OPEN AUDITIONS: Majesticpiece Theatre presents The Fate of Frankenstein

The Fate of Frankenstein

By Richard Brinsley Peake

Directed by Kelly McCauley

Adapted for the digital stage by Rachel Kohler

Auditions due: Monday, April 26th at 5pm

Performance: Saturday, May 15th at 7:30pm

Content Label: Appropriate Audiences

Rehearsal Schedule

Readthrough: Tuesday, May 4th at 7pm

Rehearsal: Friday, May 7th at 7pm

Rehearsal: Tuesday, May 11th at 7pm

Rehearsal: Thursday, May 13th at 7pm

Dress Rehearsal: Friday, May 14th at 7pm

The Majestic Theatre (a division of the City of Corvallis Parks and Recreation department) is committed to equity, diversity, and inclusion and to creating a safe place for actors of all backgrounds to explore their craft. We are particularly eager to work with artists of color and other artists from marginalized communities. All auditions are free and open to the public. This audition is for an amateur, volunteer production. The Majestic Theatre staff and volunteers do not discriminate on the basis of age, national origin, race, gender, ethnic background, ability, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, or any protected class.

All auditions will be via a video submitted to the director via email unless otherwise arranged. In addition to your audition video, please download, fill out, and attach our audition form located at tinyurl.com/MTAuditionForm. It’s a fillable PDF, and you can fill in the blanks on your computer if you download it first. Let us know if you have any trouble with the form, and we’ll help you out with it.

All underage performers will need the permission of parent / guardian before submitting their audition. A headshot will be requested to be posted with the cast list, so if you have one please attach it with your audition video and form.

SHOW TYPE

This show will be rehearsed and performed via Zoom. The performances will be presented via Vimeo and will utilize the Pick What You Pay $0-10 online ticket system. A link will be sent to all ticket holders and will be provided to cast and crew.

SHOW SYNOPSIS

The dashing young gentleman Clerval is in love with Victor Frankenstein’s younger sister, but he’s becoming increasingly worried about his future brother-in-law. He pays Victor’s bumbling servant Fritz to report on Victor’s latest experiments, and when the truth of those experiments is revealed, shock, horror, and death ensues.

FROM THE DIRECTOR Kelly McCauley

“My dream is to become a writer / director as a career. I grew up watching all of the Universal

Monsters such as Frankenstein and Even Dracula. It is a dream of mine to be able to direct a play about Monsters and be able to bring Frankenstein to the stage. I even got a game over the holidays titled Horrified with all of the Universal monsters. I love The Fate Of Frankenstein, because I hope this will be a fun production to be a part of for all cast and crew.”

PREPARATION NOTES

Please choose ONE of the following sides. Record a video on your phone or computer of you

reading the side, and email it to Kelly McCauley at kmccauley.sparc@pclpartnership.org (and copy stage manager Amanda Vander Hyde at amanda@majestic.org) by 5PM on Monday, April 26th. Feel free to include what role you’re interested in within the body of the email. Also, if you have one, please attach a headshot image to your audition email. It doesn’t need to be a professional headshot; any clear image of your face will do wonderfully.

Some video audition guidelines:

• Perform while seated, trying to frame yourself from the shoulders up. This is what you’ll look like in the video chat during the performance, so we’ll want to see how well you can emote in this limited space.

• Props and costume pieces are encouraged! Whatever you have lying around. Just keep in mind that we can only see your torso and head!

• Actors of any gender, age, race, or ability are invited to audition for any role. We will be casting 13 performers and one Emergency Backup Actor, an understudy for all roles who can hop into the digital performance at any time to cover for another actor who might be experiencing technical difficulties.

• In order to participate in the performance, you’ll need a stable internet connection; a smartphone, computer, or tablet that can run Zoom; and a pair of headphones. Most roles in this play have the potential to use software-based special effects in a program called SnapCamera, which requires using a computer with Windows 10/Mac OS 10.13 or newer. A green screen would also be helpful, but not crucial. If you do not have access to this tech, this will not disqualify you from auditioning for these roles, but we’ll want to know so that we can line up checking out equipment to you.

• If you have any questions, feel free to email and ask!

---

CHARACTER DESCRIPTIONS

All characters do not have a specific race or ethnic background; we're excited to see a diverse pool of actors audition for all roles.

