As the lights dimmed on a buzzing Rose Theater, a chilly blue glow fell on the dimly lit stage. Freshman Tommy Wynne wheeled out a small but austere gurney with the outline of a human draped in a plastic sheet. Suddenly, senior Will Fanning awoke from his spot on the medical table, beginning the Rockhurst Theater Department’s first-ever rendition of Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein.”
Children and adults alike got to experience the age-old story in the Rose Theater at four performances from Oct. 30-Nov. 1.
“This is, like, a play that’s …known by… a lot of people…,” Fanning, who played Victor Frankenstein, said. “They kind of get the concept, but they don’t really… get to… understand, like, the actual story behind it.”
The legendary tale of Frankenstein began back in 1816. The 18-year-old Shelley was on vacation with her husband and two friends when a dark and cloudy summer in Geneva, Switzerland set the scene for the four to each write a ghost story. Shelley decided to write hers about a mad scientist bringing a corpse to life, thus birthing the story of “the Modern Prometheus,” later known as Frankenstein.
Theater director Anthony McMurray focused on making the Rockhurst play much like Shelley’s original story.
“Hollywood got ahold of it and almost changed the story entirely,” he said. “Nowhere in the novel or in the stage productions does it mention anything about the creature being green… So, then when Hollywood gets a hold of it, all of a sudden we have a green creature with bolts in his neck and all of that.
“…What was challenging and interesting is going back to the source material and not letting all of the other [sorts] of influences on the piece sort of make its way into this. Just really staying true to… what is in the original novel.”
When the play opened, the Halloween-themed event brought a great audience.
“The distinct challenge with this show [was] that the show was supposed to start at the exact same time as a district football kickoff, and I don’t think we knew what to expect,” McMurray said. “But that performance on October the 30th was our largest audience–not just for ‘Frankenstein’–but the largest audience that I’ve had in my three years here at Rockhurst.”
The decision to bring this particular play to life came months ago.
“So, we performed at the end of October,” McMurray said, “…and we made the decision to do ‘Frankenstein’ probably, like, last February or March.”
Ultimately, the decision was prompted by a few factors lining up with the time of the play.
“I talked with [English teachers] Mr. [Mike] Holmes and Dr. [Liz] Kelsey and Mr. [Shawn] Schmelzle to see what [the students were] reading in class to see if there’s any way to tie that in,” McMurray said. “And then also I noticed that there was the Guillermo del Toro movie coming out at roughly the same time, so it felt like the perfect storm of taking something that [the students] were working on in class mixed in with the release of the movie, mixed in with one of our weekends falling over Halloween weekend.”
With the play decided on, McMurray focused on filling out the cast. For the main part, Fanning took on the role of mad scientist, Victor Frankenstein.
“Mr. McMurray, he gave me… a sheet of like a monologue… [and said] just look at this sheet. And I’m looking at it and I’m like, ‘Oh, this is, this guy’s [an] interesting guy,'” Fanning said. “[He was] more complicated than any character that I’ve ever [played] before… I’m really happy… with the way it turned out.”
The next piece McMurray filled out in his cast was Frankenstein’s project, simply known as “The Creature.”
“Every single time [Sam performed], he just found it,” Fanning said, when asked about junior Sam Robinson, who played part. “It was just, like, amazing to… watch him, you know, just, like, put on the show and bring the character of the monster to life because… the monster is just such… a sad character. And he really conveyed how… tragic [it is].”
With the two main characters decided on, the crew started preparing for their Halloween event.
“[We] started rehearsals right around the middle of September,” McMurray said. “We rehearsed Monday through Thursday from 3:45 to 5:45, and then had… kind of a lengthy tech process where we were adding in lights and sound and costumes and set.
“So, yeah, six kind-of fast and furious weeks.”
With upperclassmen holding down the main two characters in the play, McMurray turned to the newest members of the theater program to fill out many supporting roles.
“We… have an incredibly talented freshman class in the theater department.”
One of these talents is Wynne. The freshman pinned down a role as the professor in the play. However, Wynne was not done with just one role.
“After a rehearsal one time behind the stage… I just started playing [piano],” Wynne said. “Mr. McMurray saw it, and he knew that I played piano… Then he told me that he just had a thought as he was going to bed that there should be piano in the show.”
Wynne valiantly took on the role of pianist, even with an acting role already.
“Playing the piano and acting at the same time was kind of hard in one scene… but I think I had a smooth transition,” he said.
After months of planning and rehearsing, the play debuted Oct. 30. Throughout the day, the cast had mixed emotions going into the performance.
“I was pretty nervous,” Fanning said, “…but… I was really excited too… I just… really wanted it to be as good… as we had rehearsed. I just really wanted it to be as good as I knew it could be.”
The performance was complemented by evocative lighting and music, which added to a dramatic show.
“My favorite scene in the play… was when… Justine [the Frankensteins’ servant who was framed for murder] was on trial,” Fanning said. “I just really like it, because it’s kind of… this really powerful emotion that I get to have… I feel like it really embodies the spirit of [the] specific adaptation of the play because like there’s a lot of adaptations, but this one was like kind of weird and… fragmented.”
The storyline of the play centers around Victor Frankenstein (Fanning) and his creation (Robinson). At its core, the performance is based on Frankenstein’s obsession with creating life, and then, later, destroying his creation because of the horror he perceives in it. The dissonance in the story is that the creature has the exact opposite opinion, just simply seeking love and affection from its creator. In the end, with Frankenstein having sworn not to care for the creature, the two are intertwined in a rivalry that benefits no one.
“I think they did really well. That’s a really hard piece and emotionally difficult,” McMurray said. “So, dealing with and living in some of those sort of darker emotions for that length of time can be troublesome. But the cast always showed up ready to work, professional, and never sort of fell into that dark place that this material can take you sometimes.”
The emotionally riveting production had a large following at Rockhurst.
“I felt really appreciated by the Rockhurst community, because… they were so supportive in all of the stuff I did,” Fanning said. “And that’s just something that… I really appreciate and I think is really special.”
“The one thing I love about Rockhurst is that [the] boys show up for one another,” McMurray said. “So, it doesn’t matter if we are playing in a football game or singing on stage or performing a play or Scholar Bowl, you guys all support one another, and so to see so many of, I mean, I think the final percentage was like 46% of the senior class saw the show. That’s incredible. And I don’t know if that… happen[s] at every school. And so it’s really great to be a part of a community like this.”
The Rockhurst Theater Department’s next play is a musical, “Newsies,” which will feature on Feb. 26–28.
