‘Frankenstein’ Rehearsals and Designs Continue for our Sixth Form Production
As rehearsals continue for this year’s Sixth Form production of Frankenstein, we met up with Year 13’s Finlay and James, along with Year 12’s Isaac to talk about their characters and looking ahead to performing. Catching them mid-scene, they were rehearsing the part of the play where we see Dr Frankenstein searching for body parts with which he would later create his creature.
As well as rehearsing their lines, our students were working with Miss Mayes our Head of Drama, considering props and suggestion of scene; in particular for this scene it’s not going to be practical to show grave digging and body parts, so discussions took place around how our young actors might suggest different elements and moments that are important parts of the story.
It’s a pivotal part of the play, Dr Frankenstein is thoroughly excited to be retrieving body parts for his creature, whilst also pretending to be saddened at the thought of the person or persons those parts might belong to, having died in order for him to realise his dream. There’s a certain art in terms of acting as though you are pretending to feel an emotion – quite a challenge for Year 13’s James who plays the part of Dr Frankenstein, but one he’s thoroughly enjoying, as he explained when we spoke to him.
Year 13’s James, Dr Frankenstein
“This is probably the most complex, nuanced production and character I’ve ever taken on – it holds far more depth than many of the other characters I’ve played in the past School productions I’ve been lucky enough to be part of, but I’m absolutely thrilled to be taking it on!”
He continued,
“As an English A level student, I’m particularly enjoying being able to really analyse the character, certainly more than I might have in the past, it’s a fascinating character – and production. A story known by many, but an interesting adaptation, our production focuses on the Creature’s point of view rather more than Dr Frankenstein’s. The audience will realise very quickly that our production is very different to the novel, and that we’re not trying to replicate Mary Shelly’s story.”
Year 13’s Finlay, Ewan, Orkney Islander
Talking about his character Ewan, an Orkney Islander who is, in this particular scene, assisting Dr Frankenstein with the retrieval of body parts from graves, Finlay shared,
“Ewan is in charge of a little section of the island, he manages it alongside his nephew Rab, played by Isaac, who he likes to control! He’s mostly interested in money and seems to have little conscience about the fact that he’s digging up bodies for Dr Frankenstein – he’s mostly interested in the money he’s making!”
Explaining his biggest challenge, he said,
“This character has a very strong accent, but I’m working really hard to perfect it, I want to make sure he comes off as authentic in the play. He’s got lots of humour, well, this particular scene has – even though in essence it’s quite dark, as we’re digging up graves, and he’s been a real change in character compared to others I’ve played in the past, and a complete contrast in terms of the level of seriousness and depth of this character, in comparison to that I played in Jack Absolute! That in itself has been exciting, I’m enjoying embracing a more masculine character, with a very different dimension in that he’s extremely self-centred – there’s so much darkness in Frankenstein, and if you look closely enough you’ll see it in almost all the characters!”
Year 12’s Isaac, Rab Ewan’s Nephew
Carrying on from Finaly’s interview, Isaac shared,
“I too am finding the accent to be my biggest challenge – but it’s great fun trying it out and I’m looking forward to offering the audience an authentic character in the performances.”
Talking more about his character he said,
“Rab is great fun to play, he’s very simple minded with a drive for food, and food alone, but that in itself is joy to play, and he offers small moments of comic relief in a dark and gothic production. I’m really looking forward to performing and I especially enjoy when we begin to rehearse in costume with full stage props and set – it’s so exciting and absolutely brilliant as the play starts to come together when we’re all on stage acting together. I’ve had smaller roles in past productions, so this is a big character for me to play with some big and important scenes – and I can’t wait!”
Designing Frankenstein
As well as rehearsals in School, other elements of the production have been in progress – in particular the design of the programme which our audience will receive upon arrival to the theatre on both nights of the performance.
Design students Year 11’s Lexi, Laura and Selena, along with Year 13’s Lola and Alina, have been working hard behind the scenes – literally – on a rather intricate design. Briefed a few weeks ago, they’re progressing extremely well, now meeting to share their individual elements of the design with one another and with Mrs Cracknell, Head of Design. She shared,
“The students have been working hard on individual parts of the overall design – each designated a body part to create which will come together to create one body – the emphasis being on each of those body part designs being individual since this echoes the Creature, made up of different parts of different people. As the designs have been shared it’s been interesting to see how they’re all unique yet have one common element, quite by coincidence – they’re all rather mechanical designs.”
She continued,
“It’s uncanny really, but it has meant that the overall design is coming together beautifully and easily from a structure purpose, as they all come together to create one overall image for the programme. Our next step is to create that singular image and design text to sit in the design, something we’re going to be focusing on next.”
From the students’ point of view this has been a great exercise in receiving a brief and discovering for themselves how to deliver what is needed within the dictated timeframe. Mrs Cracknell shared,
“This project offers them a real-life scenario in terms of what it is like to work with a client, in that our Drama department has requested this design be produced and delivered, setting them requirements and deadlines. The project clearly demonstrates the importance of meeting a brief and delivery of different elements, as well as relying on other people’s support and involvement – It’s a great example of a real-world project that they might be involved in beyond School. They’ve met every part of the brief so far and I’m excited to see the next stage evolve.”
Frankenstein will be performed in our Seckford Theatre on Wednesday 20 and Thursday 21 November 2024.
