Dracula bites its way into Russell

“This is a radio broadcast, we only have one demo reel…” These words, from director Karen Page, are repeated more than once during rehearsals for the upcoming performance of “Dracula.”

Page, an animated director who is as interesting to watch in action as her charges, makes it very clear as to what she wants from the actors. This is Page’s senior project, and she has taken the story of “Dracula” to a whole new place.

The cast is into their characters. The accents and attitudes are wonderfully executed, and all the elements will translate well to the audience.

“It’s not the ‘Dracula’ everyone’s expecting to see,” said Nick Thompson, playing Van Helsing.

Karen’s version of the classic takes on a feeling of modern horror, rather than Victorian terror. Costuming, for instance, was an issue due to budget restraints. It costs a lot of money to outfit everyone in Victorian costume. The solution is that the whole play has been modernized. Costumes will be flashy but of modern style. The change in dress is reflected by changes in dialogue and setting. The action that used to be centered in England will be transferred to America.

Some of the themes popularized by the 1992 Bram Stokers’ “Dracula” major motion picture have been cut out. The love story element between Dracula and Mina Murrey has been all but axed, having never been part of the original story in the first place. At the same time, new ideas have been inserted into the old style. One actor commented on the Sam Ramie-like (“Army of Darkness,” “Spiderman”) quality of the mood. The dark humor set to the backdrop of a healthy amount of gore (this is “Dracula” after all) makes for a classic horror feeling.

There are a few musical performances in the play, including “Tainted Love.”

Finally, Van Helsing, the character played by Anthony Hopkins in the 1992 version of the movie, has been altered from his elderly gentleman persona, into a “younger” vampire/human crossbreed. Think Blade…only not really.

Joey Villemez pulls off an excellently creepy and commanding Dracula. Myke Johns brings us a sufficiently deranged Jonathan Harker, with a little bit of Renfield thrown in. Melissa Cranford plays the lovely Mina. Hayley Cress and John Hurley play Lucy and her suitor Arthur, respectively. Scotti Smith plays Van Helsing’s student Dr. Seward. There are vampires in the play too, but their listing would take up a lot of space here…there are a lot of them.

The show runs Thursday through Saturday, April 17, 18 and 19 at 8 p.m. in Russell Auditorium. Everyone who comes will be able to check out all of this vampire action for themselves. No one should walk away from this performance bored.

General admission is $5 for senior citizens while non-GC&SU students, GC&SU faculty and staff can get in for $3. While GC&SU students pay just $1.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Apr 10 2003. Filed under Other. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry