Here at Loony Literature, we believe that children should be introduced to classic Literature at a primary school age. We know that if children are au fait with the plot and characters of the text, they are more likely to understand the actual text when starting to study it later at secondary school or with other educators.
“Frankenstein’s Revenge” is a play to introduce children to the novel Frankenstein. It is a comedy which looks at what happens when Victor Frankenstein meets his creator Mary Shelley, thus it introduces the children also to Mary and Percy Shelley. The main theme of “Frankenstein’s Revenge” is prejudice.
“Frankenstein’s Revenge” is written with three goals in mind. The first is to get children involved in acting, directing, creating sets and making or finding costumes. All of these activities encourage both confidence and team effort in children. About a month ago, I had a friend and her daughters over for lunch. When I asked the two girls if they would like to come over another time and help me change the costumes of the mannequins and move The Laboratory around, their eyes lit up and I was greeted with the most enthusiastic “yes”. I truly believe that children learn so much when they are actually “doing”.
The second goal is to get children discussing what is meant by the play. I have thought about how much preparation teachers and home educators have to do and I know how time expensive that it. This has led me to believe that I will publish the play alone but I am also going to publish an educator’s resource. This will have the play in it but will also be accompanied by the questions which an educator needs to ask on the interpretation of the play, improvisation exercises, creative writing exercises and persuasive writing exercises, amongst other things.
The third goal is that “Frankenstein’s Revenge” is used as a springboard for the children’s own creativity. This is why the educator’s resource will have creative exercises in it. Obviously, educators and children alike can come up with their own creative ideas but they will not need to. There will be plenty in the educator’s resource to keep them going.
It is extremely important to me that I succeed in achieving all three goals. This project is not simply about my writing, it is about encouraging others and I think that is where the true satisfaction lies. If I can inspire children whom I might never get to meet then I will be glowing with happiness.
The play “Frankenstein’s Revenge” will be published shortly. The educator’s resource is work in progress, so whilst I am finishing it off, I will be posting some of the ideas here for feedback. I would love to hear from you.
- My Frankenstein Dairy (9) – Can an author inspire us? (loonyliterature.com)
- Analyze frankenstein and industrial revolution (auberongriswold.typepad.com)
- An Open Letter to Victor Frankenstein [The World’s Fair] (scienceblogs.com)
- ArtsBeat: ‘Frankenstein’ Comes Alive in the App Store (artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com)
- Frankenstein Alive, Alive #1 Review (oldgamereviewer.com)
- Frankenstein criticism free (mauriceboettch1.typepad.com)