DOCTOR VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN

Character Age: 25-35

Character Race: Any

Character Ethnicity: Any

Desired Actor Gender: Any

Ability/movement: Ability to perform limited staged combat (falling down, pretending to be choked); comfortable with enacting violence.

Character: The original mad scientist, passionate, driven, and very wordy. Turns to experiments to get over the exile of a lover, but when they are reunited, they are torn apart by tragedy of Frankenstein’s own making.

CLERVAL

Character Age: 25-35

Character Race: Any

Character Ethnicity: Any

Desired Actor Gender: Any

Ability/movement: Any

Character: One of Frankenstein’s best friends, engaged to Elizabeth Frankenstein, amiable and adorably in love.

FRITZ

Character Age: 35-55

Character Race: Any

Character Ethnicity: Any

Desired Actor Gender: Any

Ability/movement: Ability to duck in and out of a Zoom window.

Character: Frankenstein’s bumbling servant, extremely nervous, loves cows.

NARRATOR

Character Age: Any

Character Race: Any

Character Ethnicity: Any

Desired Actor Gender: Any

Ability/movement: Any

Character: A shameless parody of the Criminologist from The Rocky Horror Picture Show, delivers exposition and commentary on the action with amusing gravitas.

WILLIAM

Character Age: 10-14

Character Race: Any

Character Ethnicity: Any

Desired Actor Gender: Any

Ability/movement: Ability to throw a ball and crouch down to look for it.

Character: The youngest Frankenstein, a child who loves books and playing catch.

DE LACEY

Character Age: 55+

Character Race: Any

Character Ethnicity: Any

Desired Actor Gender: Any

Ability/movement: Any

Character: An old courtier, banished from Paris for his child’s involvement in an escape plot. Blind with age and worn with cares. (Note: this character plays a lute/guitar, but the actor’s ability to play the lute/guitar can be accomplished with mime and sound effects.)

FELIX DE LACEY

Character Age: 25-35

Character Race: Any

Character Ethnicity: Any

Desired Actor Gender: Any

Ability/movement: Any

Character: Eldest child of the banished De Lacey family, devoted to caring for the rest of the family. Still feels very guilty about getting everyone banished. (Note: this character plays a flute, but the actor’s ability to play the flute can be accomplished with mime and sound effects.)

HAMMERPAN

Character Age: 45+

Character Race: Any

Character Ethnicity: Any

Desired Actor Gender: Any

Ability/movement: Any

Character: An itinerant tinkerer who travels widely with Panskin. They are best friends.

PANSKIN

Character Age: 45+

Character Race: Any

Character Ethnicity: Any

Desired Actor Gender: Any

Ability/movement: Any

Character: An itinerant tinkerer who travels widely with Hammerpan. They are best friends.

THE MONSTER

Character Age: 1 day

Character Race: Any

Character Ethnicity: Any

Desired Actor Gender: Any

Ability/movement: Ability to perform limited staged combat (falling down, pretending to be choked); comfortable with enacting violence.

Character: Frankenstein’s creation. Never speaks, but is extremely expressive through mime and facial expressions; keeps murdering people, possibly accidentally.

ELIZABETH

Character Age: 25-35

Character Race: Any

Character Ethnicity: Any

Desired Actor Gender: Any

Ability/movement: Any

Character: Victor’s sibling, about to be married to Clerval. Sweet, kind, and generous.

AGATHA DE LACEY

Character Age: 20-30

Character Race: Any

Character Ethnicity: Any

Desired Actor Gender: Any

Ability/movement: Ability to perform limited staged combat (standing/throwing punches, running); comfortable with enacting violence.

Character: The youngest of the De Lacey family; once was betrothed to Victor Frankenstein before the De Lacey’s were banished.

MADAME NINON

Character Age: 35-55

Character Race: Any

Character Ethnicity: Any

Desired Actor Gender: Any

Ability/movement: Any

Character: William’s nurse/governess, married to Fritz. Loves William to pieces, takes no nonsense from Fritz.

