What’s a production of “Night of the Living Dead” without a horde of zombies roaming around to scare actors and audiences alike?
StageOne Family Theatre didn’t want to find out, so leaders crafted a crash course on how to be a reanimated corpse.
This isn’t Zombie University’s first graduating class. For the 2008 production of “Night of the Living Day” they took a similar approach.
“We just put this ad out into the public requesting anybody — you don't have to be a theater person — interested in being a zombie. We’ll train you for a few weeks, incorporate you slowly but surely into the rehearsal process with the cast,” said Crystian Wiltshire, StageOne community engagement manager.
Wiltshire is also the assistant director for “Night of the Living Dead.”
During the course, Wiltshire, alongside StageOne producing artistic director Andrew Harris, helped the would-be zombies develop their characters.
“When it comes to being a zombie, first thing’s first: We ask the question, well, ‘who were you before you became a zombie?’” Wiltshire said. “Everyone gets to come up with their characters and say, ‘Okay, this is who they were. This was their family background. This was their occupation. This is how old they are. All sorts of fun questions to figure out, to shape who this person was.’”
Wiltshire said the zombies-in-training then conceived how they were turned, and what injuries they sustained, all of which inform the zombies they become for the show.
For example, Zombie University student and class captain 17-year-old Maddy Richardson decided she was a nursing student with a notable accessory before becoming undead.
“And I decided that my zombie has these pink frilly socks that she always wears, and she gets killed while she is working with a patient who they don't know has been infected,” Richardson said.
While she’s not new to the stage, Richardson said building her character's background in this way has made her transformation much easier.
“In order to move like a zombie, you have to first move like they were as a human,” Richardson said. “So how was she carrying herself before she died, different to now, or maybe something she wears, or how she died.”
The university was a way to advance one of their mottos, “theater is for everyone,” on a big stage.
“When it comes to theater, auditions are competitive, and you don't always get a chance to apply the skills that you've learned even when you're trying to,” Harris said. “One of the things I think was so important about [Zombie University] is to make sure that there is absolutely a way you can participate. There's no way that you don't get to participate, because that's how you learn, and we wanted to make sure that everybody was invited in.”
Harris, in addition to teaching people how to be zombies, has worked with newer performers to make sure his stage directions make sense.
“I'm giving them a verbal cue, but I'm also giving them a visual cue, because people have different learning modalities, and making sure that I'm intentionally thinking about communicating through multiple modalities so that everybody can learn and experience in the way they need to stage I don't remember stage right, but I see you walk from here to there,” Harris said.
“Night of the Living Dead” runs Oct. 30 through Nov. 2 at Old Forester’s Paristown Hall. Attendees beware: Zombies will be roaming from the moment doors open.
This story has been updated.
