WGHS DRAMA Past Shows Fall 2013-Present: 2023 Winter Play

We decided to revive an old title and a story we've told once before, but this time we produced it in the Jerry R Knight Auditorium and gave it everything we had. Stephen Dietz's stage adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula is something special, and delivers an exciting journey for the audience each night guaranteed! We had produced this play about 10 years ago in the old Little Theater (that was demolished this semester so that the new Frick Theater could be built in it's place).

Ellen Luecke (who played Mina) designed this poster for the show

in class as a part of the production assignments.

The Production's Origin...

The Advanced Drama Class had a smaller roster of students this year due to Covid and we took advantage of the opportunity to do a smaller ensemble show as an extra main stage in the season. This wasn't something we even had considered until we had been in school for awhile.

CASTING

We did a table read of the whole script and then Mr. Schaefer cast the members of the class into their roles. We did change our minds on two roles after the first bit of the read-through. The members of the class were perfectly suited for the roles in which they were cast. Four members of the cast had done a main stage production on the Auditorium stage already and two had not.

REHEARSAL

We were also very fortunate to have the opportunity to rehearse a majority of the show during our class period. This was the best way to learn the acting and rehearsal process, and it allowed the students to experience a full production (without the worry and stress of an audition). Each one of the students grew to meet the challenge.

The Advanced Drama Class (with Xavier) before Winter Break...

Xavier Jurotich had done shows in the department over the last several years, and had proven to be an avid memorizer. We asked him to join us 4th hour for rehearsals when he could miss his work at South Tech. He took on the rather extensive job of memorizing all of Dr. Seward's lines without being in rehearsal to run lines with the fellow cast members. He did such a great job being ready when we needed him.

When we returned from break in Jan, we immediately moved into the theater

and things came at us fast for three weeks.

Zayne Smith returned to the class from a previously interrupted attempt at taking Adv Drama the year before. Zayne took on the parts of the Servant, the Maid, and the Doctor's assistant. It was a great opportunity to do some multiple characterization work and he got to wear three different costumes in the show. Zayne, like all of the supporting cast, became a vixen buy the end of the play.

Kalon Robinson was a new student in the Dept. and was taking Improv Class with Mr. Schaefer. He expressed an interest in film acting, but was encouraged to start with the stage. He did a student directed reader's theater one act for the Fall Festival and then happily joined the Dracula cast to pick up a supporting role as the medical assistant and vixen.

THE VIXENS

Luca Thies played one of Dracula's minions

Mr Schaefer asked Luca Thies, Jeni Carr-Schwartz, Ava Swaboda and Andi Ziegler to join the cast and they met with us occasionally to get their blocking for the few scenes they were all in together; we tried not to waste their time. These actors were chosen because they all had great track records for being responsible. Ave was the one student who had never worked on stage with us before, but naturally fit the role...she was born to play goth.

Ava and Andi doing the vampire thing!

Jeni and Andi in the black box back stage

We started staying after school as well as meet for class rehearsals in Jan. for extra time on the stage and so that we could work with anybody who wasn't in the class. It was a mad dash to finish line, but everyone really came together in the end. This was a real team effort.

Mia Willis joined the company as soon as we got back from break as our stage manager. She stayed on top of many of the show's production details, arranged much of the communications between director and cast. She was an amazing energy in the room.

Her organizational skills really came in handy when the show got closer to opening. She began weaving scene together physically with the set and her running crew. She was always there for the cast, on book, trying to keep the entrances, exits, and all of the location changes straight.

Most of the Cast and Crew of the 2023 Winter Production of "Dracula".

Some were out of the room...

THE STAFF and CREW

Mia, Ava and Calvin backstage right before the show

A script that was being used in rehearsal and the a part of the schedule.

This show required a lot of people to make it work, getting everyone in the room when we needed them was a big challenge...kids today stay very busy.

The Theater Office works great for running lines!

The Drama Room couch is also a popular gathering place during rehearsals

Xavier and Calvin rehearsing the ship scene.

Ellis in front of the stage practicing the sound cues

Mr. Schaefer working with Ellen and Kaya in a scene at the end of Act I

THE PRODUCTION

This is a very complicated script; the story, the way the plot unravels, and the way it bounces back and forth through time could give anyone a headache trying to keep it all coherent for an audience.

The playwright creates an amazing world for the production team to build and we immediately began to plan the show's texture, color palette and overall tone during class time. This had the lead actors working on as many of the show's production elements as possible. All the while each of the Advanced Drama students is also preparing a lead role in the show and everything that comes with that work.

