Director's Notes & Vision

Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors is a gloriously unhinged gothic farce. It’s a fast, feral, fang-forward mash-up of genres that celebrates the joy of becoming exactly who you are and want to be. (We’ll abbreviate it as Dracula: ACT for the rest of this, and isn’t that a great abbreviation for a play?)

 

In a time when so much of our world and day-to-day life is dark and heavy, we wanted to highlight something fun, silly, and modern - what better way to do that than with a classical gothic horror novel from 1897? Dracula, while not the first vampire story ever told, is the archetype and inspiration for most modern vampire tales, and there have been hundreds of different adaptations. The sinister Transylvanian count is one of the most enduring symbols of darkness, fear, and the supernatural, and the story highlights the juxtaposition of charm and evil, civilization and savagery, and what lurks in the shadows in between - seduction, immortality, fear, and liberation. Vampires aren’t just monsters - they are a little bit extra, sexy and sensual, dangerous, and compelling. And they’re also incredibly theatrical! Capes! Glitter (we see you, Edward Cullen)! Turning into bats! Desperate for adulation and adoration! Free from the rigid boxes of society! Vampirism might not always be damnation - sometimes it’s escape, and freedom, and liberation - and that’s why it’s seductive and makes so many of us fascinated by the idea of vampires.

 

And Dracula: ACT? Well, it’s not exactly a reverent or faithful retelling of the classic book. It’s more of a rave thrown inside the gothic novel. It’s Dracula…if Bram Stoker was interested in telling the story as a camp, sexy, and somewhat queer romp through the Transylvania countryside. 

 

 

But silly and fun and more than a little irreverent doesn’t mean artistically empty. empty. Dracula: ACT takes place in a world that is heightened, theatrical, and intentionally and knowingly artificial. It is a celebration of the craft of theatre, and invites the audience to play along with us and watch as actors shapeshift with abandon between accents, costumes, characters, and archetypes.

 

Dracula: ACT celebrates the idea of play: it plays with identity, language, genre, expectations, and allows for big bold choices when the transformations aren’t hidden in the wings. Part of the joy and the humor comes from the audience marveling at the speed and theatrical virtuosity of the show - kind of a “Look ma, no hands!” moment.

 

And along the way, it explores things like identity, power, freedom, and love - all while playfully poking at the fourth wall to keep the audience complicit in the shenanigans.

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• Identity: Almost every character in the play pretends to be what they aren’t, whether because of societal norms, the desire to please someone else, or a combination therein: they pretend to be braver than they are, smarter than they are, sexier than they feel, and sometimes, more monstrous than they actually are. That, coupled with character switching and the theatricality of it all mirror the idea that identity is a costume. We wear masks and put on different versions of ourselves in order to survive, impress, seduce, or protect. Who are you underneath it all?

• Freedom: Victorian society, in which the play takes place, valued propriety, control, and appearances, whereas vampiric society typically celebrates desire, excess, indulgence, and inhibitions. Much of the comedic aspect of the play comes from the collision of these values - repression can be exhausting, and indulgence can be liberating, but at what cost? Is bucking the system worth it? 

• Power: Power is mostly a bluff, and people who have it only do so because we allow them to. Most of the power in the play comes through posturing, dramatic speeches, societal norms, and the illusion of control. When any of these are punctured, the illusion vanishes. Power is often just over-confidence in a good cape.

• Love: Love is ridiculous - but worth it anyway. Throughout history and pop culture, yearning and romantic love is treated as both noble, and absurd, often within the same breath. People have made terrible choices for love, embarrassed themselves, they even bleed for it sometimes. But love isn’t mocked or scorned in the play - not the feeling - only the behaviors that can come along with it. Love makes fools of us all, but that’s kind of beautiful.

Despite the silliness, the elements of gothic horror are real - fog, candlelight, ominous & foreboding underscoring, creaking doors. They exist side-by-side with absurdity. The play shares aspects from many of beloved cult classics - Young Frankenstein, Monty Python, and Rocky Horror, to name a few - but is its own creative and clever piece of theatre. It would be easy to dismiss Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors as a silly farce, but it is filled with heart, and runs on the blood, sweat, and tears of the cast and crew - pun gleefully intended.