FREEPORT — “Beware the moon, lads!”

Thus do the sinister patrons of The Slaughtered Lamb pub send two young American backpackers out onto the Yorkshire Moors to their lycanthropic doom in “An American Werewolf in London,” the famous horror movie by John Landis.

One boy is killed, the other survives and wakes up in a London hospital. Just as romance with his nurse begins to blossom, his desires are sabotaged by the appearance of his undead friend urging him to kill himself before the next full moon exerts its horrific influence.

Freeport Community Players and Hallowell’s Gaslight Theater have joined forces this Halloween to present the world premiere stage performance of this story of fangs and fear.

Performances will be at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Oct. 30-31, at the Freeport Performing Arts Center. Admission is free.

Director Tim Ryan, of Lisbon, has been a fan of the original movie for almost 30 years. “I’ve directed the Freeport Community Players Halloween event for several years now and wanted to do something special,” he said. “While I was looking for ideas, I came across this radio adaptation by the BBC and was immediately hooked.”

Ryan began corresponding with the author/producer of the BBC adaptation, Dirk Maggs, more than a year ago. This, in turn, led to lengthy correspondence with Landis to obtain permissions.
The movie won the first-ever Best Makeup Oscar — the category was specially created for the werewolf transformation on screen  —  and this show is laden with special effects of its own.

“They gave us permission to perform a reading of the script. Then I started getting asked by everyone how I was going to do the transformation scene, and things just kind of escalated. We decided to stage a black box (minimal set) production, and so I had to go back and ask for more permission,” Ryan said.

Eric Anderson of Portland, who recently won the best makeup prize at the Portland 48 Hour Film Project for his zombie makeup, is working on special effects. According to Ryan and producer Mike Clements of West Gardiner, they have a quadruped werewolf, which is something beyond the original movie. In addition, there will be multimedia segments, live video broadcasting and action from within the audience.
The two community theater groups are collaborating on the project for several reasons, not the least of which is the huge cast, according to Clements. “The radio script has 69 characters. We’ve combined a few roles, but there are still over 30 speaking actors, plus extras,” he said. “By collaborating, we are bringing a large group of people with different backgrounds and talents together, and that has to be good.”

Plus, he said, the show is free. “The theater seats 500, so we’re looking to entertain 1,000 people over the two nights. That’s a lot of resources and money for one group to commit.”

Among the cast members are Bill McLean of Monmouth as Dr Hirsch, Cotey Green of Freeport as David, Mike Johnson of Portland as Jack and Ashley St Pierre of Augusta as Alex.

Audience members are urged to dress up in costume as a zombie, a werewolf victim, the undead, whatever. There will be door prizes for the best costumes. Attendees are also encouraged to bring some dried or canned food items for the local food bank.
The original movie was rated R. The Freeport Community Players and Gaslight Theater production is “probably more like PG-13, parents strongly cautioned. There’s some bad language, and some mature content. We don’t recommend it for youngsters or people of a sensitive disposition,” said Ryan. “Or people with werewolf allergies,” added Clements.

Go and do
WHAT: “An American Werewolf in London”
WHEN: 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 30, and Saturday, Oct. 31
WHERE: Freeport Performing Arts Center, Holbrook Street, Freeport
COST: Free, reservations not required.
MORE INFO: www.fcponline.org/schedule or www.gaslighttheater.org