McNicholas students “bite in” to a spectacular performance of “Dracula”

Dracula was performed by the McNicholas Theatre Department starting on Thursday Oct. 26, 2023. The production is directed by Ms. Leslie Baum, and the cast includes seniors Calla Garretson, Talyor Ference, Joe Hilbert, Sean McManus, and Lauren Switzer. The show ran from Thursday to the final showing on Saturday Oct. 28 in the theater at McNicholas.

The play takes place in the Victorian era around the 1830s-early 1900s in England. Dracula has three wives, and there is a vampire hunter named Van Helsing who hunts down Dracula to attempt to kill him. Van Helsing is assisted by Jonathan Harker, a salesman. The trope that the show leans into is that of a fight between light and darkness and in this case, it is Van Helsing hunting Dracula. “Follows the Harkers then Lucy and Abrham Van Helsing and Dracula’s trying to hunt them down and trying to get the girls to be his brides and the men trying to stop and Dracula’s trying to stop them as well, “ Switzer, who plays a bride in the play, states.

Baum chose Dracula to be performed at McNick because in its own way it corresponds with Halloween, and it would something fun for the students to do. “I wanted something that corresponds with Halloween and that I thought that the students could really sink their teeth into,” Baum states.

*Students in the theater helped with the preparation for the play with help painting the set and the stage with the assistance with students from art class.*

In the play, Dracula wants to be a conqueror. A theater teacher from another school created the play with their class after the students had read the book. In playwriting, they made adaptations to suit the students at that time, but the play follows the book almost word for word. “This play was actually by another theater teacher with her class, they read the book, and they adapted the story to fit the students who were in the class,” Baum sates

Preparation for the play took place both during class time and outside of school rehearsals. The students in the art classes help with the set designing as preparation for the first showing of the play. The cast has regular rehearsals after school, but also rehearses their scenes and their lines during the class period. The cast and their classmates have worked very hard on the production of the play which showed in their performances last week.