Back around 1978-1980, if my memory for dates is functioning properly, I did some acting as part of a local community theater group in Brooklyn, the Greenpoint Repertory Company. Over the course of about two years, when life seemed to hold more spare time, I played Mookie Maguggins in “Dirty Works at the Crossroads,” Boris Kolenkhov in “You Can’t Take It With You,” Lennie Small in “Of Mice and Men,” and the Creature in “Frankenstein.”<\/p>\n
Of these performances, very little evidence survives, which, after all, is one of the beautiful and poignant things about theater. You had to be there. I only have a couple of photographs from any of those productions, since it was a pre-digital time. But thanks to my brother, Lee, who was attending film school in 1979, something more remains of “Frankenstein.” <\/p>\n
Whether for homework or just for the heck of it, he made a Super 8 film which captures a few snippets of performance, plus a sped-up sequence as I applied my make-up. Lee just found that film and transferred it to DVD, and watching it took me way back. (Thanks, Lee!) So now I’m inflicting it on you.<\/p>\n
The picture and sound have deteriorated a bit over the past three decades the film spent in the back of a closet, leading to some distortion in sound and an occasional blip in the picture, but I’m sharing it here anyway, because, well, I can’t resist. Mary Shelley was played by Anne Pasquale, Henry Clerval by Allan Grosman, and Victor Frankenstein by Michael LaVeglia.<\/p>\n
The film was around 13 minutes long, so I needed to break it into two parts due to YouTube’s posting requirements.<\/p>\n