Published: July 24, 2008 03:43 pm            

Shawnee presenting love story for the ages in new adaptation of ‘Dracula’

BLOOMFIELD — Shawnee Producing Artistic Director Matt Graber has been obsessed with vampire stories since he was a child.

“I vividly remember watching ‘Dark Shadows’ with my mom as a kid,” he said. ”Vampires excite me and horrify me. They are both beautiful and repulsive. What could be more compelling than that?”

Alan Shepard, a playwright and actor working on his master’s degree at the University of Hawaii, wrote the new adaptation and will perform the title role in “Dracula.” Of playing and writing such an infamous character, Shepard said, “I’ve worked a lot to explore the humanity of Dracula, and it’s been fascinating exploring that humanity in both words and action. Every character in this story has both redeeming and condemning qualities. Even Dracula is capable of love. At its core, our production of ‘Dracula’ is a love story.”

Graber also noted, “But this is a frightening love story, and we aren’t shying away from that. We’re making up big batches of stage blood.”

“Dracula,” newly adapted by Alan Shepard, will be presented in the Shawnee Theatre on Thursday and again Aug. 1-3. “Dracula” is sponsored by radio station WFIU 103.7 and Sons and McQ. Shows are at 8 p.m. on Thursday through Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. The Shawnee Theatre, Indiana’s oldest continuously running summer theater, is at 4 Furnace Road, just a mile south of downtown Bloomfield.

For tickets, call the Shawnee box office at (812) 384-3559. For more details and driving directions, visit www.shawneetheatre.org.

“Almost, Maine” runs today through Sunday in the theater.

        

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