The number of things that Big Gay Horror Fan has done to convince the fickle goddesses of fate to turn him into the divine Elsa Lanchester would blow even the minds of hardened criminals. So, it is with delighted envy that I present this giddy interview with acclaimed Chicago theater actress, Catherine Gillespie! In City Lit’s emotional stage adaptation of Mary Shelley’s classic Frankenstein, the beguiling Gillespie brings potent energy to the role of doomed Justine – the character whom eventually becomes the obvious inspiration for Lanchester’s delightfully demented bride. Below, Gillespie talks about the joys of performing in Frankenstein, and in general, and about the still potent message that Shelley’s seminal work provides for modern audiences.
BGHF: So, Catherine, what were your first performance inspirations – A ukulele playing grandma – A drunken Shakespearian professor – WHAT?!?
Catherine: One evening when I was ten or so, I complained to my Dad that I didn’t have any books to read. So he marched me downstairs, took a big fat book off the shelf, and sat me on his lap. We read the first part of MacBeth together, and I’ve never forgotten it. I remember that the words were oddly scary and very satisfying, and the characters were big and intense. And of course, I loved the witches. I didn’t audition for my first play until a couple of years after that experience, but reading The Scottish Play that evening with my Dad helped me begin to understand that words are alive, and that they have power just like swords do. I’ve drawn much inspiration from that evening with my Dad.
BGHF: Lovely story! Tell us a little about the technical and emotional complications of enacting a death by noose on stage in Frankenstein.
Catherine: I could tell you how we do the hanging, but then I’d have to…well, you know.
BGHF: Yikes! Continue…I think.
Catherine: This is my first experience with a stunt like this, and I’m so grateful to all the people who have helped make it simple and safe, especially our fight choreographer David Yondorf and director Terry McCabe. We scheduled literally hours of time during tech rehearsals to make sure every aspect of it will run smoothly for each performance. Still, after making sure the logistics were taken care of, I had to force myself to just do it twenty times or so to get used to the feeling of dropping and hanging there. It’s quite startling! I’m still a bit nervous every evening before we do the stunt – after all, there’s a noose around my neck – but it’s fun to hear the audience’s reaction when it happens!
BGHF: Awesome! You, also, have the amazing task of portraying a character that has risen from the dead. What has that process been like for you as a performer?
Catherine: It’s been such fun to explore this play and imagine the physical and emotional aspects of being brought back to life. Victor uses electricity, with other ingredients, to force the Creature and the Female to come back from the dead. Physically, I think this experience must be awful. During our conversations in rehearsal, Mark, Terry and I decided that the Creature’s reanimation is probably far more painful than the Female’s, simply because he’s a patchwork of different people and he’s been dead for longer. Still, the process is startling and very uncomfortable. Breathing is difficult initially. She needs the Creature’s help to remember how to walk. She is startled at being touched, though the memory of human contact seems to return to her quite quickly. I think the Female’s emotional journey is similar. When she wakes up, it’s as if her slate has been wiped clean. She has the innocence of a child, but something of her former life – the memory of Victor’s face, perhaps, remains. She responds, as a child would, to the Creature’s encouragement and kind words. As a performer, exploring the process of reanimation has been a lovely return to the most basic elements of acting: observation and listening.
BGHF: What? — Oh, listening! I do that…sometimes! I know all theatrical experience become like children, but have you had a most memorable moment on stage, thus far?
Catherine: Moments on stage do indeed become like children to me; I love them all! Of course, now that you ask, the moments popping into my head are those where something unexpected happened. There was the time, during The Wind in the Willows, where a chair broke onstage – with an actor in it! Thankfully, no one was injured and the moment got a laugh before we moved on. There was the time I got a terrible case of the hiccups in the middle of a Sondheim musical, and the very tender song I had to sing was punctuated with gasps and grunts. Then there was the time an actress I was working with got a torrential bloody nose just before coming onstage, and we had to cover her absence for several minutes while watching her in the wings, trying to get the bleeding to stop! In all of these very silly cases, the loveliest thing happened – the actors on stage all banded together and went back to the most basic aspects of our training: listening and responding to the moment. Live theatre is rich and unpredictable, and that’s what I love most about it.
BGHF: Truly! Mary Shelley’s work, from centuries ago, still has such pertinence today. What would you say strikes you as the most vital thing that Frankenstein has to say to the modern audience?
Catherine: I’m fascinated by the conversation this story has about compassion, kindness and the essence of being human. The Creature is born in a very violent way, and one of the first things he does is reach out to Victor, to seek comfort and understanding from his creator. Victor spurns him because he is imperfect, and when the Creature goes out into the world, the only kindness he receives is from a man who can’t see his flaws. We empathize with the Creature’s journey; it’s understandable that he would want revenge for the misery he’s suffered. Somehow, though, the Creature still has the capacity for compassion and tenderness: during the Female’s reanimation, he is kinder and gentler than anyone else has been in the entire play. In spite what he is and all he has suffered, the Creature is more human than Victor is.
BGHF: Exactly! Lastly, any future projects or current obsessions that you’d like to tell us about? And thanks, this has been better than being revived by electricity or dancing with a mad scientist – any day of the week!
Catherine: Thanks so much for asking! I’ll be appearing in City Lit Theatre’s winter production of Peyton Place, adapted and directed by Paul Edwards. I’m also the Managing Director of The Viola Project, an educational organization dedicated to empowering young women through the study and performance of Shakespeare’s plays. You can find out more about our workshops and summer camps at www.violaproject.org. Additionally, I’m a new ensemble member at Promethean Theatre Ensemble, and we’re getting ready to start rehearsals for our winter show, Caucasian Chalk Circle. Life is busy and lovely!
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City Lit’s Frankenstein runs through November 4th in Chicago. Information on the show is available at www.citylit.org.
Big Gay Horror Fan is always accepting those of the green skinned, scientifically revived set at http://www.facebook.com/#!/BigGayHorrorFan, as well.
Until next time – SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!
Oh, the things that chew at Big Gay Horror Fan’s mind at all hours of the day! Worries, worries, angst – and worries!! Fortunately, creative director Gregory Mandry brought a new meaning to the term Gnaw with his 2008 English country cannibal epic of the same title!
Big Gay Horror Fan 