Frankenstein’s Body

Overview

Before it was a monster, they were people. These are their stories.

Frankenstein’s Body is an improvised Gothic Horror inspired by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Philadelphia’s real history of mass grave robbings that saw hundreds of human bodies unceremoniously taken from cemeteries to local medical schools and hospitals. We welcome the audience into the surgical theater of mad scientist Dr. Benjamin Frankenstein, who has prepared a lecture concerning his ongoing experiments with corpse reconstruction and reanimation. There has been a major breakthrough, and we’re the unlucky few to witness it first.

This work seeks to tinker with the Frankenstein mythos to tell the stories of the individual humans who compose the doctor’s creature. Each performance, our ensemble will take five unique body parts, solicited on the spot from our audience of “medical colleagues,” and create improvised vignettes that offer glimpses into the lives of those who once possessed these parts. We build the monster—you tell us who it’s made of.

About the Artist

Jasmine Jiang (creator/performer) is an artist, educator, and arts manager based in Philadelphia. Since 2014, she has been a performer and instructor of improv at Philly Improv Theater, SideQuest Theater, Washington Improv Theater, Empire Comedy, and others. Outside of her artistic practice, Jasmine is the Managing Director of Pig Iron Theatre Company.

Ryan Wilson (creator/director) is an actor and director based in Philadelphia, PA. Ryan has an MFA in Directing from Mary Baldwin Universitys Shakespeare and Performance program. A horror enthusiast, Ryan is co-creator of "Terror Trove," an improvised retelling of iconic horror media.

Credits