This is something Mr. Schaefer did as a young artistic director of a small company in St Louis back in the early 2000's. Advanced Drama class is trying to provide the students an opportunity that mirrors this part of the amateur-non professional work. The levels of production work are plentiful and trying the get students to go beyond just performance training is important and possible. We wear a lot of hats to do non-profit theater in the real world and we do it cause we love it.

The characters taking their places for the curtain call and Renfield's final monologue...

The text is thick with exposition and can seem dense at times, but it has some wonderfully suspenseful scenes that allow the performers to really let loose theatrically in their performance. We had some wild rehearsals with lots of work spent on the building of suspense in a scene, and using the blocking to trade focus. We had many scenes that needed this kind of work. The cast did an amazing job at putting it all together into a cohesive and fun ride for the audience each night. The work paid off in the end as it always does.

THE SCENIC DESIGN

Technical Theater class (1st Hour - 22 students) worked in a collaborative way when we approached the design of this show. The class never got to read the script before starting (time wouldn't allow it) but Mr. Schaefer had the basic idea figured out (from the last time we produced it) and gave a great spark notes version to get everyone started.

Mr Schaefer and Hannah working on a set piece

We ultimately used what we had in our scenic stock to make it all happen. The Tech class had a great time on the show and spent a good amount of their energy constructing and trimming the set's wagon units during their class. They also designed some of the decorative elements of the individual bed and cemetery pieces.

The bedroom unit was two sided and allowed us to go from Lucy's bedroom to the bedroom at the asylum by switching the units to the other side of the stage, rotating the widow to the reverse side, and re-dressing the bed (a new comforter, pillows and removing the decorative headboard piece.).

We had quite a few wagons to build and map the movement for each scene change. The play goes to many locations. This is accomplished by doing a two sided window unit and using castors to make everything roll.

The bed had to be sturdy and not roll too easy,

there were many action scenes that required it to provide solid footing for the actors.

Here is Calvin (Dracula) attacking Lani as Lucy.

We had to also make sure that the transitions between the scenes moved quickly and quietly, so everything we made and chose for furniture was light weight and easy to move.

Renfield's cell

We got to use our jail bars from a recent production of Chicago we had done, and they worked great to establish Renfield's cell in the asylum far stage right. The backing panels we from a production of Legally Blonde Mr. Schaefer designed and built out at St. Charles HS. The cell set stayed there for all of Act I and into Act II before he finally escapes.

Robby Conroy (Renfield) backstage before the show

We ultimately added a bunch of fake flicker candles in all kinds of lanterns on the set to add the old world feel to the locations. There were also opportunities for characters to carry them in certain scenes which also looked great in the dimmed stage light and fog.

The movement of the candle flames in the lanterns and the flames on the chandelier really helped create a needed movement and eerie shadows for this play; helped it lean the whole production toward horror/melodrama as well. We kept the set pieces neutral to let the colors of the lights and costumes really pop.

Harker's room at Dracula's castle and the other asylum location on stage left.

The show requires the director to use every part of the space. The script really keeps the audience at attention; following the characters as the story shifts focus from one side of the stage to the other.

We chose this show because we knew that we could do the entire set from our stock. There wouldn't be a need to buy a lot of lumber (which was very pricey because of inflation). This was also a glorified classroom project and we had hoped to make some money in the end, not spend a ton.

THE BONE CHAIR

We had several people working making this very cool set piece. It started with the chair being selected and a bunch of paper bones being crafted. Some students in Tech Theater and some others in rehearsal worked on making bones. They were made from paper and masking tape. This is our standard paper-mache process without the mess.

Then Mrs. Dickens spent some time working with the paper bones and cleverly placed each of them onto the wooden chair with wire and glue. Each paper bone had to be secured before painting. The skull and little hands were from the prop we had used in very end of Buried Child.

A trick knife was also secured to the bottom edge for a moment in Act II when Renfield cuts Dr. Seward in the arm.

The furniture in all of the scenes and even the decorative French doors on the window unit all were constructed from pieces from our stock. We also used our many classroom acting boxes to build certain things for the set, stacking them and arranging them. We did anything we could to not spend money.

The start of the cemetery headstones.

Let over plywood scraps from "Grease" and upside down acting boxes.

The black backdrop we created all the way upstage allowed us to use the cyc for intense color, and gave us a hiding space for the strip lights, the fogger and the hazer.

The sillouette it made during the scenes turned out great; really added an eerie feeling to the show.

The crypt was a cool unit used in Lucy's death scene

and Lani had to actually get inside it to play her death scene.

Teddy, Kaya and Xavier performing the ritual at Lucy crypt.

Freya Adkisson (Tech class) stayed late one evening and helped do some final paint work on the set.

