DAWSON CREEK - Transylvania’s most infamous aristocrat will be digging himself a plot in Dawson Creek in May.
The Northern Lights Players will be presenting Dracula, Steven Dietz’s adaptation of Bram Stoker’s classic novel. Performances will be held May 21-23 at the Dawson Creek Campus of Northern Lights College.
Northern Lights Players is a theatre club formed in January, with the goal of providing an opportunity for NLC students, staff, and alumni to participate in community theatre.
Dracula is the group’s first production, and the cast and crew includes NLC students and staff, South Peace Secondary School students, and community members. They have been working on the production since mid-February.
The production has been made possible by the CJDC Radio and Television Community Project Award.
According to Jeremy Beaulne, English instructor at NLC, and the play’s director, Dracula was a natural choice as the inaugural production. The novel has been taught in the College’s first-year academic writing course for a couple of years.
“I’ve always been fascinated by how resonant the Count is with our students. Although Stoker’s book is over 100 years old, Dracula embodies the cultural anxieties of the modern world just as effectively as he embodied the cultural anxieties of the Victorian world,” said Beaulne. “My interest in the character, combined with my desire to direct a show that was exciting and edgy, made Dracula a logical choice.”
In Dracula, Victorian England falls under the shadow of the malevolent Count Dracula, leaving it to a brave band of heroes, led by the eccentric Professor Abraham Van Helsing, to thwart the Count’s sinister appetite.
This version of Dracula premiered at the Arizona Theatre Company in 1995. It is much closer to the novel than most adaptations of Stoker’s text, Beaulne said.
Kole Casey plays the title role. Other cast members include Thomas Irwin (Renfield), Tera Nicholson (Mina), Kyla Frost (Lucy), Aaron Tremblay (Harker), Chris Grant (Seward), and Colin Frost (Van Helsing).
The Wednesday, May 21 performance is the show only, starting at 8 pm. The May 22 and 23 performances will be in dinner theatre format, in conjunction with the NLC Culinary Arts program, starting at 6:30 pm.
Tickets must be purchased in advance and are available at the NLC Bookstore, The Olde Creek Store, and the Kiwanis Arts Centre. All performances will take place at the Campus Center building at the Dawson Creek Campus.
In addition to the performances at NLC, Dracula is scheduled to open the Peace River Zone Theatre Festival on May 6 at the Kiwanis Performing Arts Centre in Dawson Creek.
The play contains violence and mild sensuality, and is not recommended for younger audiences.
For more information about Dracula, please contact Jeremy Beaulne at 250-784-7531 or jbeaulne@nlc.bc.ca.
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