{"id":42252,"date":"2018-11-16T13:00:54","date_gmt":"2018-11-16T19:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=42252"},"modified":"2018-11-16T11:23:13","modified_gmt":"2018-11-16T17:23:13","slug":"forsyth-library-hosted-an-event-celebrating-mary-shelleys-frankenstein","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=42252","title":{"rendered":"Forsyth Library hosted an event celebrating Mary Shelley\u2019s Frankenstein"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">STORY BY CORIE LYNN<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Throughout October and into November, displays showcasing interpretations of Mary Shelley\u2019s <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Frankenstein<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and the history of the novel have been visible around Forsyth Library. These displays describe everything from the life of Shelley to Dr. Frank-N-Furter of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Rocky Horror Picture Show<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to the 1960s cartoon <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Frankenstein Jr. and the Impossibles<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Forsyth, however, had more planned for the iconic science-fiction novel.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">On November 12, the Aquila Theatre performed <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mary Shelley\u2019s Frankenstein<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> as a part of FHSU\u2019s Encore Series.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Before the play began that evening, Forsyth hosted a party that included refreshments as well as activities centered on the novel.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In an interview, Instruction and Outreach Librarian Cyndi Landis explained that part of the excitement of the evening\u2019s events is due to this year being the 200th anniversary of Shelley\u2019s <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Frankenstein<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">However, the party was also held to give those in attendance background knowledge before they watched the play later that evening.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">One of the ways they did this was by inviting the Aquila cast to the library for the party.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">During this time, everyone in attendance was able to meet several of the cast members. This included Caroline Moroney who played Dr. Walton and the Barrister, Rober Madeley who played the Monster, and Jack Klaff who played Alphonse Frankenstein, John Polidori, and Mr. DeLacey. Both Moroney and Madeley stayed at the library to answer questions before the show.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The main event of the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Frankenstein<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> party was a series of presentations given by FHSU faculty from the English and History Departments with each presenter informing the audience on a different aspect of the novel.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The first presentation was given by Dr. Matthew Smalley, Assistant Professor of English.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The perspective Dr. Smalley gave was on the humanity (or lack thereof) of Frankenstein\u2019s creature. This included citing when Victor Frankenstein stopped referring to his monster as a human as well as how the creature\u2019s physical appearance caused society to reject him.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The second presentation, given by Dr. Lexi Bartlett, Associate Professor of English, was on the life of Mary Shelley. During this time, Bartlett discussed how real tragedies in Shelley\u2019s life might have inspired themes in the novel and even the deaths of certain characters.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">According to Landis, it was also Dr. Bartlett\u2019s Romantic Literature class that created the library\u2019s displays showing <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Frankenstein<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in popular culture.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dr. Kim Perez, Associate Professor of History, gave the final presentation on how the science of Shelley\u2019s time is present in the novel. According to Perez, though Shelley did not explicitly state how the creature was brought to life, it\u2019s possible that Shelley was inspired by her contemporaries\u2019 study of electricity on the body.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The presentations concluded the festivities at the library, though many attendees saw the Aquila production of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mary Shelley\u2019s Frankenstein<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> following the party.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The play itself closely followed the novel, but it began with the account of the inception of the story: it came to Shelley in a dream. Afterwhich, she, her husband Percy Shelley, and the poet Lord Byron had a competition to write a horror story; Mary Shelley chose to write <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Frankenstein<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> based on the dream she\u2019d had.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">This, as well as the events of the story, was clearer to many audience members due to the events held at Forsyth Library. Though the celebration of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Frankenstein<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u2019s anniversary is a once in a lifetime event, it is thanks to the library and FHSU staff that more people have a greater understanding of one of the greatest works in science fiction.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>STORY BY CORIE LYNN Throughout October and into November, displays showcasing interpretations of Mary Shelley\u2019s Frankenstein and the history of the novel have been visible&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":142,"featured_media":42253,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Forsyth Library hosted an event celebrating Mary Shelley\u2019s Frankenstein","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3398,11],"tags":[11974,69,2367,106,12257,2011,12432,12431,103,1495,290],"class_list":["post-42252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-news","category-news","tag-corie-lynn","tag-fhsu","tag-forsyth-library","tag-fort-hays-state-university","tag-frankenstein","tag-kim-perez","tag-lexi-bartlett","tag-matthew-smalley","tag-tiger-media-network","tag-tigermedianet","tag-tmn"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/aquila-theatre-in-mary-shelleys-frankenstein.jpg?fit=400%2C400&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/142"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42252"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42252\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42254,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42252\/revisions\/42254"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/42253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}