The whole thing also had to wheel out of way when it was not being used so we had to make sure it could go off stage easily and be hidden with a black drape stage right.

THE RUNNING CREW

We had a great team moving the sets. Mia Willis really spent the time with them to get all of the set changes figured out and then timed. If they struggled with a certain scene change they all got together and put in extra rehearsals with just the running crew. They rocked it out.

A backstage view of Lucy's bedroom scene and the headboard design (by Meier Duff) that was removed during a transition in Act I.

Hannah Smith joined the show to help with scene changes

Andi and Jeni also helped with scene changes.

Many of the supporting cast was utilized

in order for the scenes to transition quickly.

Adreonna Grant also joined the running crew team to help with the quick scene changes. She has done many production with us on stage and off, and as a Senior she wanted to stay involved. We were glad to have her in the room. She always brings good energy in the room.

Gary Slayton also worked on the show with us as a technician. Gary helped make a very cool prop that never made it in front of the audience (a crow who's eyes lit up on command). He also assisted with much of the electrical work when needed. In the end he joined the running crew and assisted in the moving of the set.

THE CEMETERY STONES

Tech Theater students drew out the designs on the board, transferred them to plywood, and Mr. Schaefer and Cat Draney cut them out. We stood them up by screwing them to a simple rectangle base and they added insulation tubing around the boarder to add depth. We painted all of the them solid black and they added to the backdrop for the two cemetery scenes.

We painted all of the them solid black and they added to the backdrop for the two cemetery scenes.

Once they were all finished they looked great and leveled up the creepy factor.

THE COFFIN

Mr Schaefer and Mrs. Dickens made the coffin. It was very light weight and it worked out great for the final scene in the show.

The final moment in the show where Mina tricks Dracula!

Everyone is on stage fighting the vampires

and the tension had built to a wonderful level for the audience!

PROPS

We didn't really have a props person assigned to the production. Teddy Woldow (who was also playing Jonathon Harker) took on organizing the prop tables for the cast. Everyone chipped in and helped build the stuff we needed. There were many props that had to be made from scratch (ie. the blood transfusion machine:). This allowed many of the students in the tech class and some of the production crew to do some fun arts and crafts. We encourage the handmade prop, it always means so much more to the actor when the prop is specifically made for them. We do have an amazing props room and were able to pull a lot of the show from stock.

The second Act has the room festooned in garlic and a full wreath that Van Helsing puts around Lucy's neck. We made it last time we did the show and made it all again this time around. The fake garlic became a major job for several people to work on in order to get it all done in time.

This is just one of four areas that had props tagged and prepped for the actors.

This show has a lot of little things in each scene...

This was a new job for Teddy and he did great. The prop tables were full, there were a lot of things to track, but ultimately everyone did a good job keeping an eye on the props and not losing anything during the run.

COSTUMES

There were a lot of cool character costumes to design and manage for this show. The cast all made visual inspiration boards for their characters during class in the computer lab and we felt at the beginning that it should feel steampunk without hitting the audience over the head with the concept. In the end we leaned away from really specific steampunk stuff and just tried to find a style that felt like a time from the past.

Ellen (Mina) and Teddy (Harker) dressed and ready for hair and make-up.

Mina was one of the ladies in the cast that got a bussel on her dress which is a great accessory for the late 1800's into the early 1900's.

Ellen had the most costume changes of anyone in the show. Mina was constantly wearing something different and this required a few fast changes backstage with help from the costumers.

Each actor in the cast had to wear layers of clothing and each character was dressed head to toe with hats, scarves, gloves, vests...etc. Some of them even had two or more outfits. The play is supposed to be set at the end of the 1800's, but we left it open as to exactly what year we were in. This allowed us to create a period "look" to the show but not go true to any one historically accurate period.

When you are on a very tight budget but have a lot of clothes to play with, the collage approach works best. The students get to sculpt a look on the actor.

It is a wonderful opportunity to build creative literacy through costume design.

This the main rack, but there were also costume pieces pre-set backstage as well. Everything was labelled and organized by the two costume managers.

We just wanted an "Old world/London" feel. It is specifcally set before electricity.

Some of the ladies had bustles and some didn't. Some wore a corsette and some didn't. The styles all worked together without distracting the audience. Everyone had layers.

Calvin (Dracula) and Elle Blanton (Costumer) Dana Buchanan (Costumer) and Teddy (Harker)

The fittings were a lot of fun. It wasn't always easy to find the right thing for the actor. Some things we initially pulled for one person but then would get switched around and put on someone else. The actors also brought some things in to use in the show, and we did eventually hit Savers one time for some last minute solutions to getting an actor fully clothed.

