By Ashley McLeod, Staff Writer
Aug 13, 2015, 15:39
PETERSBURG — Downtown Petersburg became home to a slew of characters from the Phantom of the Opera story last Friday, where the rooms at 306 N. Sycamore were transformed into a movie set for a new period drama being filmed.
The show, Coney Island, is a project from Chester native Tracey Frame, which has been in the works for about two years now. The show, which was filming its pilot on Friday, is a spin on the classic tale of the Phantom of the Opera, with a twist added in.
“The show is primarily Phantom based, but we’ve incorporated other classic monster characters, such as Dracula, Jekyll and Hyde, and Frankenstein. The basis is this group of monsters that run a freak show on Coney Island.
“It’s set primarily in the early 1920s, during the turn of the century, around the time of the Titanic. It’s very vintage, and a lot of characters reminisce on their past,” said Frame.
Each episode of the show will feature a different character in the Coney Island Freak Show and will show each characters back story for the audience to learn. Frame said the show would be similar to ABC’s Once Upon a Time, which shows different fairy tale characters and their pasts leading up to the present time of the show.
“With Eric and Meg (From Phantom) they reminisce on things that happened at the opera house, and you see flashbacks of his childhood,” said Frame.
There will also be flash-forwards, allowing the audience to see what is in store for the characters in the future. The flashback and flash-forward aspect of the show allows for a variety of actors to be a part of the production, both young and old. This also gives the show a time span from the 1880s up into the 20th century.
At first, the show was set to be primarily about the Phantom characters, but Frame decided to incorporate other classic monsters into the show in order to reach a larger audience.
“We decided to go the route of incorporating other monsters because some kids will know who Dracula or Frankenstein are and may not know about Phantom. So by incorporating these other monsters, it opens up the audience base a little bit more,” said Frame.
Auditions were held for the production in January, and the show caught the eye of a few actors previously on network television. One of these actors was Aaron Jackson, who plays Raoul in the show.
“My assistant saw the audition and I asked her to submit me, it just seemed like such a great project,” said Jackson, who previously appeared on NBC’s spinoff of Saved by the Bell, California Dreams.
The actor, who lives in Florida but travels a lot for work, came to Virginia to be a part of the project, which was different from most things he is presented with as an actor. The premise of the show also played a part in his decision to come on board.
“As a child, it was the first Broadway musical I had ever seen, and I thought it was great,” said Jackson.
Jackson was already familiar with the area, as he teaches acting workshops in Richmond.
“I knew it would be great production-wise, and just reading the pilot and the first episode thereafter, and talking to Tracey, just knowing what the characters are going to do and how they’re going to evolve, it’s an amazing story,” said Jackson.
Also involved in the production are local stars Daphne Reid, of Fresh Prince of Bel-Air fame, and her husband, Tim Reid, known from WKRP and Sister, Sister. The two play owners of the Coney Island Jazz Club, and are also part of a family of werewolves.
The show is currently shooting scenes for the pilot episode, which will be filmed throughout the fall, and then edited and put together as a trailer to be shown to networks to pick up as an ongoing series.
