Dracula of Transylvania: The Epic Play in Three Acts Read online

  Rave Reviews!

  “HIGH VOLTAGE SCORES

  WITH NEW DRACULA!”

  “Dracula lives! Lugosi was the first to take it to the stage. 90 years later, the new [Christofer Cook and Dacre Stoker’s] Dracula adaptation runs on stage through October. The big night will be on Halloween in West Columbia at the High Voltage Theatre!”

  - Aaron Sagers,

  Travel Channel

  “When it comes to theatre, Cook isn’t afraid to stare into the abyss, adapting and producing works of horror for the stage… It is as much a celebration of Bram Stoker’s life as it is [a celebration of] the novel.”

  - Alison Lang

  Rue Morgue

  “Christofer Cook and Dacre Stoker, great-grand-nephew of Bram, have infused fresh life into a 19th-century classic; in doing so, they have created a viable stage Dracula for the new millennium, remaining true to the source novel while exploring unique dramatic territory suggested by live (or undead) performance.”

  - Meredith Merridew

  The Free Times

  Rave Reviews!

  “DRACULA OF TRANSYLVANIA

  SUCCEEDS WITH HIGH STAKES!”

  “The definitive version for live theatre! Certain to become a ‘modern-day classic’ and a masterpiece for the ages.”

  - Miles Richards

  The Columbia Star

  “Bram Stoker’s 1897 plot is followed closely. In fact, Christofer Cook and Dacre Stoker are successful in three major areas; Flowing language, expanded characterizations, and visual moments of eerie silence on stage… the effect is genuinely chilling.”

  - Gus Hart

  Jasper Magazine

  “Like any self-respecting vampire, Cook draws fresh blood from time-honored tropes and breathes into them, new life!”

  - Dacre Stoker, Co-Author

  Dracula, The Un-Dead

  DRACULA

  OF TRANSYLVANIA

  The Epic Play in Three Acts

  Adapted from Bram Stoker’s Novel by

  CHRISTOFER COOK

  Advisement to the Script by

  DACRE STOKER

  AuthorHouse™

  1663 Liberty Drive

  Bloomington, IN 47403

  www.authorhouse.com

  Phone: 1 (800) 839-8640

  © 2017 . All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

  Common Law Copyright, October of 2013

  Published by Authorhouse 05/26/2017,

  World Dracula Day

  ISBN: 978-1-4918-0878-8 (sc)

  ISBN: 978-1-4918-0877-1 (e)

  Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

  and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

  Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

  Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

  Christofer Cook

  Titles

  P R O C L A M A T I O N

  OF ASSOCIATION

  Whereas, the first Stoker Family-endorsed, scripted stage-adaptation of Bram Stoker’s novel, DRACULA was granted by Florence Balcombe to theatrical producer, Hamilton Deane in 1924, subsequently entitled DRACULA, The Vampire Play…

  Whereas, Dracula, the Vampire Play, premiered on Broadway in 1927 (Produced by Horace Liveright and starring Bela Lugosi in the title role) and was considered the first produced, and published dramatization for the stage under consent and cooperation of Florence Balcombe, then custodian of Bram Stoker’s estate,….

  Be It Known that

  D R A C U L A,

  of Transylvania

  Adapted by Christofer Cook & Advised by Dacre Stoker

  Is Recognized As; the first stage adaptation of Bram Stoker’s novel, DRACULA, adapted as a play, into typed script, under the temporary collaboration and cooperation of the Bram Stoker Estate and the Stoker family, since 1927’s Dracula, the Vampire Play.

  Is Recognized As; the first stage adaptation of Bram Stoker’s DRACULA to be performed under the temporary collaboration and cooperation of the Bram Stoker Estate and the Stoker family since 1927, when Bela Lugosi played the title role on Broadway.

  Is Recognized As; the first stage adaptation of Bram Stoker’s DRACULA to be published with advisement to the script by a member of the Stoker family, since Florence Balcombe’s association with Horace Liveright in 1927.

  Thus saith all, in witness thereof;

  Christofer Cook, Dramatists’ Guild of America

  CAUTION

  Professionals and amateurs are hereby warned that DRACULA of Transylvania by Christofer Cook and Advised by Dacre Stoker, is subject to a royalty. It is fully protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America, and of all countries covered by the International Copyright Union (Including the Dominion of Canada and the rest of the British Commonwealth), and of all countries covered by the Pan-American Copyright Convention and the Universal Copyright Convention, and of all countries with which the United States has reciprocal copyright relations. All rights, including professional, amateur, motion picture, recitation, lecturing, public reading, radio broadcasting, television, video or sound taping, all other forms of mechanical or electronic reproduction, such as information storage, retrieval systems and photocopying, downloading, streaming video, and the rights of translation into foreign languages are strictly reserved. Particular emphasis is laid upon the question of readings, permission and terms for which must be secured from the author in writing.

  The stage performance rights for DRACULA of Transylvania by Christofer Cook, Advised by Dacre Stoker, are controlled exclusively by the playwright. No professional or non-professional performance of the play may be given without obtaining in advance the written permission of the dramatist and paying the requisite royalty fees. All inquiries concerning rights to the play should be addressed to;

  Christofer Cook

  [email protected]

  (803) 429-8839.

