'Dracula' Coming to St. Bonaventure
Terror hits the stage through the production of “Dracula” at St. Bonaventure University Oct. 20-23 in the historic Garret Theater.
An adaptation by the Scottish playwright Liz Lochhead brings Bram Stoker’s eerie and passionate tale to life. The SBU Theater cast and crew are working to create both a thrilling and a rather scary experience.
The production has been set to capture the spookiness of the Halloween season; but to do this, rehearsal time has been shorter than in past seasons. Memorizing the lines and learning the blocking has been done at a very professional rate for this show, but Mary Best, a freshman journalism and mass communication major, believes that this time crunch will not affect the quality of the show.
“Everyone is putting their all into the show,” said Best, “and with the finishing touches on our sets and the addition of makeup and costumes, we are sure to put on one heck of a ‘Dracula.’”
With lots of effects, and some very dramatic action, “Dracula” rehearsals have been intense.
Whitney Emke, a junior English major, said, “Dr. (Ed.) Simone doesn’t use kid gloves with his cast and crew. He works you hard and gives you grief when you don’t meet his expectations. However, you wouldn’t have it any other way. By treating you like an adult, your work is that of an adult.”
“We used to do two shows a semester and we’d have closed the first show by now and gone on to the next one,” said Simone, SBU theater department chair and director of “Dracula.”
“In recent years we decided quality over quantity was a better approach. But the schedule for ‘Dracula’ has been demanding. It’s not an easy show.”
“Dracula” is a story that many people know even if they have not seen the play or read the book. Simone wanted to put his own twist on this production.
“The design is ‘Steam Punk,’” said Ashley Waterman, a junior English and theater double major. “I think it’ll be a ‘Dracula’ production that people have not seen before or are not expecting.”
Tara Gills, a freshman theater major and marketing minor, said, “In all the productions I have worked in, ‘Dracula’ is by far the most mature. The atmosphere is full of sexual tension that captures the viewer’s attention from line one. It is certain that each person in the audience will find some sort of thrill from this production.”
“It’s definitely not a show for pre-teens,” adds Simone. “There’s a good deal of violence and the sexual tension is very much as it is in Stoker’s original novel.”
Rebecca Misenheimer, assistant professor of theater and SBU Theater program technical director, has had a lot of work to do in creating the sets for this production. The way the stage is constructed is to remove the need for almost every scene change. By having some of the actors help with scenery movement and a rotating stage, the scenes are able to flow from one to the next.
The buzz about “Dracula” has been so great that SBU Theater has added an extra performance on Saturday.
“Dracula” will be performed in Garret Theater adjacent to Devereux Hall on the SBU campus Wednesday, Oct., 20, through Friday, Oct. 22, at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, Oct. 23, at 2 and 7:30 p.m. A talkback session will be held after the Friday night performance (Oct. 22), giving audience members the opportunity to ask the cast, crew, designer and director any questions they may have.
Reservations for “Dracula” are taken at The Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts Box Office in person or by phone at (716) 375-2494. Seating in the theater program’s intimate Garret Theater is limited, and performances of previous SBU Theater productions have been sold out. Any unsold tickets are available as free student rush seats at the Garret Theater on performance nights, beginning an hour before the production with any currently valid student ID.
An adaptation by the Scottish playwright Liz Lochhead brings Bram Stoker’s eerie and passionate tale to life. The SBU Theater cast and crew are working to create both a thrilling and a rather scary experience.
The production has been set to capture the spookiness of the Halloween season; but to do this, rehearsal time has been shorter than in past seasons. Memorizing the lines and learning the blocking has been done at a very professional rate for this show, but Mary Best, a freshman journalism and mass communication major, believes that this time crunch will not affect the quality of the show.
“Everyone is putting their all into the show,” said Best, “and with the finishing touches on our sets and the addition of makeup and costumes, we are sure to put on one heck of a ‘Dracula.’”
With lots of effects, and some very dramatic action, “Dracula” rehearsals have been intense.
Whitney Emke, a junior English major, said, “Dr. (Ed.) Simone doesn’t use kid gloves with his cast and crew. He works you hard and gives you grief when you don’t meet his expectations. However, you wouldn’t have it any other way. By treating you like an adult, your work is that of an adult.”
“We used to do two shows a semester and we’d have closed the first show by now and gone on to the next one,” said Simone, SBU theater department chair and director of “Dracula.”
“In recent years we decided quality over quantity was a better approach. But the schedule for ‘Dracula’ has been demanding. It’s not an easy show.”
“Dracula” is a story that many people know even if they have not seen the play or read the book. Simone wanted to put his own twist on this production.
“The design is ‘Steam Punk,’” said Ashley Waterman, a junior English and theater double major. “I think it’ll be a ‘Dracula’ production that people have not seen before or are not expecting.”
Tara Gills, a freshman theater major and marketing minor, said, “In all the productions I have worked in, ‘Dracula’ is by far the most mature. The atmosphere is full of sexual tension that captures the viewer’s attention from line one. It is certain that each person in the audience will find some sort of thrill from this production.”
“It’s definitely not a show for pre-teens,” adds Simone. “There’s a good deal of violence and the sexual tension is very much as it is in Stoker’s original novel.”
Rebecca Misenheimer, assistant professor of theater and SBU Theater program technical director, has had a lot of work to do in creating the sets for this production. The way the stage is constructed is to remove the need for almost every scene change. By having some of the actors help with scenery movement and a rotating stage, the scenes are able to flow from one to the next.
The buzz about “Dracula” has been so great that SBU Theater has added an extra performance on Saturday.
“Dracula” will be performed in Garret Theater adjacent to Devereux Hall on the SBU campus Wednesday, Oct., 20, through Friday, Oct. 22, at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, Oct. 23, at 2 and 7:30 p.m. A talkback session will be held after the Friday night performance (Oct. 22), giving audience members the opportunity to ask the cast, crew, designer and director any questions they may have.
Reservations for “Dracula” are taken at The Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts Box Office in person or by phone at (716) 375-2494. Seating in the theater program’s intimate Garret Theater is limited, and performances of previous SBU Theater productions have been sold out. Any unsold tickets are available as free student rush seats at the Garret Theater on performance nights, beginning an hour before the production with any currently valid student ID.
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