Dracula will be performed at the Athens Community Theatre, home of the Town & Gown Players, October 7 thru 8 and 13 thru 15 at 8 p.m., October 9 and 16 at 2 p.m, and with special midnight performances Saturday, October 8 and Friday, October 14.
From the team that thrilled and chilled with last year’s The Rocky Horror Show, this Town & Gown production of Dracula features a number of seasoned theatre veterans as well as several newcomers to the local stage and one or two familiar faces from the downtown music scene. An ancient evil is unleashed by the unwitting Jonathan Harker (played by UGA Theatre & Film Studies doctoral student Josh Jeffries) on an unsuspecting world and, as the play unfolds, a web of nightmarish intrigue is woven around Harker’s fiancé Mina (newcomer Celeste Josephine), her best friend Lucy, and Lucy’s would-be suitor Seward (T&G regulars Emily Myers and Adam Shirley). With the help of the wise Professor Van Helsing (Flagpole’s own John Gary Nettles), the three try desperately to piece together the terrifying events unfolding around them: Harker’s sudden disappearance and cryptic journal, a deadly shipwreck on a dark and stormy night, strange dreams accompanying an unexplained illness, and the insightful ravings of the fly-eating lunatic Renfield (Joel Altherr, star of last year’s The Lion In Winter). Only together can they hope to defeat the nefarious plans of Count Dracula (Tracy Carroll, returning to the T&G stage after a 12 year absence) and save not only their lives, but their very souls.
