Photos: First look at Rise Up Art Alliance Community Theatre’s DRACULA
DRACULA will run from Oct. 23 – Nov. 2, 2025.
Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula popularized the Gothic genre and brought vampire fiction to a mass audience, shaping popular understanding of the mythological creature. While playwright Steven Dietz takes some theatrical liberties, this adaptation is largely faithful to the source material and preserves the major plot and characters. Also intact are the style and tone of the original novel, complete with gore, special effects, and melodrama. The play is anchored with a prologue and epilogue delivered by Renfield, a mysterious, insane asylum patient under the spell of Count Dracula, a vampire who is equal parts debonair and violent. When the young Lucy begins to transform into a vampire, her best friend Mina summons the psychiatrist Dr. Seward to examine her. Flummoxed, Seward calls in his mentor, Professor Van Helsing. When Dracula’s lawyer and Mina’s fiancé Harker returns from Dracula’s castle in a state of shock, his journal paints a picture of the full extent of Dracula’s power. As the stakes get higher, the group must fight time to defeat evil. With an ensemble cast and minimal scenic requirements, Dietz’s adaptation offers a gripping horror play for theatres of any size or technical capability.
By Steven Dietz, Based on the novel by Bram Stoker, Director - Leo Bennett, Assistant Director - Carrie Marie Love, Stage Manager - Haley Pearce, Intimacy and Physicality Coordinator - Cynthia Ogg, Costumes - Elizabeth Poklinkowski. The Cast: Renfield - Basha Spence, Mina Murray - Keely Pearce, Lucy Westenra - Raven Lockwood, Jonathan Harker - Isaac Lockwood, John Seward - Jay Melick, Dracula - Weston Mcaloney, Van Helsing - Tyler Cosgray, Attendant and Vixen - Summer Hartman, Maid and Vixen - Julia Melick, Vixen and Attendant - Emily Salamy, Vixen - Olivia Hunley.
Performances are Oct. 23, 24, 31 & Nov. 1, at 7:00pm, Oct. 26 & Nov. 2, at 4:00pm at Lancaster Parks and Recreation Community Center (Old General Sherman) 632 W. Fifth Ave. Lancaster, OH 43130. Purchase tickets: https://riseuparts.ludus.com/index.php?sections=events
Check out the first look below!
Photo Credit: Jerri Shafer
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