Placer Repertory Theater Performs FRANKENSTEIN OR THE MAN AND THE MONSTER This Month

H.M. Milner’s celebrated 1826 melodrama Frankenstein or The Man and The Monster is being performed by Placer Repertory Theater February 16 through 24 in Rocklin, CA.  With small adaptations to the script, Placer Rep’s show is an interactive, melodramatic fun-house ride that engages audiences of all ages.

Frankenstein or The Man and The Monster is based upon Mary Shelley’s 1818 Frankenstein novel and the French play Le Monstre et le Magicien.  This melodrama is considered the magnum opus of Milner’s career and the play performed consistently in western Europe for over 20 years.  Part comedy and romance, part science fiction, action and humanities lesson; these key ingredients serve up a delicious stew of a show as Placer Repertory Theater’s next offering in their 2023-2024 season. Themes of good versus evil, nature versus nurture and pride’s imminent downfall, H.M. Milner’s Frankenstein is a wonderful romp that turns to action as the story becomes a cautionary tale about pride, prejudice and our own dark actions reaping what we have sewn.

Placer Rep returns to the Parkview Event Room at Johnson-Springview Park and transforms the space into a black-box theater, with pipe and drape, costume pieces, mood lighting, and a sound system for digital music cues as well as placards and live sound cues to immerse the audience in this very active script-in-hand performance. Audiences also have opportunities to boo and cheer, and patrons are also invited to the stage to play small roles and join in the storytelling fun.

If Placer Rep’s show is a stew, the delicious garnish is a new local history melodrama that warms the stage prior to the performance of Milner’s Frankenstein. Producing Artistic Director T.S. Forsyth has penned a story that chronicles the 1864 Placer County history of a railroad war, ripe with opportunities for improvisational performances by the Frankenstein cast. Opening run cast member for the main feature, Frankenstein or The Man and The Monster, include: 

• Matthew D. Heyer 
• Arie Knyazev
• Maureen Roman
• Mark Kushnir
• Kaila Roach
• Jaire Chief Punch
• Teresa Stirling Forsyth

Swing performers for the opening run include Marion Jeffery, Samantha Staner and Mark Hoffman.

Placer Repertory Theater plans to tour this show regionally through 2024. Opening run cast members are selected for key roles, but also understudy other roles, and the swing performers provide coverage when opening run cast members are ill or unavailable.

The selection of Frankenstein for Placer Rep’s 2023-2024 season from the Studium-Practicum curriculum. Studium-Practicum is an educational program for continuous professional growth & development, with curriculum modelled after world renowned MFA programs. From the study of Stanislavski and realism, then performance art, and voice and movement for the actor, Studium-Practicum turns its eye to styles acting, in particular the melodrama Frankenstein, and, in May 2024, the classical theater piece Sherlock Holmes: The Speckled Band by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, to complete Placer Rep’s main season offerings for 2023-2024. 

Frankenstein or The Man and The Monster, plus “Placer County Railroad War of 1864,” enjoys its opening run February 16, 17, 23, and 24 at 7 P.M. in Rocklin. To book the show for your venue in 2024, contact boxoffice@placerrep.org. For more information regarding the opening run in Rocklin, or to purchase tickets, visit https://www.eventbrite.com/e/frankenstein-plus-placer-county-railroad-war-of-1864-tickets-799230799837.

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