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Fond du Lac Community Theatre
Fond du Lac, Wisconsin U.S.A. |
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Fond du Lac Community Theatre presented a brand-new retelling of the classic story "Frankenstein, a Gothic Romance" on Halloween weekend, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, October 30, 31 and November 1, 2003 at 7:30 P.M. at the North Fond du Lac Theatre at Horace Mann High School in North Fond du Lac Written and directed by John Silah Loosely adapted from Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin Shelley's original 1818 gothic romance novel, "Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus"
Origins by John Silah This project began when John Nonestied saw a production of "Frankenstein" by First Stage Children's Theatre in Milwaukee. John was impressed, and wanted to direct that play here. He got a copy of that script. When John went to work at Bravo, he found that he was so busy as an Administrator, Facilitator and Producer that it was not likely that he would be able to direct the play himself. He decided to let another director or team direct the play. Heather Reader and Therese Burazin were to direct the play. Even that did not come to pass, however, as Bravo decided not to produce the play at all. When Heather and Therese decided that they wanted to continue to work on that project, I suggested that they would probably be able to do so with Fond du Lac Community Theatre. I assembled a Project Development Team consisting of Therese, Heather and myself. We had meetings at the FdLCT building. By this time, John Nonestied had moved on to another job, and was not able to join us, this time due to his work schedule. In the course of our meetings, we determined that we wanted to achieve certain results, some of which seemed to be contradictory: We wanted the show to be exciting and suspenseful, but not violent. We had to deal with the medical aspects alluded to in the novel, but not be bloody or gory. And we needed it to relate to today's Twenty-First Century audiences, with our contemporary sensibilities, despite its origins in the Nineteenth Century. At some point, I began to realize that the scripts we had were not quite what we wanted to produce. I also saw some dramatic limitations in the novel and the play scripts we had, including the First Stage script.
I started to play around with some ideas I had for my own version, a retelling of the legendary story. At first I did not know whether a script could be written that would solve all the problems, and yet still work dramatically. My own goal was to write a compelling story with the character-driven conflicts that create true-to-life drama. A genre play of this sort is not always realistic in its historic details, but there is an emotional truth that its characters express that is more important to the audience than mere facts. So, writing this play presented many unique challenges. At some point, I began to find ways to make my concept work. I wrote a rough draft of my proposed script, and I pitched it to our Project Development Team. They reacted favorably to my concept, so I continued working on the script. I was also also attending the monthly meetings of the Fond du Lac Area Writers club, so that provided me with further incentive to finish it. I would have something to present at our meetings that the writers could critique. In the meantime, Fond du Lac Community Theatre was trying to firm up its next season. I was on the Board of Directors at that time. By the time of the next Board meeting, I had a longer script, and it was nearly complete. Therese was no longer available to direct, as she was busy on another project by that time. She was also planning to direct our Christmas Show, but she offered to help me out with mine also. So I volunteered to direct my show as one of our regular season's offerings. I suggested it as our Fall show, timed to coincide with Halloween. That made it our first show of the season, which gave me a tight deadline, especially since my script wasn't quite finished yet! It needed a satisfactory ending. Fortunately, I knew how to work that out, and eventually did, just in time to print out copies of the script to use for our auditions. Director's Bio John Silah has been a member of Fond du Lac Community Theatre for fourteen years. He served on the FdLCT Board of Directors for seven years, from 1990 to 1996, and 2002. For two years, John was the Newsletter Editor. Currently he is the Webmaster and the Librarian. He also occasionally assists Lori Garbisch with Props. During his eleven years as the Theatre Manager at the Goodrich Little Theatre, John worked on over 30 different productions, both plays and musicals, mostly in the technical areas of lighting, sound and special effects. John has also been a member of the Fond du Lac Area Writers for over seventeen years. This unique dual background has enabled him to write and direct his own play. John and his wife Karen live in Fond du Lac. Director's Letter, by John Silah As difficult as writing a play is, transforming my script into a live play presented its own challenges. I wish to express my sincere thanks and appreciation to our talented Cast and Production Staff for overcoming any and all obstacles, and bringing the play to life. Although my script looked workable on paper, this was the first play I had ever written, and it had never been produced anywhere before. Plus, although I have worked with FdLCT in many other capacities, mostly technical, for 14 years, I had never directed a play before. Therefore, I wish to express my appreciation to Fond du Lac Community Theatre, for giving an untried script, and an untried Director, a unique opportunity. Later this season, FdLCT will also be presenting another play written by another local author, former Fond du Lac resident Vance Edwards. It's going to be our Spring play, "Family, Frying Pans, and the FBI." Fond du Lac Community Theatre has always produced all of its own shows. They don't hire other groups to put on shows, even though that would be a lot easier. This local production allows our own citizens to express their creativity. It also encourages local people to experiment with possible future theatre-related careers. Now FdLCT is extending that encouragement even to local writers, so I feel they are to be commended for their extraordinary support of Fine Arts in our community. I also wish to express special thanks to our friend, John Nonesteid, who sparked this whole project and encouraged it, even though he wasn't able to participate in it.
Presented through a special arrangement with the playwright, John Silah.
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Copyright 2008 by Fond du Lac Community Theatre, Inc. All rights reserved. Webmaster: John M. Silah, jsilah@fdlct.com |
