Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors Audition Notice
Audition Screening
Monday, April 6th | By Appointment 10:00am-6:00pm | In-person only
No video submissions will be accepted.
Dracula Understudy Audition Form
Callbacks
Tuesday, April 7th | Individual Appointments 10:00am-4:00pm | In-person only
Must be available for a group callback from 4:00-6:00pm as well.
No video submissions will be accepted.
Location
Stage Door Theater – 155 N College Street | Charlotte, NC 28202
Parking provided at Center City Green (316 E 6th St, Charlotte, NC 28202)
What to prepare
Prepare a 1-minute monologue of your choice for the audition screening on Monday. Those selected for callbacks will be asked to come prepared with the side for the character they would most like to read for. Please familiarize yourself with the play and character breakdown ahead of time.
Rehearsals
Monday, June 29th through Sunday, July 12th (daytime availability required)
Performance Schedule
Tuesday, July 7th through Sunday, August 16th (Tuesday through Saturday evenings, plus Saturday and Sunday matinees)
Availability
Understudies must have availability for all performances and rehearsals (see our website for a full schedule breakdown). You will be required to attend at least 3 performances per week (house seats provided) and will need to stay within a 20-minute radius of Uptown Charlotte on performance days up until the half-hour prior to curtain.
Pay Range
$750 per week, plus $125 stipend per performance covered, and an additional $750 stipend upon completion of the rehearsal process; local non-union actors. Housing is not available, must have housing available in the Charlotte region and be able to arrange transportation into Uptown Charlotte. Free parking will be provided near the theater.
About the show
Ever wondered what would happen if you took Bram Stoker’s legendary vampire tale and put it into a blender with Mel Brooks, Monty Python, and The 39 Steps? That’s just what happens in this lightning-fast, laugh-out-loud, 90-minute, gender-bending romp. When her sister Mina falls ill with a mysterious disease of the blood, Lucy Westfeldt and her fiancé, Jonathan Harker, enlist the help of famed female vampire hunter Doctor Jean Van Helsing. Their hunt for the dangerous and sexy Count Dracula abounds with clever wordplay and quick-change antics. Five actors play over a dozen roles in this bloodcurdlingly hilarious send-up of the literary classic.
Questions?
Email: Dracula@blumenthalarts.org
Casting Breakdown
All roles require EXCELLENT COMIC ACTORS with BOLD CHOICES and GREAT COMIC INSTINCTS, great physically comedic ability, expert facility with various dialects - and a great capacity for fearless razor-sharp melodramatic comedy in the style of ’39 Steps.’ The show also lovingly plays with gender presentation in the queer-camp style made popular by the work of Charles Ludlam, Everett Quinton and the Ridiculous Theater Company (The Mystery of Irma Vep). For reference, a podcast version with multiple actors can be found here
Actor 1
Male presenting, late 20’s - 30s, plays all male presenting roles. Small, unassuming. Any ethnicity: plays JONATHAN HARKER (RP British dialect), prim and proper and obsessive-compulsive real estate agent, frightened of his own shadow. Engaged to his childhood crush Lucy Westfeldt and enamored of her fearlessness. Once bitten, he loosens up…a lot...and becomes a Tom Jones style rock star in leather pants. Also plays THREE SUITORS (various dialects): Lord Cavendish, Lord Windsor and Lord Havemercy, played simultaneously with the help of a puppet on either side of his head. BOSUN (Irish dialect): A scurvy seaman who goes down with the ship in a storm. GRAVEDIGGER (cockney dialect): A drunk gravedigger with a secret.
Actor 2
Female presenting (or non-binary), 50-60, any ethnicity – plays all male presenting roles, including DR. WESTFELDT (RP British dialect), Lucy and Mina’s Father, a misogynist blowhard; self-important and given to proclamations. RENFIELD (cockney dialect): insane patient of Dr. Westfeldt who lives to serve and loves to eat bugs. In a word, he’s nuts. CAPTAIN (sea captain dialect): The scurvy salty captain of a doomed ship caught in a raging storm.
Actor 3
Female presenting, 20s-30. Any ethnicity. Ingenue role. Plays LUCY WESTFELDT (RP dialect): Brilliant plucky earth scientist daughter of Dr. Westfeldt, she is full of energy and the spirit of adventure. She’s often underestimated because of her beauty. Engaged to Jonathan, but when Dracula moves to Whitby, she is captivated by his exotic European ways - their shared interests – and his shirtless torso. When her sister is bitten by Dracula, she courageously joins the cause. KITTY (cockney dialect): An elderly, dotty kleptomaniac patient of Dr. Westfeldt’s, she serves as a maid in his house. Think a less intelligent Mrs. Lovett. DRIVER (thick Eastern European or Russian dialect): A Transylvanian male Uber-driver, part Mel Brooks, part Borat.
Actor 4
Male presenting, 40s-50s, any ethnicity - plays MINA WESTFELDT (RP dialect), female identifying – the oft overlooked Westfeldt daughter. She has always lived in her sister Lucy’s shadow and is quite desperate for attention. Immediately receptive to Dracula’s charms, she falls under his spell, succumbing to his curse. JEAN VAN HELSING (German dialect): Female presenting German Doctor of Rare Infectious Diseases from the University of Schmutz, she is disciplined, scientific, humorless, stern and no-nonsense.
Actor 5
Male presenting 20’s - 30s. Any Ethnicity. Plays COUNT DRACULA (Transylvanian dialect). Hugely sexy, magnetically handsome, rock star presence with a killer body. The (non) living embodiment of narcissism. But he is lonely. When he meets Harker, he becomes instantly obsessed with Lucy whose independent spirit and fearlessness fascinate him. He travels to Whitby to find her, steal her from Jonathan and make her his bride for eternity.