The Teacher’s Guild at Agnes Scott College is presenting a dramatic reading of Atlanta playwright Marki Shalloe’s Promethea Unlaced, the story of the birth of Mary Shelley and the birth of her famous novel, Frankenstein.
Ms. Shalloe is a local playwright with a penchant for finding stories in unusual places. “Of daydream and nightmare, always choose the nightmare. It makes the better tale,” says Shalloe in Promethea. This play, originally commissioned by Georgia Tech, started first as a story about the Frankenstein myth.
Shalloe said that once her research landed on Mary Shelley’s mother – Mary Wollstonecraft – everything changed. According to Shalloe, “This woman fought for the emancipation of women in the 18th century, believed in free love before anyone really knew what that was, and knew the most irreconcilable sin is the sin against oneself or self betrayal.” Shalloe knew then the story that needed to be told: the legacy of immortality through written expression.
Performances are free and will be held in the Julia Thompson Smith Chapel on the Agnes Scott College campus. There are two performances – a Tuesday, September 27 performance that includes a wine & cheese reception at 7 p.m., the performance at 7:30, and a talkback with the playwright at 9:30 and a Wednesday, September 28 performance at 7:30 p.m.
