Co-Commissioned and Co-Presented with Abrons Arts Center.

By combining literary and dramatic narrative with eye-witness accounts of Sasquatch encounters culled from the internet, THE SECURELY CONFERRED, VOUCHSAFED KEEPSAKES OF MAERY S. reinvents as many versions of the Frankenstein author Mary Shelley as there are definitions of the word “Gothic.” In this work, a string of financial, maternal, and familial misfortunes causes Shelley — referred to in this production as Maery S. — to spawn a monstrous creative expression, which takes on its own life and violent history. Maery cannot help but fall in love with her Monster, only to see it “collected” and imprisoned by charitable funding at a mandatory artists’ residency.

MAERY S. will begin as a 4-part episodic radio play on January 25, followed by a series of experimental digital “theatrical miniseries,” which will be available in the Spring.

Written and Directed by Sibyl Kempson. Music and Songs Composed by Graham Reynolds. Sound Design, Original Scoring, Musical Direction and Sonic Staging by Chris Giarmo. Co-directed by Brian Mendes. Stage Manager: Olivia O’Brien. Produced by Amanda Davis. Starring Dee Dorcas Beasnael, Brian Mendes, Chris Giarmo, Sibyl Kempson, Victor Morales and Crystal Wei. With special guests: Jess Barbagallo, Buddy Blobner, Elliott and Frank Cennetoglu, Amanda Davis, Sharyn & Milo Jackson Husiak, Oceana James, Laryssa, Nathan Lemoine, Maurina Lioce, Andreea Mincic, Rosemary Quinn, Natalie Smith, Aaron Treat and Adrienne Truscott.

THE SECURELY CONFERRED, VOUCHSAFED KEEPSAKES OF MAERY S. is a co-commission by Abrons Arts Center and the Chocolate Factory Theater, and was developed with the support of the Baryshnikov Arts Center, New Dramatists, the Playwrights Center, with funding from the Jerome Foundation, NYSCA, the McKnight National Residency and Commission, patrons of 7 Daughters of Eve on Patreon, and participants in the 2020 7 Daughters course offerings, mentorship, and creative consultations.

“Review: Road-Tripping with Frankenstein’s Monster in ‘Maery S.’” – Maya Phillips, New York Times