{"id":92,"date":"2015-11-04T12:52:48","date_gmt":"2015-11-04T17:52:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bsu.edu\/research\/?p=92"},"modified":"2019-11-19T12:48:37","modified_gmt":"2019-11-19T17:48:37","slug":"creating-a-new-frankenstein","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bsu.edu\/research\/2015\/11\/04\/creating-a-new-frankenstein\/","title":{"rendered":"Creating a New Frankenstein"},"content":{"rendered":"

Outstanding Creative Endeavor Award<\/h3>\n

Drew Vidal<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Michael Elliott<\/a>\u00a0brought Dr. Frankenstein\u2019s murderous monster to life, and for that, they received the 2015 Outstanding Creative Endeavor Award.<\/p>\n

Elliott and Vidal created an original, movement-based production of Frankenstein over a mere eight-week period in the fall of 2013. Vidal, assistant professor of theatre, directed and edited the show while Elliott, assistant professor of\u00a0theatre and dance<\/a>, composed all of the music. They relied on movement to tell the story as much as possible and only used spoken words when necessary.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted it to be an original, movement-based piece\u2014so I knew our source material had to be a story that was well-known enough that we could take whatever storytelling liberties we wanted to with it,\u201d says Vidal. \u201cEven the people that haven\u2019t read the novel know the story. It\u2019s in the ether enough that people feel like they know it. It seemed like it was ripe for retelling.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the story line, they dove into the original source of Frankenstein, Mary Shelley\u2019s book. \u201cEverything came from the novel \u2026. We went through the novel and tried to identify the parts of the story that would be integral to share with the audience,\u201d says Vidal. \u201cWe told it in a different way since we were using a visual and auditory story medium instead of a lot of text.\u201d<\/p>\n

A \u2018structured, organic\u2019 rehearsal process<\/h5>\n

The actors in Frankenstein had no script to memorize. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t (written), because we were creating it as we went,\u201d says Vidal.<\/p>\n

Because there was no script, students had the freedom to create\u2014a chance they don\u2019t often get. \u201cIn traditional theatre, the actors are working as actor-interpreters of the text, and I think it was exciting for them to be actor-creators and have a hand in what the final product was actually going to look like. Getting to be in the room as they made those discoveries was exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything about our production\u2019s process demanded this level of constant collaboration,\u201d writes the production\u2019s dramaturg\u00a0Colin Hart, instructor of theatre, in his entry for the Student Dramaturgy Award from the\u00a0Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival<\/a>. \u201cEveryone in the room had a hand in the tearing apart and putting back together of our final product. Actors came up with story ideas, (and) assistant directors made design choices.<\/p>\n

\u201cAkin to working with a new play, we were taking a piece of text, breaking it down through a series of workshops, and rebuilding it into a quasi-final form through rehearsal. We were not tied to one specific viewpoint or story-arc; we could work with the text and the characters to fashion any number of different narratives,\u201d says Hart. \u201cOur storytelling options were not limited by lines or stage directions but were as boundless as our joint imaginations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joe Colajezzi, an ensemble member who portrayed various roles, learned about the importance of creativity from this experience. \u201cFrankenstein taught me that nurturing the creative, innovative side of your brain is as important as nurturing your \u2018technique\u2019 as an artist.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vidal compares their production to a poem in that everyone has their own interpretation of it. \u201cEvery single audience member was going to receive this storytelling a little bit differently. There were some parts the audience got right way. There were other parts that the audience was maybe like, \u2018What exactly is happening right now?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

One part in particular probably made the audience wonder what was going on. \u201cWhen the creature learns language from the peasants that he encounters in the forest, we chose to convey that by having the peasants speak all of their words backwards. They were speaking, but they had written out every word that they spoke backwards and then learned it phonetically, so they were speaking what sounded like a completely foreign language that nobody in the audience got,\u201d says Vidal.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the creature spent more and more time with them, he started to figure out how to put the words right-side up\u2014put the words back together. There were audience members who caught on to that, and there were audience members that were just utterly like, \u2018What is going on?!\u2019 And I\u2019m fine with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The music \u2018became a character\u2019<\/h5>\n

While Vidal and the students figured out how to portray the story using words and movement, Elliott composed the music for Frankenstein. He received the Outstanding Achievement in Composition award in spring 2014 from the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival.<\/p>\n

