Luke Shaw as Tiny Tim and Nat Jones as Ebenezer Scrooge.

Way before jack-o-lanterns and Fourth of July fireworks, I was celebrating Christmas.  In June, I began work on a new score for this year’s A Christmas Carol.  While I had music directed and performed in A Christmas Carol over the last two years, musically, I wanted to do something different this year.  I suggested that, instead of relying solely on traditional carols, we create totally new and original production numbers for this year’s rendition of Dickens’s classic.  Julian Wiles, who wrote this adaptation, embraced this idea.  I was honored to be asked to compose original music (and a bit terrified as well), so I went straight to work.  I ran to the library to do extensive research, which ranged from rereading Dickens’s original classic to watching the original Muppets Christmas Carol.  (Who doesn’t love Statler and Waldorf as the two singing Marleys?!)

This year, we have sought to bring new life to this piece by going back to the three elements that make A Christmas Carol resonate with audiences of all ages:  the great characters, a moving story, and heart.  As I wrote these new songs, I wanted to focus on what the folks around Scrooge where thinking and saying about him,  which quickly became great fun.  Adding the comments of townspeople and Scrooge’s servants began to broaden and enhance this well-known story.  Working with Cara Dolan, our choreographer, and Marybeth Clark, the show’s director, we worked to make sure each musical production number told its own story—almost like little musical plays within the play.  Of course, along the way, there was a lot of tweaking—a new lyric here, more fiddle there, and place to add more dancing, but all of these new musical numbers have come together with the sole purpose of making this A Christmas Carol fresh and new.  Adding a vibrant cast of 33, a live orchestra, some new scenery: a brand new version of A Christmas Carol was born!

This season’s audiences will be the first to hear this music.  They will be the first audience to see this version of Ebenezer Scrooge’s journey, often as seen through the eyes of those around him.  Perhaps they will have a new favorite character this time around.  Perhaps they’ll have a new holiday song stuck in their heads.  We hope they enjoy all of the new surprises and revel in their favorite classic moments.

Happy Holidays!
Amanda Wansa
Composer and Music Director for A Christmas Carol

The Woods Family (Mom, Dad, and three daughters) saw DRACULA at our final Sunday matinee. In addition to enjoying the performance, the girls were especially impressed with one small actor named Louie. Today they came to our Mount Pleasant Rehearsal Studio and met Louie in person. He was a big hit, but took a special liking to the youngest sister Paige and spent the visit snuggled in her arms or on her shoulder. He may miss the stage, but will have plenty of opportunities to learn new things with his family because they home school. Thanks to the Woods Family and the Charleston Animal Society, Louie has a forever home. We’ll miss you at Charleston Stage buddy!

Dracula has probably more accents than almost any other show. They range from Transylvannia (Rumanian) for Dracula, to proper English for Dr. Thomas Seward, to Dutch for Abram Van Helsing, cockney for Renfield, even Irish for Margaret Sullivan the housekeeper. Amanda Wansa, Charleston Stage’s music director (who has a great ear) has served as the dialect coach for the cacophony of accents needed in this show.

“Coaching actors on dialects is really a two part process,” said Dialect Coach Amanda Wansa. “The first is identifying the general ‘feel’ of a dialect and the second is dealing with actual sound substitutions. What most audience members don’t know is that there is a difference between ‘putting on an accent’ and speaking in a dialect on stage. For example, a real person from Germany who happens to speak English speaks with a German ‘accent’ – their take and pronunciation of the words; this is going to vary from person to person.  To teach Josh (Van Helsing) a Dutch (which is very close to German) dialect, we work on changing specific sounds in the speech (i.e. the “th” sound goes to a “D” or a “T” sound) to make him sound like he’s from that area, but still well understood onstage.”

“Each actor trained privately with me–sometimes hours at a time–on their specific dialect. We worked sentence by sentence, word by word, focusing on the language and pronunciation. Then, they were instructed to simply focus on their acting in rehearsal and I would give them notes after each night on specific sounds and nuances.”

