Bowling Green State University isn’t stinting on the scares this Halloween season.
Last weekend the Department of Theatre and Film presented a stage version of the cult classic "Night
of the Living Dead."
On Friday the Festival Series will show the 1931 movie "Frankenstein" with live music performed
by university music faculty. The movie will be screened at 8p.m. in the Wolfe Center for the Arts’
Donnell Theatre. Attendees are invited to come in costume, and vie for prizes.
Tickets are $12  and $5 for students. Call 419-372-8171 or visit BGSU.edu/arts.
Though the film dates from 1931, the score is contemporary. It was composed in 2002 by Michael Shapiro.

"Frankenstein" bridges the silent and talkie eras in film. Though the actors talk, the
technology did not allow for a synchronized, accompanying musical score. That had a wait a couple years
when  Max Steiner scored "King Kong" in 1933.
Shapiro has said of his composition: "I try to write music in every form that gets under the
listener’s skin."
Shapiro brought his experience as an opera composer to bear on "Frankenstein.  "I love writing
music that has a dramatic impulse," he said. "I thought of this Frankenstein score as almost a
one-act opera … but instead of writing music to move singers across a stage, I thought of moving actors
through their dramatic action, commenting on what is being portrayed emotionally."
At BGSU, the music will be performed by a 16-piece chamber orchestra conducted by Bruce Moss, director of
band activities.  Most of the musicians are faculty members with several graduate students also
participating.
With the event happening on Halloween and the costume party, the evening "is designed to be a fun
event," said Moss.
That’s the spirit the musicians have brought to the task of  performing the score.  "The movie is
what it is… old time fun."
The music has to fit right in with the action, pushing the drama along, heightening the chills. The score
must be executed to the second with the music cued by lines spoken by the actor.
Moss said that he hasn’t found a video version of the music being performed with the film, so some
elements he and musicians have to figure out for themselves.
The music isn’t just background. The musicians will not be hidden in the pit but fully visible as
Frankenstein stalks above them on screen.
Cashbox Classical Music Editor Rob Tomaro wrote of a previous performance of film with Shapiro score:
"The audience was riveted to their seats. The power of the live music with the classic film was
hypnotic."
(Sentinel staff and BGSU Office of Marketing and Communication.)