Just like Frankenstein\u2019s creature, the music came alive. \u201cIt became a character of the show. The process of writing was very fast. It was frenetic. It was problem-solving,\u201d Elliott says. \u201cIf I ever thought of the scope of it, it would slow me down. I\u2019d take what they\u2019re giving me and build around it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elliott has a knack for problem-solving. He studied engineering in college before switching to music. \u201cThe things I love about music, I loved about engineering\u2014theory, how things are put together. (For Frankenstein), all I was doing was problem-solving the entire time, trying to create solutions. I had a few themes going into it during the rehearsal process \u2026. I just started piecing things together\u2014sewing it together, building structures that needed to be built. That was the process. I had no plans.<\/p>\n

\u201cA couple times I had to go, \u2018Trust me, it\u2019s going to be OK. That\u2019s not what it\u2019s going to sound like.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Elliott and Vidal drew inspiration from each other\u2019s ideas. \u201cWe were working back and forth,\u201d says Vidal. \u201cEspecially at the beginning, Michael had created music that we were creating storytelling to, but there were other times that worked the other way and I created storytelling. We\u2019d film it and give it to him, and I\u2019d say, \u2018I need this to sound like this.\u2019 Or we\u2019d listen to something he created, and we\u2019d talk about how it feels a little bit like this, and we need it to feel a little bit more like this. Sewing all the pieces together became a huge challenge at the end because we had lots of puzzle pieces. Ultimately we had to link them all together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vidal and Elliott often worked right beside each other to create this award-winning production. \u201cI feel very lucky to be able to work with the composer in the room with me,\u201d says Vidal. \u201cSo often I feel like there are directors and music directors and choreographers working in compartments, so being able to spend as much time in the room together was amazingly useful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tips for show biz<\/h5>\n

For any aspiring artists, Elliott and Vidal can impart some wisdom. \u201cThe single greatest sign of success is literally just grit. (A successful person is) someone who wants to do something so bad that no matter what hardships they encounter, they are going to just keep working,\u201d says Vidal. \u201cI feel like that is probably true in all fields but very true in theatre because there are a lot of hurdles.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there are also a lot of careers in theatre that college students maybe don\u2019t have on their radar. Everybody wants to be a performer starting out, but ultimately there are hundreds of other careers in and around the arts that maybe (don\u2019t involve) you on stage that can be wildly rewarding.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elliott adds, \u201cSuccess is not measured by Tony Awards. Just being a working actor\u2014that\u2019s successful.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe definition of success will continue to evolve,\u201d says Vidal.<\/p>\n

A hub for original work<\/h5>\n

\u201cOur department is one of the best resources that we have\u2014very supportive of what we all do,\u201d says Elliott. \u201cAnd the fact that they let us just go off and do this really without even knowing if it was going to be successful or not\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2014I think it was a huge encouragement and a huge leap of faith to let us do that\u201d says Vidal.<\/p>\n

The Theatre and Dance Department has some\u00a0big plans<\/a>\u00a0for more original work. \u201cThis department as a whole is really excited by\u2014and continuing to pursue\u2014more and more opportunities to create and present original work, which I think is becoming a really exciting part of our mission statement,\u201d Vidal says. \u201cThat\u2019s not just movement-based, devised stuff\u2014it\u2019s new musicals, new plays.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe goal is that every single semester, we\u2019re presenting new works and that Ball State becomes a hub for presenting new work, especially since more and more regional theatres don\u2019t have the flexibility and\/or finances to be workshopping and creating new work. So more and more, that\u2019s shifting to the university level. That\u2019s something I think a lot of us are really excited by.<\/p>\n

\u201cGo see plays! Come see shows!\u201d says Vidal.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd dance concerts!\u201d Elliott says with a smile.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Outstanding Creative Endeavor Award Drew Vidal\u00a0and\u00a0Michael Elliott\u00a0brought Dr. Frankenstein\u2019s murderous monster to life, and for that, they received the 2015 Outstanding Creative Endeavor Award. Elliott and Vidal created an original, movement-based production of Frankenstein over a mere eight-week period in the fall of 2013. Vidal, assistant professor of theatre, directed and edited the show while […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,9],"tags":[14],"class_list":["post-92","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","category-researchnews","tag-2015-research-magazine"],"yoast_head":"\nCreating a New Frankenstein - Ball State University Research<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bsu.edu\/research\/2015\/11\/04\/creating-a-new-frankenstein\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Creating a New Frankenstein - Ball State University Research\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Outstanding Creative Endeavor Award Drew Vidal\u00a0and\u00a0Michael Elliott\u00a0brought Dr. Frankenstein\u2019s murderous monster to life, and for that, they received the 2015 Outstanding Creative Endeavor Award. 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