Immersive Performance: Fragments of Frankenstein

Asheville School Fine Arts Program presented Fragments of Frankenstein on May 9th, 11th, 12th & 13th. The interdisciplinary immersive performance highlighted our dance, visual art and music program with contributions from our European History, AP Chemistry, Engineering, and Anatomy courses. The performance took advantage of our entire theater; audience area, stage, hallways, storage areas, tech shop, green room, and dressing rooms to create a large scale art installation in addition to the site specific performance. With inspiration from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, we created fragments of the story bringing forth some of the over riding concepts. The novel continues to be valid today as we look at the themes of love, acceptance, rejection and assumptions about appearance dictating who we are in the world. My dance students were fortunate enough to work with guest artist Kelly Bartnik for one of the “fragments” as we dove into the world of immersive theater. Driven by the movement exploration of the tale, the dancers were accompanied by an original music score and environments that were rich with layers of visual art. As production director, choreographer, costume designer, and co-collaborator on lighting and art installation, I am once again grateful for the collaborative spirit of so many wonderful faculty members and students. Overall the experience was beyond what we all could have imagined. Kudos to all involved!

WLOS coverage

Guest Kelly Bartnik’s Rehearsal

Fragments Creation of Woman Lab video