---

SIDES

NARRATOR

I would like, if I may, to take you on a strange journey. It seemed a fairly ordinary night when a young gentleman of Geneva by the name of Clerval came to inquire after the details of his upcoming marriage to his fiancee Elizabeth. He left his home that late November evening to visit Doctor Victor Frankenstein, her brother and his friend. It's true there were dark storm clouds, heavy, black, and pendulous, towards which he was walking, but, being a gallant youth, he was not going to let a storm spoil his visit, was he?... It was a night they were going to remember... for a very long time. We go now to a Gothic chamber in the house of Doctor Frakenstein himself, where the good doctor’s erstwhile servant Fritz dozes, dreaming of horrors he can barely comprehend.

FRITZ

(Talking in his sleep) Oh, dear me, dear me...bless my heart...heaven preserve us… (Starts awake, looking around wildly) Oh! How I shake at each clatter! Oh, Fritz, Fritz, Fritz! What is it come to! At a squeak of a mouse or a sneeze of a cat, you are frightened out of your wits. Why did you ever come here, to fret in your cold sweat, your nerves raveled out by every sound? Why couldn’t you be happy in your native Village with an innocent cow for your companion (bless its sweet breath!) instead of coming here to the City of Geneva to be hired as a servant! (Starts.) What’s that? – nothing. Oh, every knock is a shock! Oh, the doctor only hired me because he thought I looked so stupid! Stupid! ha, ha, ha! But am I stupid, though? To be sure, Doctor Frankenstein is a kind man, and I should respect him, but that I thinks as how he holds converse with somebody below with a long tail, horns and hoofs, who shall be nameless. (Starts again.) What’s that! Oh, a gnat on my nose!

CLERVAL

Frankenstein, friend of my youth, how extraordinary and secret are thy pursuits! how art thou altered by study! Strange, what a hold has philosophy taken of thy mind – but thou wert always enthusiastic and of boundless ambition. But Elizabeth – the fair Elizabeth, his sister – what a difference in disposition! Everyone adores her. Happy Clerval, to be now the possessor of Elizabeth, who, unconscious of her beauty, stole thy heart away! (He takes out a pen, unfolds a paper, and reads:)

“Ere witching love my heart possest,

And bade my sighs the nymph pursue,

Calm as the infant’s smiling rest,

No anxious hope nor fear it knew.

Hmm. What further? Ah! (Begins to write.) “Yet let me not the virgin blame--”

VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN

Every moment lost, fevers me. What time have I devoted? Had I not been heated by an almost supernatural enthusiasm, my application to this study would have been irksome, disgusting, and almost intolerable. To examine the causes of life – I have had recourse to death – I have seen how the fine form of man has been wasted and degraded – have beheld the corruption of death succeed to the blooming cheek of life! I have seen how the worm inherits the wonders of the eye and brain – I paused – analysing all the minutiae of causation as exemplified in the change of life from death-until from the midst of this darkness the sudden light broke in upon me! A light so brilliant and dazzling, some miracle must have produced the flash! The vital principle! The cause of life! – Like Prometheus of old, have I daringly attempted the formation – the animation of a Being! To my task – away with reflection – to my task – to my task!

ELIZABETH

My dear Victor! my dear brother! You are come to stay, I hope, until the wedding is over? Clerval will be here presently. Alas! Victor! your cheek is pallid – your eye has lost its wonted lustre. Oh, Victor, what are the secrets that prey upon your mind and form? – The pernicious air of your laboratory will be fatal to you. I pray you, for my sake, cease – I understand upon one subject you have labored incessantly. You change color, my dear brother. I will not mention it – I – there is a wildness in your eyes for which I cannot account.

NINON

Fast asleep, I declare, the pretty boy – how like his poor mother, who is gone. La, La, I daresay my Fritz was just such another, only his hair was red. Pretty William – he was the pin basket. Bless the thirteen cantons, I nursed him. William – (Blows him kisses) – a pair of gloves, Sir! (WILLIAM starts to wake up.) Fie, you idle urchin, sleeping so early this beautiful evening.

PANSKIN

We’ve not seen the hospitality of so much as single quill this twelvemonth past, and, having become accustomed to a mattress of solid earth, I should not like to ruin my present contentment. Besides, our latest journey has nearly found its end. Our fire burns merrily, and its light provides me with the courage to tell you it was even so, friend Hammerpan – for I saw before me a giant creature with something of a human shape; but ugly and terrible to behold as you would paint the Devil.

---

Submit your audition materialsby 5:00 PM, Monday, April 26th by emailing kmccauley.sparc@pclpartnership.org (and copy stage manager Amanda Vander Hyde at amanda@majestic.org)