On Saturday, September 29, I had the pleasure of seeing/listening to Jonathan Frid perform his one man
reader's theater show "Fridiculousness" at Crawfordsville High School in Crawfordsville, Indiana. Proceeds from
the performance benefited the Make a Wish Foundation.
It had been nearly three years since I'd last seen him perform his show at Hofstra University on Long Island, and I was really looking forward to it. Prior to the show, my friends and I picked up our souvenir tickets
(see below) at the box office and then got acquainted with some of the other
fans (many of whom had come from great distances to see the show).
At 6:30 the volunteer staff opened the doors and began seating the crowd of 150-200 people. Everyone had pre-assigned seating and seating maps of the auditorium, which made the process of finding your seat run very smoothly.
At a few minutes past 7:00, a voice over the p.a. system uttered the words:
"Ladies and Gentlemen, Jonathan Frid." Jonathan walked out from behind the curtain and made his way to a platform in front of the stage. The audience greeted him with a standing ovation to which he responded
with something to the effect of. . . . Thank you, but I haven't even done anything yet, which drew laughs from the crowd.
Jonathan opened the show with Thomas Meehan's "Yma Dream". For those of you not familiar with
this particular piece, it is a story about a cocktail party and centers on the host introducing each arriving guest (first name only) to those already in attendance. The twist is that all the guests' names seem to have the same number of letters and all end in vowels: Yma, Abi, Ari, Eva, Ida, etc. Jonathan does a fantastic job of fluently running the gambit of names as each new guest arrives. My favorite piece of Part I of the program was a story
called " The Third Level." It is about an elderly couple discovering a mysterious third level at Grand Central Station (where in reality the terminal only has two levels) that takes them back in time, and their return to the present and subsequent search to rediscover that third level. Jonathan had the audience captivated as he recounted this tale written by Jack Finney.
Let me mention here that I thought the lighting for the show was wonderful. The indirect light that illuminated Jonathan also cast a dark shadow (pun fully intended) of his silhouette off the brick walls on both sides of the auditorium. Jonathan also informed us that this was the first time he was using a wireless microphone in his performance, and the audio really sounded good.
In Part II of the program Jonathan performed selections from Richard III. He stills has a very commanding voice and was very animated in this part of the program.
Part III featured my other favorites that I have heard Jonathan tell before:
" My Fridean Connection," which he wrote himself, and Edgar Allan Poe's
"The Tell- Tale Heart." The Fridean connection is a very funny story that centers on the origin of the surname
Frid and the many spellings and meanings it has in different languages. Jonathan's inspiration for this particular piece came from research his producer (Nancy Kersey) had done in the public library.
After the two- hour show Jonathan did a Q&A session where he answered questions ranging from how
h is gardening was doing, to his interpretation of Shakespeare's Richard III, and how he felt about his role of Barnabas Collins on
Dark Shadows. He told the gathering that he was never really comfortable with the daily rigors of memorizing lines and that this fear also helped to create the character of Barnabas.
A raffle of Dark Shadows memorabilia donated by the show's sponsor Dean Wilson
followed the Q&A. Among the prizes given away were: Gold Key Dark Shadows comics from the 1960's, autographed
8x10 photos of Mr. Frid, original lobby cards from the two theatrical films, and an original script from one of the episodes.
After the raffle, Jonathan signed autographs and posed for photographs in the lobby. The autograph line also ran very smoothly, as two rows of patrons were lead out at a time to stand in line while the rest remained seated in the auditorium. This worked out really well as people weren't forced to stand for a long period of time waiting to get an autograph. There were a handful of friendly volunteer staff available to assist in making the autograph process run
smoothly and to take photos of you with Mr. Frid if you needed assistance. Thanks to one of those members, Kristi Nelson, for the wonderful photo she took of Mr. Frid and
me that is located on the Autograph page.
Mr. Frid's biographer, Malia Howard, was on hand with the final version of the career biography she has written on him entitled:
Jonathan Frid: An Actors Curious Journey. I had picked up the preview copy she had available at the
Festival, and it is very well written and a must have for any Dark Shadows
fan. Malia can be contacted at loqitar@msn.com for information on how to obtain the book via mail order.
More photos related to the book, including a cover image, are located on the Career
Biography page.
Although I have seen Mr. Frid perform his one man show on several occasions over the past
10 or 11 years, I am so glad that I decided to go to Indiana. For those of you who have never had the opportunity to meet him or see his show, I highly recommend you try to make it to Norwalk this December to see him perform at the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion. I understand the evening performance had already been sold out, but that some tickets still remain for the matinee.
For more information, visit the Lockwood-Mathews
web site.
Thanks to Dean Wilson, Nancy Kersey, and all their volunteer staff for putting on a wonderful production. And a special thanks to Mr. Frid for taking the time to drive all the way down from Canada to perform this wonderful show for charity. For
more information on Jonathan Frid, visit his official site at www.jonathanfrid.com
.
