Design areas collaborate to create anatomy of “Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein” at ECU
- Jessica VanderKolk
- Fine Arts & Communication
- News
- Students
- Over 100 sound cues, practical rain effects and custom props came together to bring the ECU production of “Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein” to life on stage.
- Students gain hands-on experience across set construction, props, sound, stage management, costumes and more for shows produced during their theater education.
- Faculty and students prioritize safety while creating makeup effects, staging special effects and preparing actors for demanding performances.
East Carolina University acting major Brian Griffin sat in McGinnis Auditorium’s Dressing Room 3 last week with puckering incision lines on his skin, rubbing “dirt” onto his face.
Griffin — playing the Creature and Lord Byron in the upcoming School of Theatre and Dance and ECU/Loessin Playhouse’s “Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein” — tested makeup products and colors with associate professor of costume design Delta Childers-Smith and costume shop foreman Rachel Moore.
“Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein” shows are Oct. 21-25, at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are on sale for $12-22.
The group spent over an hour testing henna dye for its longevity and carefully painting rigid collodion over various makeup incision lines. The clear liquid tightens the skin for a realistic scarring effect. Faculty members regularly checked in with Griffin to ensure the products didn’t cause pain or skin reaction.
Then they moved outside to test the stage blood. Different types are food safe, clothing safe and have different shades of brightness. Griffin tried one that seemed too thick. The second test inspired gasps and laughs from Childers-Smith, Moore and Jeni Parker, the associate professor who manages props and <a href="https://cinemamix360.com/2026/10/24/ghosts-film-was-not-the-plan-says-matthew-baynton/” title=”Ghosts film was not the plan, says Matthew Baynton”>filmed the test.
“That’s it, don’t you think?” Parker asked. The group agreed, then spoke for several minutes about how Griffin would use and dispose of the blood during the shows.
Moore told Griffin to do his job, and the faculty would do the laundry.
“We are here to make sure you’re safe,” Childers-Smith added.
Safety, diverse production experiences for students and a lot of theater magic were themes in the weeks and months leading up to the show’s opening for the many production pieces that make up the anatomy of a complex stage show.
This adaptation of “Frankenstein,” by David Catlin of Lookingglass Theatre Company in Chicago, is traditional to Shelley’s book, and “was the one,” after director and associate professor of theatre Austin Jones read multiple versions.
“It’s got some tricks, it’s got some fun things, there’s some gore,” Jones said. “We’re looking for old school theatricality. We’re trying to be inventive in thinking about this play and how to deliver it without using projections or technology special effects. It’s pretty grand.”
Set Design
Students paint set pieces on stage at McGinnis Auditorium as the “Frankenstein” crew loads in and builds the show’s set. (Photo by Steven Mantilla)
The grand planning started back in April when set designer and teaching associate professor Nolan O’Dell started the ground plan, figuring out which set pieces to use, their size and shape, and how the pieces will look. As O’Dell designs, Reid Parker, technical director and associate professor, figures out how to build the set, with which materials, and on budget.
Collaboration is key as the various designers worked toward one of those pieces of theater magic: rain on stage. While Jones could choose a projection of rain — and directors often do — the production team created a way for the short sequence to feature real water.
“It’s way more complex if you do it for real, because where does the water go?” O’Dell said. “Are the actors in it and then they have to get dry? It’s a very specific choice to make because there are a lot of complications from that and it’s a lot of extra work. I think it’s theater magic to see the real stuff.”
To make the rain work and look good, there must be engineering above the stage and below. Lighting designer and associate professor Michael Shoaf is involved so the audience will see the rain as it falls. O’Dell said learning to do new things is what’s fun about theater, and informs how the school picks shows and produces them each season to help students learn, too.
“When I’m designing, I’m always thinking about what students we have and what they need to learn,” he said. “We’re always thinking about our students and giving them a variety over four years.”
Realistic Props
Sophomore Kieran Bridwell explains his process for sculpting the Creature’s maggot mask.
Across the paint shop, Jeni Parker’s props students create a variety of new — and sometimes gross — props. Parker shows off a 3-D printed snake vertebra, a lizard, and a spider that will be some of Victor Frankenstein’s science specimens. A specimen table will hold a variety of special effect surprises, and a bedazzled heart will drip rhinestones to catch the light.
Jeni Parker’s students chorus “yes” when she asks if they think they’ve had a good variety of projects to do for “Frankenstein.”
Entertainment design and production sophomore Kieran Bridwell, who has a costume focus, sits with one of their projects: a maggot mask for the Creature. Bridwell also sculpted the lizard and a lobster, among other pieces.
“I already had a mask to work off of,” he said. “I just added foam clay to it, and I used the research images that Jeni found to sculpt the holes in the skin. Once I had all that done, I sculpted the maggots coming out of the various holes on the face.”
Then came the painting of the mask, which was challenging because Bridwell used a photo of Griffin to try to match his skin tone.
“I don’t think it’s a perfect match to his skin tone, but it was the closest I could get,” he said. “I’ve done a lot of sculpting for this show, which is fun because I enjoy that.”
Moving Set to Stage
Upstairs at McGinnis Auditorium, Reid Parker and students are deep into set piece load-in, painting and drilling. Senior Lucas Hackstall, assistant technical director for the show, said load-in was going well and he helped keep the student crew moving so Parker could keep drafting pieces.
