

“If an astonishing power were suddenly placed in your hands, what would you do with it?”

– Victor to Krempe in Frankenstein – Playing with Fire

PHOTO: SCENIC DESIGN SKETCH BY MICHAEL LOCHER 4 \ GUTHRIE THEATER

THE WRITERS

Novelist Mary ShelleyThe only daughter of writers William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary Shelley was born in London on August 30, 1797. She married poet Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1816. Two years later, she anonymously published her most famous novel, Frankenstein. After her husband’s death in 1822, Shelley devoted herself to publicizing his writing, including Posthumous Poems (1824), Poetical Works (1839) and his prose works.

In addition to Frankenstein, Shelley wrote six other novels, including Matilda (1959), Valperga (1823), The Fortunes of Perkin Warbeck (1830), Lodore (1835) and Falkner (1837), as well as a novella, mythological dramas, stories and articles, various travel books and biographical studies. The Last Man (1826), an account of the future destruction of the human race by a plague, is often considered her best work. History of a Six Weeks’ Tour (1817) recounts the continental tour she and Percy took in 1814 following their elopement and summer spent near Geneva in 1816.

In 1848, she began to suffer the first symptoms of a brain tumor. She died in London on February 1, 1851, having asked to be buried with her mother and father. Her son and daughter-in-law had Shelley’s parents’ bodies exhumed and buried them together in the churchyard of St. Peter’s Bournemouth in England.

Playwright Barbara FieldBarbara Field has created work that has been seen across the United States, Canada and Europe. She served as playwright-in-residence at the Guthrie Theater from 1974 to 1981 and crafted a number of pieces, including translations and adaptations.

Novel adaptations for the Guthrie include Camille by Alexandre Dumas and Frankenstein – Playing with Fire, a response to Mary Shelley’s novel. An adaptation of Great Expectations commissioned by the Seattle Children’s Theatre later played at the Guthrie and traveled the country on an eight-month tour. A revival of Great Expectations won a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award. Her adaptation of A Christmas Carol has been part of theater seasons for the Guthrie, Actors Theatre of Louisville and Kansas City Repertory Theatre.

Field is a founding member of the Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis, and a book of seven of her plays, New Classics from the Guthrie Theater, was published in 2003 by Smith & Kraus. She is also the author of two anthologies: Collected Plays, Volume One (2008) and Collected Plays, Volume Two (2014).

“ I busied myself to think of a story … One which would speak to the mysterious fears of our nature and awaken thrilling horror — one to make the reader dread to look round, to curdle the blood and quicken the beatings of the heart. If I did not accomplish these things, my ghost story would be unworthy of its name.”

– Mary Shelley, on her hopes for writing the ghost story that would become Frankenstein

“ When [former Guthrie Artistic Director] Garland Wright asked me to create this adaptation 30 years ago, I had never read Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. I promptly read it and told him I couldn’t do it. I thought she had a brilliant idea, but she wasn’t the greatest writer. Then Garland asked, ‘What do you see?’ I told him I saw the dialogue Mary never wrote between Victor and his Creature.”

– Barbara Field, on being commissioned by the Guthrie to write a play about Frankenstein

PHOTOS: MARY SHELLEY PORTRAIT BY RICHARD ROTHWELL; BARBARA FIELD (MIKE HABERMANN) 5 \ GUTHRIE THEATER

CULTURAL CONTEXT

From Frankenstein to Franken BerryVictor Frankenstein and his Creature — two figments of Mary Shelley’s imagination — have transcended her fiction and spent 200 years taking on lives on their own. Dozens of stage versions and more than 100 films created narratives sometimes only tangentially connected to the novel Shelley called her “monstrous progeny.” Follow the story’s evolution from frivolous films to more faithful interpretations.

By Carla SteenDramaturg

1818Mary Shelley anonymously publishes Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus.

1823Presumption; or, the Fate of Frankenstein by R.B. Peake, which features a mute version of the Creature, opens at the English Opera House and prompts Shelley’s father to republish the novel with his daughter listed as the author. Shelley sees the production upon her return to London.

1831Shelley revises the novel, which is published with illustrations by Theodor von Holst.

1849Frankenstein, or The Model Man plays in London — a Christmas pantomime with the Creature as a clown.

1910Edison Films releases the 16-minute Frankenstein, which depicts the Creature emerging from a chemical bath.

1927Peggy Webling’s melodramatic adaptation, Frankenstein: An Adventure in the Macabre, tours Britain.

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2018Worldwide celebrations of Shelley’s beloved novel mark its 200th anniversary.

1931Universal Studios releases the now-famous film version of Frankenstein starring Colin Clive as Frankenstein and Boris Karloff as the Creature (credited as “?”). Based on Webling’s play, Frankenstein is portrayed as a medical doctor assisted in his lab by Fritz.

1935The Bride of Frankenstein, a sequel to Frankenstein with a similar cast, stars Elsa Lanchester as the Creature’s mate and as Mary Shelley. The lab assistant is named Karl.

1939 In Son of Frankenstein, Karloff makes his last appearance as the Creature, and the lab assistant debuts as Ygor.

1957 Britain’s Hammer Films launches a line of Frankenstein features with The Curse of Frankenstein starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee.

1971General Mills introduces Franken Berry as its second monster-themed cereal (Count Chocula was the first).

1975Mel Brooks’ parody Young Frankenstein pays homage to the 1931 film and uses the same laboratory props.

1988The Guthrie Theater premieres and tours Barbara Field’s Frankenstein – Playing with Fire.

1994Kenneth Branagh directs Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, a faithful adaptation of the novel on film.

2012Tim Burton animates the Creature as a dog in Frankenweenie.

PHOTOS: FRANKENSTEIN: THE FIRST 200 YEARS, CHRISTOPHER FRAYLING; CURZON DOBELL AND JOHN CARROLL LYNCH IN FRANKENSTEIN – PLAYING WITH FIRE (MICHAL DANIEL/JOE GIANNETTI)

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For more staff-recommended book lists on a variety of topics, visit www.sppl.org.

CULTURAL CONTEXT

SUGGESTED READING LISTS FROM SAINT PAUL PUBLIC LIBRARY

The Creature asks questions of his maker that humanity has been asking since the dawn of time: Why am I here? Why did you make me? Why have you rejected and abandoned me? Take a moment to consider some of the ethical questions Frankenstein – Playing with Fire poses to its audience.

• What does it mean to be human? What separates human from animal?

• What are the limits of science? Just because we can do something, does it mean we should?

• Can an artificial intelligence (of any kind) be an equal with a human?

• What responsibility does one have to a being one has brought into the world?

• Did Frankenstein make a monster or did Frankenstein make a being that became a monster? Who is responsible for the Creature’s identity as a monster?

Noises OffOct 27 – Dec 16

Next on the McGuire Proscenium Stage

Questions for Consideration

Monstrous Fun — Frankenstein for KidsSpooky, creepy, scary-good fun for little ones.

EXPLORE TITLES

A List for Franken-TeensHandpicked for teens to celebrate the bicentennial of Frankenstein.

EXPLORE TITLES

The Making of FrankensteinA collection of books on how Mary Shelley’s haunting story became a classic.

EXPLORE TITLES

An ingenious backstage farce

by MICHAEL FRAYNdirected by MEREDITH McDONOUGH

PHOTO: COSTUME SKETCH BY RAQUEL BARRETO 8 \ GUTHRIE THEATER