Jule Selbo, novelist, award-winning playwright, and screenwriter revisits her theatrical beginnings with the world premiere of her new play, Mary Shelley: A Year With No Summer. The summer production, directed by Ojai Performing Arts Theater (OPAT) Artistic Director Richard Camp, is set to debut at the Ojai Performing Arts Theater on August 8.
The play, set in 1816, emerges into young Shelley’s world on the brink of scientific study and personal devastation. “Though set in 1816, this play resonates with today’s world,” said Camp. “It’s about how our choices shape us, how a woman transformed her own demons into the most iconic monster of all time. It’s a feminist story and a triumph against the odds.”
Selbo studied theater and worked in New York where her plays appeared off-off-Broadway and regionally. Following her time there she turned to Hollywood and leaned into screenwriting. She’s credited on works such as Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, Hercules, Melrose Place, Space Above and Beyond, Hunchback of Notre Dame II, and more. Now she is returning to the theater with the world premiere of Mary Shelley: A Year With No Summer.
Selbo was drawn to Mary Shelley’s spirit. “She was born into a conservative England but raised by revolutionaries — Mary Wollstonecraft, an early feminist, and William Godwin, a radical philosopher,” said Selbo. “After her mother’s death, Mary grew up under a shadow of great expectations. I wanted to explore her passions, her intellect, and how she wove her fears and hopes about science and society into Frankenstein — a story that still haunts us today.”
Mary Shelley: A Year With No Summer is playing August 8-17 at Ojai Performing Arts Theater. For details and to purchase tickets, click here.
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