Costumers never cease to find ways to entertain themselves...

Dana Buchanan was always creating a new look for the dress form

Xavier (Dr Seward) looked great in the stylized clothing. Calvin (Dracula) was the only actor who had two coats and a cape specifically purchased for the show. One coat was for the young Dracula (pictured here) and one was for when he was in the flashback scenes and was old.

It was longer and had darker colors.

Ellie and Dana in the design room working on finishings

Calvin modeling some of the items that ended up in the final look for his character.

He needed to work with the clothing during rehearsals to get his movement right.

Many of the character's frock coats were made out of our stock trench coats that we cut up and turned into period coats. We cut out the front bottom panels of the coat and turned each of them into a sort of tailcoat. We added top hats, vests, flipped collars, neck silks and instantly we jump back to the late 1800's.

Luka Coogan (Tech Theater 1st hour) joined the costume team and added the lace trim to all of the men's shirt and coat sleeves, and around some of their collars. This really made them pop on stage and gave them a real sense of a time long ago. It has been great having so many students interested in sewing lately. Luka is also a very creative designer and builds a lot of fantasy character designs in their free time.

Kaya (Van Helsing) on the front of the stage for their first monologue.

We had the character enters from the back of the house to add intrigue to the character's entrance. Van Helsing doesn't arrive into later in Act I.

Van Helsing's costume had many layers and accessories. Kaya Wolf (actor) also had to keep certain props with them for scenes. (We gave every character some sort of bag/sachel or purse because their are so many hand props in each scene). It took a bit of time trying things on and making small alterations before we found the final look. Once we got it right, the character really came to life on stage. It is always a lot of fun building a character's costume this way. The actor is so crucial to the process.

Kaya in the Drama Room getting into character before the show

Keeping the actor involved in the design process requires them to have an visual idea of what they feel would wear, and we just had to find all of the pieces to make it happen. Everyone was given a bit of leather in their look. This final look made Kaya's Van Helsing look like a badass vampire killer.

Liane Dunlap also joined the costume team and made several items for the show from home. We are so fortunate to have so much talent in our department. Liane made Lucy's bedroom corset and robe. They were perfect and Lani loved that she had something made exactly for her to wear on stage. They were very beautifully crafted and they looked expensive; flowy and elegant just like we wanted.

Mina (Ellen) tries to get Lucy (Lani) back to bed, but Dracula is coming

HAIR AND MAKE-UP

This was a great show for this team. We had just done Grease and they found their groove. This allowed the creatives to shine. The fantasy element of this show opened up some design opportunity and the cast even got into learning some tricks and trying some make-up application on their own faces.

Mrs Dickens and Audrey straightening Ava's Hair

and crimping it with the iron for that fresh outta the grave look

Mrs. Dickens and Audrey Culver ran the backstage Hair and Make-up area. It always takes a nigh or two of doing everyone's face and hair before you really get the time and schedule figured out right.

Everyone had some sort of make-up applied during the show, everyone stayed pretty busy.

The make-up design for the vampires looked awesome!

Kai Lawson also joined the team and painted faces the first night of the run.

Jeni (vixen) getting the last minute touches applied by Audrey

This one had a lot of faces that needed to be done at the beginning and then there was make-up beinbg applied through-out the show as characters evolved into vampires.

Zayne in the vampire make-up Kalon in the vampire make-up

LIGHTING

This was a great opportunity to play with color and our lighting team did a great job with the hang, focus and gel work. The cues for the show were also set without too much distress.

We had to light scenes that took place during all times of the day and night,

and so we made sure to have plenty of blues and ambers in the plot.

The show had a lot of looks to create, but we were able to do a lot of the cues as we rehearsed. The students got a chance to create some looks, program the cues and do some fade adjustments.

Robby (Renfield) breaks into the room with his violin

Dracula throws Seward with a wave of his hand! Dracula is off to London!

The Vixens take Harker for a bite!

Harker can't see what's coming...

Mina and Van Helsing try to put the pieces together and Seward backs Lucy up with the cross

The team must go after Dracula as he goes back to London to sleep

The lighting for this show was fun to create, but mostly it was about trying to keep all of the cue numbers straight in the script as we recorded them. Everything moved fast as we got closer to opening night. We used every moment we could to make quick adjustments to the light cues and we continued to make small changes up to opening night.

Nate Tevlin and Kade Leatherbarrow

They worked as team on the light board each night of the show. Some scenes required all four hands to get the cues right. This was also a challenge due to the way the lighting and sound cues had to line up together to make it all fit with what the actors were doing.

