By Jerome Langston
Photo Credit: Sam Flint
Left to Right: Darlene Hope (Dr. Van Helsing), Madeline Calais-King (Mina Harker, and Lizzie Morgan (Lucy Westerna)
Walking into the large, nondescript MacArthur Center space, which formerly housed some glitzy retailer during the Norfolk mall's glory years — but now serves as adequate rehearsal space for upcoming Virginia Stage Company productions, feels simultaneously nostalgic and new. Melissa Mowry, a native of our local metro, who is directing VSC's reimagined, feminist take on Dracula, which is the show currently being rehearsed - speaks, and then quickly darts away. This is the evening break for the cast on this early weekday, and Melissa, as well as one of her lead actors, Darlene Hope, are graciously about to join me for a chat about Dracula: A Feminist Revenge Fantasy, Really, which pushes along the acclaimed theatre company's season 46.
"I got the spirit of a PK, without having a preacher for a father," says Melissa humorously - shortly after the three of us, which includes Darlene, sit down at a bare white table, to talk about this excitingly subversive, Kate Hamil play. This is Melissa's directorial debut at VSC, but she tells me that she is in her second season working for the company, in another capacity. And this is actually VSC's second production of Dracula, following its Ted Tiller adaptation, Count Dracula, which was presented as part of season one, all the way back in 1980. I ask Melissa how rehearsals are going for this Dracula, which is only loosely based on the classic Bram Stoker novel from 1897.
"We spent a lot of time at the table for the first few days... four days at the table just going through the script. Making connections and asking tough questions," she says. That allowed for a solid foundation, Melissa later explains, and now her cast and fellow creative team are able to really begin to see the work on its feet. The director has previously mountedshows here in the Commonwealth, including at Richmond's respected Cadence Theatre, and Virginia Repertory Theatre, also in RVA. Yet this is her first time directing any of this cast of eleven actors, both male and female, and she enjoys giving them the space "to play," which can lead to great discoveries about characters and storytelling.
It was VSC's producing Artistic Director, Tom Quaintance, who offered Melissa the opportunity to direct Kate Hamill's Dracula, back in May, though she wasn't initially interested in the opportunity for herself. "It just started from a space of advocacy for seeing more women of color tell stories that are not just specifically about their community," she says. And she told Tom that she would only do the piece if he allowed her to do it her way, which he agreed to.
"What does it mean to have Dracula: A Feminist Revenge Fantasy, really told from the perspective of a woman of color," says Melissa. She would later tell her cast that she didn't see herself in Kate Hamill's writing, but that she was "really drawn to the character of Renfield." That eventually opened up the world of the play to her. "This play was written during the #MeToo movement, and the Harvey Weinstein trial," she later adds. "Unfortunately, I think the world is meeting the play, where it sort of starts."
Dracula is one of numerous classic novels that actress and playwright, Kate Hamill, has adapted for the stage, including several works by Jane Austen. She has received much acclaim for those adaptations, and she has remain one of the most produced playwrights in America, for the past seven years. Her feminist retelling of Dracula was first produced in 2020 at the New York City's Classic Stage Company, where it received largely positive reviews. Hamill also starred in the production as Renfield, while Count Dracula was played by actor Matthew Amendt, and Doctor Van Helsing was played by my friend and DMV native, Jessica Frances Dukes.
In VSC's new production of Dracula, actor Robert Beitzel portrays Dracula, while Anna Sosa plays Renfield. Sosa has acted in a number of prior VSC productions, including Henry V. And aforementioned actor Darlene Hope, who is a playwright herself, portrays Dr. Van Helsing is the show. She’d actually been cast in another Kate Hamill play earlier this year, but she sadly had to leave that production early, due to illness. So the opportunity to tackle this character in this play was welcomed by the NYC based actress. "I really wanted to be able to do my first Kate Hamill play this year," she says. I ask her to describe Van Helsing as a character. "She’s a survivor. She's a fighter. She is someone whom! feel has confronted the dark underbelly of society, and come out the other side," says the actor. "I liken her in my mind, to someone like a Sybrina Fulton. She was put in a really difficult situation, and has adapted to become this person.”
Melissa says that Darlene "brings a lot to the table." The character that she's portraying battles the story's villain, and she needed the actor to embody a woman who had really lived a life. Plus, the actor needed to come into the space unapologetically - and Darlene succeeds at both.
As far as Dracula is concerned, Melissa views him as a cross between Fabio and David Bowie. This play's Dracula is charismatic and quite beautiful, but also a bit quirky. "He has to kind of be the everyman, on some level, but at the same time, thirsty and hungry for power underneath, the entire time," says the director. "There is nothing redeeming about Dracula. Absolutely nothing."
There is a lot of humor in the work, despite some of the show's darker themes. "The play has a witty and biting, sort of sarcasm, and sense of humor to it," Melissa says. And she and Darlene really celebrate living and working in a time, where there are many more opportunities for female actors to play really varied, multi-layered roles, and at every age. They’re also proud of VSC’s embrace of a largely female creative team, for this show.
"This is our first time, in the history of Virginia Stage Company, where we have an all-female design team, an all-female production team," brags Melissa, proudly. "It's all women everywhere. And it's been really incredible to have that opportunity."