Glenville, W.Va. – Participants in Glenville State College’s Theatre program will perform Dracula, adapted by William McNulty, in the Heflin Administration Building President’s Auditorium on Thursday, April 25, Friday, April 26, and Saturday April 27 starting at 7 p.m. The play is rated PG-13 for simulated violence, supernatural events, and bloodshed. General admission is $5 and GSC students are admitted for free.
The cast includes Richard Burns as Abraham Van Helsing, Sam Edsall as Dracula, Katelyn V. Miller as Lucy, Matthew Goins as Dr. Thomas Seward, Jacob McLaughlin as Renfield, Logan Saho as Jonathan Harker, Rune Clutter as Margaret Sullivan, Andrew Mattox as The Monster, Anna Childers as Mina, Brittany Robinson, Sonya Bennett, and Victoria Guillory as the Brides of Dracula, and Chris Betts as the Child.
The novel Dracula, by Bram Stoker, was published in 1896 and was considered an instant classic. It told the story of an intrepid band of vampire hunters trying to end an ancient evil, tying together Carpathian folk tales of the Nosferatu and the historical Voivode Vlad Tepes, called Dracula. Stoker imagined a being of immense but evil cunning, a shapeshifting predator, and a power-hungry conqueror from an earlier age.
The novel was made into a smash hit play in 1927, which has been performed all over the world and is the basis for the 1931 classic Dracula starring Bela Lugosi. McNulty freely uses this stage play in his adaptation. Dracula has had many different incarnations – Lugosi played him with snake-like aristocracy, Gary Oldman as a tragic figure of epic overreach, and Christopher Lee as a controlling madman. This Dracula is closest to Stoker’s imagination: he is a beast with two personalities, one all primal bloodlust, the other a time-displaced medieval dictator who lives to enthrall, enslave, and control.
For more information about the Dracula performance, call (304) 462-6323.
