How ‘Stranger Things: The First Shadow’ Embraces Its Stage Frights — and Stakes Out a Spot in the Series Mythology

variety.com:

Gordon Cox Theater Editor The creators of “Stranger Things: The First Shadow” went into the project with one goal top of mind: They wanted to make theater legitimately scary. Listen to this week’s “Stagecraft” podcast below: “Stephen said to me, ‘Have you ever been really frightened by something you’ve seen onstage?'” recalled Justin Martin, the co-director of “The First Shadow” with his frequent collaborator Stephen Daldry. “What we were looking for is a story that would really push us and test us with what our imaginations could do, in terms of something we’d never seen on stage before.” With “Stranger Things: The First Shadow” now in previews on Broadway, Martin (“Prima Facie”) appeared on the new episode of “Stagecraft,” Variety‘s theater podcast, with Kate Trefry, who’s both a writer on the hit Netflix TV series that inspired the play and the playwright of “The First Shadow.” The idea was to find a way to deliver onstage all the thrills, chills, and emotions of an episode of “Stranger Things,” the Spielbergian, supernatural thriller now gearing up for the release of its fifth and final season. “When Stephen and I spoke to Kate, and we said: ‘Don’t write a play.

Write two episodes of the TV series [i.e., Act I and Act II] and don’t limit yourself. And so she delivered these episodes which were like so expansive —” “And so expensive!” Trefry cut in with a laugh. “But actually it really pushed us,” Martin continued. “She’d written the essence of the series into this story, which then really meant we had to find a translation onstage.