Dracula
April 10-12 & 17-19, 2008
Written by Steven Dietz from the novel by Bram Stoker
Directed by Professor David Fox
This new adaptation by Steven Dietz restores the suspense and seduction of Bram Stoker’s classic novel to the stage. Sensual, sinister, and blood-soaked, the play paints a fresh and truly frightening picture of the infamous vampire.
Weber Theatre, Watson Fine Arts
CAST
| Dracula | Adam Wilson ’11 |
| Renfield | Patrick McCormick ’10 |
| Mina | Katherine Abraham ’09 |
| Lucy | Meghan Kenny ’08 |
| Harker | Jay Spriggs ’09 |
| Seward | Zachary LeClair ’09 |
| VanHelsing | Zachary Jackson ’08 |
| Attendants | Sean Clarke ’10 Danny Hoffman ’09 |
| Maid | Emily Karelitz ’10 |
| Vixens | Nicole Beal ’08 Emily Karelitz ’10 Anna Walsh ’09 |
CREW
| Director | David Fox |
| Costume & Set Designer | Clinton O’Dell |
| Sound Designer & Sound Board Operator | Chris Romilly ’09 |
| Technical Director & Co-Lighting Designer | David Cook |
| Co-Lighting Designer & Assistant Stage Manager | Mia Khayat ’09 |
| Dialect, Movement & Stage Combat Coach | Candice Brown |
| Properties Manager | Sarah Baline ’08 |
| Stage Manager | Nicole Beal ’08 |
| Assistant Stage Manager | Theresa Giannetti ’10 |
| Master Electrician | Amy Hopkinson ’09 |
| Electrics | Akeem Layne ’09 |
| Set Construction | Andrea Bravo ’09 David Harding ’08 Zachary Jackson ’08 Whitney Johnson ’08 Conor Landenberger ’08 Chris Romilly ’08 |
| Animation | Nick Johansen ’08 Conor Landenberger ’08 |
| Light Board Operator | Vernal Bailey ’09 |
| Stagehand | Andrew Durocher ’09 |
| Costumers | Kim Bellush ’09 Mia Khayat ’09 |
| Wardrobe Mistress | Heather Lobitz ’08 |
| Wardrobe Maintenance | Kelly Mount ’11 |
| Dressers | Heloise De Mil ’09 Peter Ginsbury ’08 |
Director’s Notes
Of all the monsters, Dracula is my particular favorite. He intrigues me the most. He scares me the most. For me, he is the most real, and that reality all spins on blood: the need for blood, the giving of blood, the taking of blood, the spilling of blood, sacrificial blood, pure blood, tainted blood, the passing of blood from one generation to the next. Myth, science, religion, and literature pulse with its presence. In every sense of the term, it is in our veins. Blood sustains us and saturates our subconscious.
The production of Dracula you will see tonight is calculated to please in an honest and humane fashion. Wherever possible, we have eliminated cheap theatrics and threadbare stereotypes. Instead, we dare you to ask what if? Where is the reality, the heartbeat in this all-too-familiar storyline? Hopefully, we have preserved the integrity of Bram Stoker’s magnificent 1897 novel and done service to the impressive 1995 stage adaptation by Steven Dietz. The charge to actors and designers from the beginning has been to avoid camp, to make it personal, to reckon with the figure-different for everyone-that is Dracula.
And finally, a thought on relevance. The ghost of the supposed madman Renfield remarks in his epilogue that “There are dark imaginings in the world” – an utterance as true today as ever. Therapy and pharmaceuticals may sooth us some, but there is always something lurking just outside our bedroom windows that threatens to invade our sleep and devour our peace of mind. Assign to it whatever name you wish, but the fear and anxiety are real. We are never free of Dracula. He occupies us. He’s in the blood.
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Categories:
- Theatre & Dance