Main MenuNEWS RELEASE
Contact: David West (west@alpha.nsula.edu
)
News Bureau
Northwestern State University
Natchitoches, LA 71497
(318) 357-6466
10/23/2001
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NATCHITOCHES - When director Scott Burrell has questions about "The Tragedy of Frankenstein," it's easy for him to go to the best possible source. Burrell is able to call on his longtime friend William Gilmore, the writer of "The Tragedy of Frankenstein which runs Oct. 31 Nov. 4 in the A.A. Fredericks Auditorium.
Burrell called Gilmore several times with with questions. Gilmore recently spent two weeks in Natchitoches as rehearsals began, working with the cast and crew. Burrell and Gilmore were classmates at Catawba School of Performing Arts in Salisbury, N.C., and were part of a five-person theatre company in Florida in 1986.
" I was taught that you never know what the playwright
intended, but now I know," said Burrell. "I am able
to go through interpretations and concepts. I'm not stabbing in
the dark."
Gilmore owns and operates Mill Creek Productions, a small film
and video production company specializing in theatrical trailers,
commercials and industrial videos. He has been a stage director
regionally and in New York. Gilmore was a director and segment
producer for MTV's sketch comedy "You Wrote It, You Watch
It," starring John Stewart and was second unit director for
the film "Just Your Luck" starring Virginia Madsen,
John Favreau and Vince Vaughn.
"The Tragedy of Frankenstein" is styled after a classic
Greek drama and
incorporates the use of a Chorus Master and his Chorus of Imps
to recount the tragic events surrounding Victor Frankenstein and
his quest to create life. The play makes use of such theatrical
conventions as choral chants, iambic pentameter, and multiple
sceneswithin a scene to underscore moral, ethical, political,
and theological issues as relevant today as they were in the time
of Mary Shelley, the author of "Frankenstein."
Gilmore began to develop his play as a screenplay but abandoned the work.
"I was sitting around a bookshop in New York with other writers and brought up what I had been working on," said Gilmore. "Then one night the concept of the Chorus and the Chorus Master came to me."
In developing the play, Gilmore did not get away from Mary Shelly's original novel.
"I followed the novel pretty faithfully unlike a lot of versions," said Gilmore. "I show the development of intellect and the conflict with the maker. There is some embellishment though."
In the play, the Creature becomes articulate and is "ingenious" in plotting his revenge against Victor.
This is the first time the complete version of "The Tragedy of Frankenstein" will be performed. The play won a theatre competition when it was staged in a workshop format at Theatre Downtown in Orlando in the early 1990's. Music by composer Jay Tumminello has been added to the production.
"This is the first time I have seen the play in its entirety with the chorus and all the elements," said Gilmore. " I have changed some words here and there once I have heard the actors say them."
While at NSU, Gilmore also gave an "Acting for the Camera" workshop for theatre students. Gilmore explained to the students some of the differences between stage and screen. Using Theatre West, he showed them how to play to the cameras and gave participants an idea of what they looked like on camera.
For ticket information on "The Tragedy of Frankenstein," call (318) 357-5814.