When Stephen Hollis got the call from Playhouse chief Ed Stern inviting him to again direct “Dracula” (the last time was 12 years ago) “I was intrigued and initially concerned,” Hollis reports. “I’d been very happy with the previous production.”

“Dracula,” which opens the Playhouse season Tuesday, will be the same – but different. 

Hollis didn’t want to “simply reproduce what I did before” but then again, “it was 12 years ago, I couldn’t remember how I did everything.”

Of course there’s a new cast but “there are a couple of things I was fond of, and couldn’t let go of” like the script. “I looked at many of them but they’re campy and meolodramatic and don’t take the story seriously.”

So Hollis returns to the spooky and suspenseful first stage adaptation of Bran Stoker’s novel. “It gets to the essential dramatic conflict – good versus evil. It lets us know what it must have felt like for this father and daughter” under siege from a vampire.

Hollis isn’t bothered by the fact that everybody knows the story. “You could say the same thing about “HamIet.” I believe in doing the play for the one person who doesn’t know it. That’s how I approach everything, really. That’s a director’s job.”

What is different – many fire codes have been passed in the last decade. “There are lots of safety restrictions,” Hollis sighs. “No pyrotechnics, or explosions that can ignite. The technical challenges have been daunting.” Not least because the show is doing a super-quick turn-around for St. Louis, not terribly accommodating of setting up elaborate special effects.

OK – here’s my favorite Drac story, not told by anyone at Playhouse, who are being hush-hush, and I have no idea if it’s true. The whisper I heard was that many hours were spent with Dracula’s cape, deciding how to rig a certain trick, or even if it could be rigged with actor Kurt Rhoads inside. All I’ll say is that it will be swell if they’ve managed to make it work.

I still remember Hollis’ “Dracula” from 1995, it was a humdinger of an adventure. Call the Playhouse box office for reservations and information, 513-421-3888 and www.cincyplay.com.

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Jackie Demaline

Jackie Demaline

posted by CinStages Buzz  # PermaLink 11:05 AM