Manhattan Experimental Theater Workshop

overview

Imagine Mary Shelley's story of Frankenstein in the hands of Lee Breuer, Gertrude Stein, Heiner Müller and Suzan-Lori Parks. Can't do it? We did.

The 2009 MXTW company put their heads together and crafted four original pieces for the theater under the influence of some of the 20th and 21st Century's most interesting avant garde playwrights. (And then we created another piece under our own influence.)

target story

What you need to know about Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus, by Mary Shelley:

His ship stranded in the arctic, Captain Walton and his crew find Victor Frankenstein barely alive. Victor tells his life story to Walton. He was the son of Genovese nobles, raised with his cousin Elizabeth and friend Henry Clerval. As a child he became obsessed with alchemy and a lightening strike that felled a tree in his yard. When his mother died of illness her dying wish was that Elizabeth and Victor marry. Victor went off to college and studied "natural philosophy" (physics, chemistry, etc.) and anatomy. He became obsessed with "the principle of life." He wanted to create a race of superior beings and worked to piece together a large man, scavenged from fresh corpses. He succeeded in animating his creation, but the mere sight of its open eyes terrified him so much he ran into the streets where he dreamed that Elizabeth turned into his dead mother and decayed in his arms. He returned to his room, but his creation was nowhere to be seen. Victor experienced a breakdown and was nursed back to health by Clerval. Later, he received a letter from home telling him that his youngest brother had been murdered. On the way home, Victor saw his creation and believed it to be responsible. However, a loyal family servant, Justine, was blamed for the murder and executed. Victor felt responsible for those two deaths. Later, in the mountains, the monster approached Victor and told Victor his story. By watching the DeLacys, a poor family living in the woods, teach their son’s Arabic bride their language, the creature learned language and of human nature. Longing to be accepted by the family, the creature revealed himself to them, but they attacked him in their terror and abandoned their home. Heartbroken, the creature then went in search of his creator, using the journal he took from Victor the night he left. He traveled to Geneva where he murdered Victor’s brother through impulse, not design, and framed Justine. At the end of his tale, the creature demanded that Victor take responsibility for his creation and give the monster a companion, so that he would not be alone. The Monster explained they would go off to South America and never be seen again. Victor begrudgingly agreed. Victor traveled with Clerval to the remote Orkney Islands to create the creature's mate. However, before Victor could bring the female to life he imagined the possibility of his creations producing offspring and tore her to pieces. The creature appeared and vowed vengeance against Victor saying “I will be with you on your wedding night.” Victor traveled back to the mainland only to be blamed for the murder of Clerval (murdered by the monster). After being acquitted, he traveled back to Geneva for his marriage to Elizabeth. On their wedding night, Victor expected the creature to kill him, but as he awaited his fate in the next room the creature killed Elizabeth. Victor pursued the monster, which lead him north, making Victor suffer as much as he had. During this journey Victor was delusional and imagined being with his murdered friends and family. After telling Captain Walton his tale, Victor resolves to continue his pursuit of the creature, but is overcome by illness and dies. Walton discovers the creature standing over Victor’s body. The creature reveals his intention to go further north and burn himself on a pyre, because life is a greater curse to him than death. The creature then flees and Walton watches him disappear among the ice ridges of the glacier.

reader

The Futurists: “The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism” by F. t. Marinetti
and several futurist stage pieces

Marita Bonner: “The Purple Flower”

Gertrude Stein: “Not Slightly” & “For the Country Entirely”

Atonin Artaud: “Description of a Physical State,” “Spurt of Blood,” & “Paul the Birds, or the Place of Love”

Harold Pinter: “Trouble in the Works,” “The Black and White,” “Night,” “That’s All,” “That’s Your Trouble,” & “Applicant”

The Open Theater: “Terminal” by Susan Yankowitz

Samuel Beckett: “Footfalls,” “Rockaby,” & “That Time”

Lee Breuer: “The B•Beaver Animation”

Umehara Takeshi: “Mutsugoro (Mudskippers)”

Heiner Muller: “Despoiled Shore – Medeamaterial – Landscape with Argonauts,”
“Explosion of a Memory,” & “Heartpiece”

David Greenspan: “Jack”

Suzan-Lori Parks: “The America Play”

scripts

Copyright & Permission to Reproduce

Frankenstein, Errr
Written and performed by the company
Assisted and directed by the Directing Staff
Under the influence of Lee Breuer

This is What it is To Live
Written by Chris, Magda, Barbara, & Paul
Performed by Barbara & Paul
Directed by Chris & Elizabeth
Under the influence of Gertrude Stein

Graveyard Tale
Act I: The Fiend Act
Act II: Alone Together
Written and performed by Hannah, Yuka, and Claire
Directed by Gwethalyn & Chris
Under the influence of Suzan-Lori Parks

Lass die Toten Ruhen/Let the Dead Have Peace
Written and performed by Lakin, Clay, Kyle, & Anna
Directed by Gwethalyn & Ashley
Under the influence of Heiner Müller

Motionless
Written and performed by the company
Assisted and directed by the Directing Staff
Under our own influence

company

Lakin Anderson
Chris Auten
Hannah Bonilla
Magda Borgarelli
Clay Burkhead
Kyle Huse
Anna Kamerer
Paul Knackendoffel
Barbara Korten
Yuka Matsunami
Zach Rempel
Claire Tolentino

staff

Director: Gwethalyn Williams

Assistant Directors: Ashley Flinn, Chris Gregory, & Elizabeth Uthoff

Producer: Jim Hamilton

Lights and Sound: Josh Burmeister, Kearsten Cross, & Rob Dunn