  1625 Malcolm Drive

  Columbia, SC 29204

  SPECIAL NOTE

  Anyone receiving permission to produce DRACULA of Transylvania, A Play in Three Acts by Christofer Cook, advised by Dacre Stoker, is subject to the following proviso: Producing theatres, schools, and any and all other community groups, are required to give due authorship credit to the playwright as the sole and exclusive author of the play as well as due credit to Dacre Stoker as the sole and exclusive advisor to the script. The by-line should read ‘Adapted from Bram Stoker’s Novel by Christofer Cook’ and then ‘with Dacre Stoker, Script Advisor’ just beneath. This must appear on all posters, websites, social-media advertising, programs, flyers, and any and all other promotional printing in connection with productions of the play. In all instances in which the title of the play appears for purposes of advertising, publicizing, or otherwise exploiting the play and/or a production thereof; the names of the playwright and advisor must appear on separate lines, in which no other name appears, immediately beneath the title and in size of type equal to 50% of the largest letter used for the title of the play. No person, firm, nor entity may receive cred
it larger than that accorded the playwright and advisor.

  WELCOME TO COLUMBIA’S

  (OTHER) THEATER SCENE

  Small Companies, DIY Ethic Expand Local Offerings

  By August Krickel

  Feature: Free Times

  August 21, 2013

  “Town Theatre produced plays nearly a century ago in an old house near the University of South Carolina campus, and Workshop Theatre began in borrowed auditoriums and vacant commercial space. Trustus Theatre started in a former punk rock club. That spirit of do-it-yourself ambition thrives today in a number of newer theatrical groups, which might not sell the number of tickets that the larger groups do, but nevertheless show the same drive.

  Christofer Cook led the way in 2002 with High Voltage Theatre, ‘a professional theatre [i.e., the performers are paid] enhanced by our community.’ Returning to his native Columbia armed with an Master of Fine Arts degree in directing and more than a decade of professional experience in big cities like New York and Chicago, Cook pitched the idea of a live Halloween production of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow to students at Midlands Technical College while serving as an adjunct faculty member, and his company was born. A rusted sign on a power grid reading ‘Danger! High Voltage!’ suggested the group’s name.

  ‘We were young, new, exciting,’ he recalls. ‘We would venture out into more raw and edgy, dangerous theatre.’ Cook penned the original script, and Sleepy Hollow has been a popular Halloween attraction ever since, most often performed at the West Columbia Riverwalk Amphitheater, and usually the top-selling live theater show running locally during October. Other productions have included adaptations of Reservoir Dogs, Phantom of the Opera, and A Night of the Living Dead. Cook is particularly proud of a ‘Woodstock moment’ when more than 350 people showed up for the 200 seats available for Sleepy Hollow in 2004.

  While he once considered a permanent facility, he is now ‘happy not having to pay rent on a performance space. West Columbia donates the amphitheater to us because we bring in capital and raise their hospitality numbers. And I’m comfy with that.’ Cook does stage combat workshops in schools, as well as gigs as a magician and fight choreographer, but High Voltage is his primary focus. A number of his plays are now available in book form, and his adaptation of Sleepy Hollow has been performed across the country.

  The next High Voltage project is a collaboration with Dacre Stoker, great grand-nephew of Bram Stoker for the world premiere of The Bram Stoker Estate Dracula, opening October 10th and running through Halloween at the West Columbia Riverwalk Amphitheater.”

  JASPER FANCIES: BLOOD!

  By Gus Hart

  Feature: Jasper Magazine

  Sept / Oct, 2013

  “Christofer Cook fell under the spell of Dracula when he played Renfield, the Count’s mad, insect-eating minion, in an A.C. Flora High School production, with a young Kristin Davis (Sex & the City, Melrose Place) as heroine Lucy. The lifelong fan of the horror genre and founder of High Voltage Theatre is now collaborating with Dacre Stoker; great-grand nephew of Dracula author Bram Stoker; to bring the world premiere of DRACULA of Transylvania to the West Columbia Riverwalk Amphitheatre, just in time for Halloween.

  After studying playwriting with Pulitzer-Prize winner Beth Henley and earning an MFA in Directing at Chicago’s Roosevelt University, Cook felt ready in 2002 to lead his own professional company, emulating the itinerant structure of the SC Shakespeare Company where he had both acted and directed. The name High Voltage would signify a more aggressive, gritty, in-your-face style of performance often incorporating Cook’s skills as a stage magician and fight choreographer. Early productions at assorted venues included edgy fare like Reservoir Dogs and Cowboy Mouth, but Cook’s original adaptation of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow was a perennial crowd-pleaser, and the group’s mission evolved to focus on horror and the macabre. Recent shows have included A Night of the Living Dead at Tapp’s, Phantom of the Opera at the Riverwalk Amphitheater, and Frankenstein, performed live at the Civil War – era historical dock at Granby Locks in 2009, with future mayoral candidate Aaron Johnson in the title role and Cook as the Creature. Cook directs his own adaptations of these classic stories, and a number of his scripts are now available in book form; in addition to its seven incarnations locally, Sleepy Hollow is performed several times a year by professional and amateur groups across the country.

