Monster Grove population: 122 laughs
By Derek Gurr
A scream is heard offstage and a big, green Frankenstein lumbers out to change the Monster Grove death count to 122.
Frankenstein, who serves as mayor of Monster Grove, a huggable ogre, an obsessive-compulsive female werewolf, an ever-hungry swamp thing and several other monsters with vibrant costumes will take to the stage as “Mysteries of Monster Grove” opens for its first preview showing in the Nelke Experimental Theatre.
The never-before-seen children’s play invites young participants in the audience to help young, sleuthing Amelia (played by Adele Gabriel) to solve the mystery of her father’s disappearance. The play is based on a children’s book by Rick Walton, a local author who worked with director Eric Samuelsen and BYU students to develop the script.
“It’s a ton of fun,” Samuelsen said. “I think it’s really inventive.”
In the play, Amelia reluctantly moves to Monster Grove with her parents. Amelia’s father, an analytical accountant, is determined to help the mathematically challenged monsters with their taxes. When her father goes missing, Amelia is anxious to fi nd out who is responsible and where he is. Children in the audience are called on to assist her in fi guring out the mystery.
“We want the kids to be the ones who are really heavily engaged in what we’re doing,” Samuelsen said.
Unlike most other productions Samuelsen has helped with, the show was developed by the performers and the stage crew in conjunction with Walton, the writer.
Danniey Wright, a 2007 theater arts graduate from Tucson, Ariz., is the show’s production manager.“When we started it, we didn’t have a script,” Wright said. “All of the actors were there and helped to develop their own characters. We improvised a lot and wrote the script from that.”
To add a unique twist, the show was designed so that audiences could go seven times and see seven different outcomes.
“We didn’t want it to be so generic, so what we did was basically write seven different plays,” Samuelsen said. “And in each case, there are clues pointing specifically to one monster. The audience works with Amelia to try to find out which monster did it.”
The cast has practiced and rehearsed since January.
“Sometimes working on the same show every single day can get a little tiring,” Wright said. “But these people are such a fun group and they’ve been really great to work with.”
Walton has written more than 80 children’s books, including “So Many Mummies,” “Bertie Was a Witchdog,” “A Very Hairy Scary Story” and “Just Me and 6,000 Bats.”
Evening showings of the play will cost $9 with student ID ($12 without). Tickets for matinee performances are $6. The show will run until June 12. Tickets can be purchased through the Fine Arts Ticket Office or at byuarts.com.”
This article was published on May 28, 2010 by the Daily Universe, BYU’s student newspaper sponsored by the BYU Department of Communications.
