To Be Frank

Manual Cinema’s film-theater hybrid “Frankenstein” regenerates at the Modlin Center.

It took five years longer than initially planned, but Manual Cinema’s “Frankenstein” is finally coming to the Modlin Center for the Arts.

The live film-theater hybrid retelling of Mary Shelley’s classic novel was originally supposed to hit the stage at the Modlin Center on March 21, 2020. But as states began shutting down public events in response to the initial wave of COVID-19 in America, Manual Cinema’s show was one of the first local performances to be canceled.

Sarah Fornace, one of Manual Cinema’s co-founders, is excited that the show is finally going on. Based in Chicago, Manual Cinema is a collective that uses projections, silent film techniques, a live band and puppets to create theatrical shows that feel like movies.

An image from Manual Cinema’s production of “Frankenstein,” one of its “biggest and most epic” shows, according to Fornace. Photo by Tiffany Bessire

“We love the way that cinema can tell epic stories that move fast through time and space, but we also love the act of theater, of being in a room with people, telling a story and going on an emotional journey in this tiny hour-and-15-minute window,” Fornace explains. “When you see Manual Cinema shows, often there will be a big screen above the stage, then on the stage you’re going to see something that looks like a mad scientist lab.”

To craft a show, Manual Cinema creates storyboards like you would for an animated film, then adapts the storyboards into a stage performance. Manual Cinema’s “Frankenstein” utilizes more than 500 puppets and a four-piece chamber ensemble to bring the show to life.

“They play many clarinets, cellos, different kinds of flutes, different kinds of percussion, and they’re running all over the stage,” says Fornace of the band. “A giant piece of the show is the music.”

The score of “Frankenstein” also features robot percussionists.

“We were very interested in the idea of puppetry and robotics, what it means to animate the inanimate,” Fornace says.

Based in Chicago, Manual Cinema needs many hands to bring the show to life. Photo by Michael Brosilow

Inspired by both Shelley’s original novel and the various film adaptations, this “Frankenstein” jumps between the viewpoints of Mary Shelley, Victor Frankenstein and The Creature. Unlike most of the film adaptations, this version of “Frankenstein” is told from a female point of view that emphasizes themes of womanhood and childbirth.

“We start with Mary Shelley’s story and a little bit of biographical information,” says Fornace, who plays both Shelley and Victor Frankenstein in the show. “Part of her inspiration for writing the book was the loss of her first baby, and she lost multiple babies in multiple pregnancies. She had this dream about rubbing the electricity of life back into her dead daughter.”

The “Frankenstein” show bridges puppetry, live action, film and music. Photo by Michael Brosilow

Out of at least five pregnancies, only one of Shelley’s offspring made it to adulthood; her own mother, founding feminist philosopher Mary Wollstonecraft, died from complications while giving birth to her.

Fornace admits that creating a live show every night that bridges puppetry, live action, film and music is a bit of a high-wire act.

Everyone is always doing something on stage to make the production come alive. Photo by Michael Brosilow

“It truly looks like madness. We run around the stage creating the whole score, creating the images that you see live,” says Fornace, who compares their efforts to being part of the pit crew of a NASCAR team. “Once we start, we don’t stop, and we’re always doing something. Everybody is doing something at every moment, and we’re really working as a team to bring it to life.”

That team has other projects in the works. In January, the collective launched an updated version of its 2017 show “The Magic City,” based on Edith Nesbit’s 1910 novel of the same name. The collective also recently completed a short film called “Future Feeling” and is presently at work creating a loose adaptation of “Macbeth” called “The 4th Witch.”

Sarah Fornace as Mary Shelley in “Frankenstein.”

Though Manual Cinema has created more than a dozen similar film-theater hybrids, “Frankenstein” holds a special place for Fornace.

“This is one of my favorite shows,” she says. “It’s one of our biggest and most epic.”

Manual Cinema’s “Frankenstein” plays Feb. 1 at 7:30 p.m. at the Modlin Center for the Arts, 453 Westhampton Way. For more information, visit modlin.richmond.edu or call 289-8980.

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