Found Stages Tackles Marginalization Of Women Through New FRANKENSTEIN Adaptation

Found Stages is disrupting the patriarchal interpretation of Frankenstein. Since as early as the 1840s, this classic story by a woman ahead of her time has been stripped of its complexity to showcase the scientist as the hero of progress, battling an ignorant monster. This October, Found Stages' Frankenstein's Funeral will correct this long-standing misrepresentation of Mary Shelley's 200-year-old novel.

From Oct. 4 through Nov. 3, Frankenstein's Funeral will take groups of just 40 audience members per performance through the novel and the Gothic campus of St. John's Lutheran Church. Guided by the author, Mary Shelley, audiences will interact with the characters through collective actions that forward the plot.

Found Stages' adaptation is vastly different from the famous film portrayals that most audiences are familiar with. Rather than an ignorant barbarian, The Monster in Frankenstein's Funeral is intelligent and articulate with an absolute capacity for humanity. The scientist, Victor Frankenstein, is not hailed as a hero of progress, but rather as a complex man of dubious morals and unchecked ambition.

Mary Shelley was the daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft, arguably the first Feminist, yet the women in Frankenstein rarely receive more than a cursory glance. Found Stages gives these female characters greater dimension by showcasing how the selfishness and vengeful desires of the male characters marginalized the women in their lives, even to the point of their deaths.

"Found Stages is going beyond the traditional Hollywood Frankenstein that most people know, and drawing from the personal life of the author as well," explains composer Chris Gravely. "As the composer I am able to draw from the real pain, real horrors, and real depth of Mary Shelly's life rather than just dramatizing the fictional story of Frankenstein. I think it is very important to note that these themes and truths are still prominent in today's culture in regards to how the power and successes of women are suppressed, socially and politically."

Frankenstein's Funeral runs Oct. 4-Nov. 3, 2019 at St. John's Lutheran Church. Press Opening is Friday, Oct. 11 at 8:00 p.m.

Tickets start at $45 and are available online at www.foundstages.org/tickets

Found Stages is a professional, nonprofit theater whose mission is to build community through innovative storytelling. Co-founded and led by Artistic Director Nichole Palmietto and Resident Playwright Neeley Gossett, Found Stages has been taking plays out of the theater and into real-world spaces where people live and work since 2014. In 2015-16, Found Stages was part of the second round of the prestigious and highly competitive Alliance Theatre Reiser Atlanta Artists Lab. In 2018, the company presented the groundbreaking, sold-out Frankenstein's Ball on New Year's Eve at the Highland Inn Ballroom. Learn more at foundstages.org and follow us on social media at @foundstages.

To post a comment, you must register and login.