No actual blood was used on stage and so we used red light for all of the bites and kills.

We made the chandelier for the castle flashback scenes. We used hoolah-hoops, cardboard panels (with a wonderful design created by Freya Adkisson), chain, construction lights and flame/torch bulbs (seen behind Dracula and the Vixens here). There were a lot of hands on this particular practical and the final look was amazing; worked exactly as planned.

FLY OP

This show used our fly gallery but it may be one of the last times we have this old system used in our shows. The whole gallery is being removed soon and a hydraulic system will be replacing it for better control and ultimate safety for the students (18 years in the making - thanks Prop S and the 2.5 million being put into the Aud Tech next year)

We are so happy to have a student that rocked out the fly rail on the Fall musical return for round two and run the gallery for Dracula as well. We knew we were in good hands.

Hank Yau had quite a few fast fly cues in this show and he did such a great job making it all look effortless for the audience. Our system is still an old counterweight system and is not easy to make it all look smooth. The chandelier also had power running to the rail that Hank had to manually cue when Dracula used his magic to light the torches.

ATMOSPHERICS

Adding fog and haze to the show was a dream from the beginning and we purchased some new equipment just for the show.

We will of course use it all again in the future but this was a good test on how it all worked in the space. The size of the theater and the way the fog can set off the smoke detectors made us keep everything on the minimal side.

We were so fortunate to have Julian Pool join us on the production to run our fog machine. There was a real need for the effects in several parts of the show and Julian hit the cues just right. Each burst of the fog added to the intensity of the scene and really created some wonderful stage pictures for the audience. Nothing says horror like fog. Julian also had to travel from one side to other cause we had one fogger, but the scenes were on both SR and SL

Lani (as Lucy) in bed, Teddy (Harker) enters losing his mind that he has just seen the Count

and Dr Seward trying to figure out what to do next

SOUND

The last time we produced the show, we had a live violinist and pianist who created a live score for the show and played under the scenes. It was a wonderful addition and we wanted something as well, but the size of the auditorium needed something that could create a bigger effect for the audience.

We were very fortunate to have Ellis Gibson join us on sound.

Ellis had never been a Sound OP for a show before and they rocked it out!

Mr. Schaefer decided to use YouTube and Audacity to create the score. He pieced together a mostly public domain score for the show. It was played under monologues and during scenes to ad suspense. It also was used to move the scenes along, keeping the tension into the next moment in the story.

Harker is tied up at the moment...

There were also sound effects that had to be played for special moments that were largely sight cues. Dracula used magic a lot in the show. Each gesture had a sound attached.

The view from the sound and light booths

A lot lined up with the actor, but much of the sound worked in tandem with the light op. We moved the Sound and Light Operators to the main floor of the house and put them in a little House Left nook. This allowed them to be closer to the stage, talk to each other if needed and it really help keep all of the cues tight.

PR MARKETING

We spent a good amount time trying to get the word out about this show. Luckily the title does most of the work. We did make T-shirts, a banner for the front of the school, used the announcements, the hallway monitors and did a great display case in Senior entrance.

The banner was hand painted onto the fabric by Anna Dorsey and Mackenzie Miller. This was their second banner they did this year. They had also painted the Grease banner in the Fall.

Kaya adding the grommets to the banner so that we could get it hung over Senior entrance

This was not an original design by our department, we just loved the font!

Teddy Woldow's design for the cover of the program.

All of the actors in Advanced Drama had to design a poster for class,

but this one ended up being used for the program cover instead.

The castle flashback scenes looked great, they were the only time we played with green lighting

This was an amazing list for the actors, really helped them stay on track during the show.

Hannah Smith (running crew) chilling back stage and Robbie and Xavier playing in the Black Box

In the Black Box

The Cast and Crew of Dracula doing some warm-ups before the show

AWARDS

We honor everybody that worked on the show with an award, and is one of the coolest nights of every production. We eat snacks, have cake, and we get to sign each other's show shirts. There is a sense of closure.

The cast and crew of any show always feel the end of the project at this time and emotions always run high. The department is so fortunate to have so many talented kids who are willing to put in so much of their own time to do this work. We build such great communities with our shows and it is always a little sad when it is done.

Mia Willis (Stage Manager) was honored with the MVT award for all of her work as our stage manager, and Teddy (Harker/Props) got to take home the pig.

DUE TO UNFORSEEN WEATHER...

We were producing a show in January in the Midwest. The weather is always a factor. We decided to add a performance to make up for the one that we had to cancel due to the snow. It worked out for the best. We needed that last night of rehearsal to make the show all work the way we wanted and the encore extended the experience into the next week so we still got our third run.