While Marybeth is off in Upstate New York, I’m spending my vacation in Saluda, NC with friends and family. While there’s plenty of time for hikes and picnics, I’m also working on an all new version of Frankenstein! which will have its world premiere at the newly renovated Memminger Auditorium next October. Though I’ve spent part of my vacation reading Mary Shelley’s original novel, watching all the old Frankenstein movies and reading five other adaptations, this isn’t really work or at least it’s the fun part of work. Doing adaptations is how I got started in playwrighting and its still great fun. Seeing what so many others have done with this classic tale of terror and finding new ways to illuminate Mary Shelley’s original story is challenging but rewarding too. Best with my own adaptation I can tailor our production to the exciting new performance space we will have in Memminger Auditorium next season. Fortified by lots of picnic food and cool mountain air, I’ve already finished draft one. Now the fun begins, rewriting and rewriting, and sharing drafts with our technical staff who are already dreaming up some exciting new special effects for this production. I have no doubt we’ll have a wonderful new take on the Frankenstein myth to present to Charleston audiences this Fall and I’ll have something to talk about when people ask “What did you do on your summer vacation.”
Julian Wiles, Playwright