“There are a lot of funky angles,” Hackstall said. “It’s a learning curve. A lot of the angular stairs are very strange.”
Along with that is the raked stage. A built extension of the McGinnis stage angles down toward the audience.
“Actors have a love-hate relationship with it,” Hackstall said. “It looks cool and it’s very Shakespearean, but on the other hand, they’ve got to learn to walk on it.”
Moving around the stage, Hackstall points out slats and holes that will help achieve the various special effects in the show. He points out the rain grate in the floor and large architectural beams that create the large attic setting.
Tape Out
“Frankenstein” stage manager and senior, Tyler Healy, guides other student crew members on taping the Burnette Studio Theatre. (Photo by Jessica VanderKolk)
About a month earlier, the beams and other overhanging set pieces were represented by taped dotted lines on the floor of the Burnette Studio Theatre, next door to McGinnis at Messick Theatre Arts Center. “Frankenstein” stage manager and senior Tyler Healy led a group of students in transferring O’Dell’s ground plan from months earlier into a colorful taped version on the floor, starting from tape measures they place down as an x- and y-axis.
Taped at the same time was the upcoming dance production, “Pulse.” That’s not uncommon, but in this case, “Pulse” used mostly white tape, and Healy used the rainbow — purple for some set boxes and green to mark the stage, among others.
Most importantly, Healy and the stage crew taped out special effect areas in yellow, so the actors could rehearse with and around those locations.
“For me, these were incredibly important to measure and get correct,” she said. “It has to be exact so we can make sure it’s safe. That, to me, is the most important thing, is safety. That part excites me in getting it right.”
Healy’s dotted lines are for safety, too. She explains them to the other students as they plot her precisely calculated points to build tape boxes.
“Dotted lines are either something that is an overhang — it’s not actually on the ground — or something that lies beneath the stage,” she said. “It’s not necessarily a solid thing you’re walking through, but it’s something you’re aware of. Actors know that there’s something special happening.”
Cue Sound 101
As stage manager, Healy guides each run of the show, calling out various cues. At the designer run about two weeks before the show’s opening, still in the Studio Theatre, she called out the sounds and effects that audiences will hear from the McGinnis speakers.
Sound designer Brandon McDuff follows his program of over 100 sound cues during the first technical rehearsal for “Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein” in McGinnis Auditorium.
At the designer run O’Dell, Jeni Parker, Childers-Smith, Moore and others joined student crew members in the audience to watch the show, assessing everything from how the props worked to how the actors’ lines sounded. The designers would use those notes to help tweak parts of the production before the technical rehearsals started last week — when everyone moves to the McGinnis stage and all of the design elements come together.
During those technical show runs, sound designer Brandon McDuff stood in the center of the auditorium, sans headset, to listen to the sounds from the speakers around the auditorium, the actors, and the other stage sounds, like a bell that chimes at specific points in the show.
Healy will call into her headset for each of the 118 sound cues programmed for “Frankenstein.” As she calls them, senior Chloe Veeder will trigger each cue, which might play multiple sounds in a sequence. Act 2 starts with a prolonged sequence with the Creature, and one sound cue will play over 100 sounds, a montage that includes a heartbeat, horses, and angry people among the chaos.
McDuff specializes in the way the sounds of a show fill the auditorium space. Later in the show piano music starts at the back of the theater, moving toward the front to fill the space, then moving to a cacophony of bell chimes.
“It’s a really special cue,” he said. “Where it’s coming from really, deeply matters to me.”
Another decision McDuff has to make for a show is how to amplify the actors’ voices. In “Frankenstein,” the actors will not wear personal microphones. Instead, six choir mics will be placed, creating zones. When an actor enters a zone, junior Jack Westover will be at the mixing board, turning up the sound on that mic.
McDuff has to consider the special effects, the physicality of the actors and the potential risk to microphone equipment when deciding how to mic the actors.
“The Creature is physical; I want him to be free to move around,” he said of choosing choir microphones. “It’s not enough to super amplify, but enough to add clarity. I really care about accessibility, and I don’t want people to start losing words.”
Catch Breaths and Safe Screams
About a week after the designer run, assistant professor and voice specialist Rebecca Simon helped Trevor Herrin find words lost to shouting and grit.
Trevor Herrin, who plays Percy Shelley and Victor Frankenstein, works with assistant professor Rebecca Simon to enunciate his words and practice safe screams.
“My moon,” she said, enunciating the “N.” “I need the ‘N;’ I heard ‘moo.’ Keep your beautiful work, but we’ve got to make sure it’s clear.”
Simon helped Herrin, who plays Percy Shelley and Victor Frankenstein, pronounce the consonants and breathe between words to help his energy come from his body’s center and not his throat.
Herrin practiced lines while pushing off the wall and tossing up a ball, following Simon’s guidance.
“I do a lot of general screaming in the show,” he said. “Did I do a fine scream?”
Simon shut her office door so he could practice at full volume, emphasizing release from the stomach and dropping the jaw. She dug out a healthy screaming handout to help Herrin warm up before the shows. For the fast-moving lines, she told Herrin to take catch breaths, “like a sip of air.” As much as possible, she guides actors through these exercises before every show.
“It takes a lot more energy, so I have to get used to that,” Herrin said of the catch breaths.
Simon agreed.
“It does! It’s a workout,” she said. “It’s so high-stakes energy. This (show) has way more demands.”
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