Thoughts about YSKP's newly opened production: FRANKENSTEIN

[Carol Allin]

I attended last night's official (and delayed) opening of the Yellow Springs Kids Playhouse production of their original musical "Frankenstein". While the style of last year's offering of "Sense & Sensibility" exhibited a noticible departure from former years, this show is really crossing over into new territory.

All of the YSKPs productions have included reflections back onto the audience, reminders of our responsibilities as stewards of the earth, community, and our collective souls, but to a large degree have maintained a sense of fun and sent the message with humor. Other than Elliot Cromer's break-out, break-down, break-through monster movement that punched up the number "Hideous Me", this production was weighed down with a relentless sense of sorrow and desperation.

It's conceptually brilliant, tightly constructed, and an exceptional piece of theatre. I would heartily endorse it to anyone of a thinking nature to attend and consider the multiple messages being brought to us via this work. But I can't truly encourage those with young children to bring the kiddies along. It's far too serious a piece for children under the age of 10 or so.

Last night in particular, however, brought a bizarre sequence of Signs through out the production.

Due to my long journeying to distant parts of this land, attending intense spiritual retreats, Sacred Pipe ceremonies, sweat lodges, Pow-Wow dancing, etc...I have become exceeding sensitive to the interface communications between our natural world as it brushes up against events such as an outdoor theatre production.

Don't forget, theatre BEGAN as a spiritual communion---the actors standing in as psychopomps, interpreters, priests that became conduits between the mundane world and the heightened senses seeking contact with the divine.

As I sat with my husband Bruce in the amphitheatre, surrounded by many friends from the community, there was a feeling of expectation, surely, but a slight unease due to the atmosphere saturated with humidity. Just the night before the production was chased out of the amphitheatre and indoors where many of us were able to watch a preview of the musical numbers. The clouds, lightning, and rain in our area is also a part of the painted backround to the play.

The sky was relatively clear at the outset, and as the twilight brought its summer magic---a lone turkey vulture circled in the air directly above the theatre. The Vulture is a very powerful "medicine" bird. The Vulture is a signature of the Presence of Truth---and also for the gentle "digestion" of that which is DEAD. Everything that is created, that lives, has an ark of energy that will eventually reach an apex....then begin its spiral into death. The Vulture is the Keeper of this truth---and is a gentle Guide, ushering out the vestiges of that which is departing this world.

As the story unfolds, the focus and intensity of my youngest son in the lead role of Victor Frankenstein became electrically clear. This kind of "performance" is from another Place. My sweet boy who is at the brink of his youth, his manhood, was the channel through which flowed an elder energy. It was at once marvelous and somewhat frightening to watch. As his mother, I observed with my own odd detachment. Last night Elliot did not "belong" to me---he belonged to the show, the message.

I had watched the early evening news briefly to get a weather prediction for the night---and saw that over at WPAFB they were holding some kind of icky militaristic airplane show/picnic with music and fireworks to round out the evening over there....it was expected that 75,000 from the Dayton area would probably be attending.

So. Here in Yellow Springs, a relative handful of souls is singing to another handful about the shadows of monsters that lie in wait within us all---our shadow selves---and the monstrous creations that have wrought so much destruction on our world, our selves.....and above the theatre----

----a gigantic Stealth Bomber cuts across the sky, again, directly over the tiny amphitheater below.

I've never seen one of those things before. If you've never SEEN ONE, how huge it is, its design so alien and the technology so (to me) terrifying----then you won't grasp the impact I am trying to convey that it had on me. It was like a huge cold girder of iron directly through my heart. Everyone in the audience did catch the same chill that it sent, I believe.

Other large bomber planes, as well as smaller jets, also crossed the sky during the show. Two small babies kept up a continuous whimpering throughout the production as well...and the Stealth return TWICE MORE. The babies lament.

Three is an occult number. BIRTH---DEATH---REBIRTH. But this "messenger" brought no essence of gentleness as did the vulture. It was so cold, impersonal, and might as well have been designed by the Lord of Mordor---for those of you who've read The Lord of the Rings will recognize this reference. But if I were to ask for a "positive" message within that image---it would be the word 'stealth'. Stealthy things have been in the air a long time now---and are being revealed. Big Time.

Then, towards the end of production a pure black dog raced back and forth in a joyous abandon in the fields off stage right. No doubt "just" out for some exercise with his or her master----chasing a ball or a frisbee. But to me, it seemed to be the last sign---a pure black dog....which looked almost exactly like a black wolf.

The Wolf, is The Teacher and The Pathfinder. The Wolf is aligned with the Moon and the Star Sirius. And the Black Dog, too....is the companion of Loyalty...but again---in the darkness, can be an invisible ally. A guardian of the Underworld---and a Guide through it.

Oh children! Let us collect our thoughts on your behalf and turn them into prayers for the healing of the Nations...and with this play production, the healing of our shadows. Let us bless them and release them once and for all...and seek our walk towards the Sun and clear skies, the merging of fire and water---and the return of the Rainbow.

[Carolion Grailbear]

All that said, I think that YSKP - all staff, volunteers, actors - do such an amazing, amazing piece of work/play; and that this production stirred up some good discussion bits, no doubt.
And maybe I'm being over-picky about the ending (she says, having gone out to weed the garden and add stuff to the compost pile and say hello to the guppies in the pool and give the two rogue chipmunks a warning about not falling into said pool lest they might drown. They might be rogues in their little way, but I love them.
And maybe Frankenstein isn't a finished piece yet, but it's got its moments and they're more than fine!

[Carolion Grailbear]

I was blown away by Elliot's werewolf-y wacko wild maniacal rocker/scientist production number. Wow.
The whole cast was, as always, amazing - nice star turns for many - great chorus work! And the giant puppet choreography/choros was well done, very well-heart done.

My sense of the play - I wanted an ending, you know (bows do not an ending make, they just ornament the "oh wow!" feeling the audience has as it knows the piece is finished) If, for some plot reason, it's intrinsic to the piece that no real ending is possible, then make it an audience discussion "find-your-own-solution" piece. There's something about the movement of a play FROM the beginning to PEAK just past the middle TOWARDS GREATER UNDERSTANDING or even TRANSFORMATION at the end. I've always felt play structure to be sort of like lovemaking in a way. At the very least, perhaps, if the play gets done again in its current form, there could be an invitation to the audience to pick up the trash! We would have loved it......