  While planning for DRACULA of Transylvania earlier this year, Cook discovered that Dacre Stoker, co-author of Dracula: The Undead, an “official” 2009 sequel to the original 1897 novel, lived in Aiken, South Carolina. “I’d be a fool not to try to reach out to him,” Cook recalls, hoping to enlist Stoker’s help as a creative consultant, or at least receive his blessing. What started as an informal chat over coffee quickly developed into a full-fledged collaboration between High Voltage and the Bram Stoker Estate.

  Dacre Stoker, a native of Montreal and a Pentathlon champion who coached the Canadian Pentathlon team in the 1988 Summer Olympics, currently works as a tennis professional, and has become the Stoker family historian. In addition to his first novel, he has developed a multi-media lecture show, “Stoker on Stoker”, produced a documentary about his ancestor, and co-authored the non-fiction Bram Stoker’s Lost Journal.

  Kindred spirits, he and Cook shared a desire to return the story to its roots in the theatre. For nearly 30 years, Bram Stoker’s day job was business manager of Sir Henry Irving’s Lyceum Theatre in London. Irving’s commanding presence may have influenced Stoker’s depiction of Dracula’s hold over Renfield, while Irving’s portrayal of Iachimo in Cymbeline, a villain who lies concealed in a coffin-like chest before emerging to menace the sleeping heroine by night, has more than a few echoes of Stoker’s novel, published the very next year. Stoker wrote a stage version, which received a reading at the Lyceum, but Irving never played the lead in an actual production.

  Decades later Hamilton Deane wrote a new adaptation which was significantly re-written by John L. Balderston for Broadway, where Bela Lugosi found fame in the lead. That variation, drastically different from the novel, is the source of most modern versions. Cook and Dacre Stoker have added a framing device, based on “the Icelandic Preface,” a later introduction penned by Bram Stoker in which he declares the events detailed herein are all true. While clearly the literary equivalent of “names have been changed to protect the innocent,” Cook feels that Stoker was also drawing on contemporary fears in a London where women and children regularly went missing, and the Jack the Ripper murders were a recent memory.

  “Dacre and I have a creative synergy,” Cook says, “bouncing ideas off each other. I’m the one with my fingers on the keyboard, while he’s the one pacing the room.” Cook is also fond of the British comedies of manners of Noel Coward and Oscar Wilde, and promises a few laughs amidst the mayhem. He signs off in correspondence with “Bloody Best,” and early press material for the production is sent with the title “Scary Stuff!”

  He notes that this is the first stage adaptation since the 1927 Deane-Balderston treatment to receive official authorization and endorsement by the Bram Stoker Estate. The title role will be played by Alfred Kern, recently seen as Mr. Bennett in Pride and Prejudice at Finlay Park, while Cook will play Renfield. DRACULA of Transylvania opens Thursday, October 17, and runs through Halloween at the West Columbia Riverwalk Amphitheater. A website, DraculaPlay.com, will soon go live, while information on High Voltage Theatre can be found via Facebook.”

  BRAM STOKER ESTATE *

  ENDORSES NEW THEATRICAL PRODUCTION OF DRACULA

  By Alison Lang

  Feature: Rue Morgue Magazine

  Halloween Issue / Oct, 2013

  “When it comes to theatre, Christofer Cook isn’t afraid to stare into the abyss – and make it family-friendly. For the past thirteen years, the South Carolina-based artistic director of High Voltage Theatre has dedicated himself to adapting and producing works of cla
ssic horror for the stage, geared towards audiences of all ages.

  After mounting popular productions of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Phantom of the Opera, and A Night of the Living Dead, Cook decided he wanted to tackle one of the most classic gothic tales of all time, Dracula - and on a whim, he thought he might try reaching out to one of Bram Stoker’s descendants, his great, grand nephew Dacre Stoker. Stoker is considered an authority on his famous ancestor and the historical context surrounding the novel, and vampire fans may recall that in 2009, he co-authored a sequel to Dracula titled Dracula: The Undead.

  “I’d read the sequel and loved it,” says Cook. “I wondered if he might be interested in hearing about my adaptation and maybe even coming to see it.”

  Cook discovered that the Canadian-born Stoker was living in Aiken, South Carolina – an hour – and – a - half drive from Columbia. He reached out to the author/historian through Facebook and met him in person soon afterwards. They hit it off, and were soon getting together frequently to discuss the play and its details.

  “I realized we were becoming collaborators, and Dacre was becoming my co-author on this project,’ says Cook. The relationship proved to be reciprocal: Cook’s writing benefited from Stoker’s knowledge of his great grand – uncle and the novel, while Stoker relished the opportunity to learn more about playwriting. Additionally, Stoker took the initiative to submit the play to the Bram Stoker Estate, maintained by a group of his cousins, to see if they’d authenticate and endorse it. They did, and the play was retitled The Bram Stoker Estate Dracula. It’s the first stage production that has received this endorsement since 1927, when Bela Lugosi played the title role.