From left to right: Charleston Stage Resident Actor Josh Harris as Abram Van Helsing, Resident Actor Derek T. Pickens as Dr. Thomas Seward, Michael David Wilson as Robert Renfield, and Garrett Flood as Norbert Briggs in Charleston Stage's DRACULA.

Dracula is a very physical show. Vampires and their minions do seem to like to slap folks around. There are actually 11 different fights or confrontations in this production, all of which have been carefully staged and choreographed by Resident Actor Derek T. Pickens.

“My first real experience with stage combat was back in 2008 while working at Theatre West Virginia,” said Pickens. “I was an actor in a few of their shows and in one of them I had a combat scene, but I was only taught the fight choreography for that specific fight and nothing more. It wasn’t until my first quarter of grad school at the Savannah College of Art and Design that I took a class in stage and film combat. My instructor, Martin Noyes, taught us the ins and outs of many styles of combat including hand-to-hand, rapier, and dagger.”

“When it came to choreographing the fights for Dracula, I was relieved to find that most of the combat were simple slaps and throws, which I’m very comfortable staging. There were also a few fight sequences that involved a bit more, and for those I spoke through the fight with our Director, Julian Wiles, and created what he thought should be in the fight, while also adding a few cool moves I had learned at SCAD. The process was extremely smooth, which I was grateful for as this was the first show I had ever been fight choreographer for.”

Charleston Stage Resident Actor Jillian Kuhl as Margaret Sullivan and Garrett Flood as Norbert Briggs in Charleston Stage's DRACULA.

What would a production of Dracula be without sound effects—and in this production, the goal was to create almost horror movie like sounds throughout the play. Also we’ve added surround sound to the theatre’s sound system allowing spooky sounds to come from all over the theatre.

“We decided to invest in the equipment necessary to create surround sound effects in the Dock, in particular for this show, to really engulf the audience in the spooky experience that the Dracula script calls for,” says Sound Designer Amanda Wansa. “Current audiences are used to surround sound in the movie theatres, their cars, and even at home. There’s two benefits to having this kind of system in a theatre. The first is the obvious ability to project sounds from specific locales, such as the wolf howls in Dracula that come from the back of the house, indicating that they are in the distance, ‘behind’ the audience. Likewise, many of the thunder, storms, winds, and whispers have effects coming from the back of the house, and bouncing to the front (it creates a moving effect).”

“The other benefit, which is less heard by the common ear (but trust me, your ear buds will thank us later) is the dissemination of the sound. Instead of having a loud thunder crash or underscore cue come solely from the 2 speakers up front at fairly loud volume, we can put them in 4-6 speakers at a lower level and spread out the sound.  The audience still gets the same volume, but its easier on the ears, easier on our system, and just plain cooler to listen to from multiple angles!”

Dracula continues this weekend for four more performances! Running Oct. 27, 28, and 29 at 7:30pm and Oct. 30 at 3:00pm.  Don’t miss your chance to experience surround sound in the Dock Street Theatre!  Purchase tickets online at www.charlestonstage.com.

From left to right: Charleston Stage Resident Actor Josh Harris as Abram Van Helsing, Garrett Flood as Norbert Briggs, Michael David Wilson as Robert Renfield, and Resident Actor Derek T. Pickens as Dr. Thomas Seward.

Prentice Clark as Mina Grant and Rashad-Dalao Tyrone Coles as The Monster.

How could Dracula prowl the stage without blankets of fog rolling in from the wings? While fog itself is simple chilled water vapor, producing it onstage is tricky. Special machines create the fog which is then super-cooled. Sometimes ice or dry ice is used, but this year we’re using a recyclable cooling substance, super cooled isopropyl alcohol. Since its freezing point is -117 degree Fahrenheit, the fog can be really cold, so cold that it (mostly) stays creepily low to the ground. We do our best to steer the fog in the right direction but, don’t worry if a little spills into the audience, it will not make you cough.

Prentice Clark as Mina Grant and Katie Needle Krawcheck as The Child.

Katie Needle Krawcheck as The Child and Michael David Wilson as Robert Renfield in Dracula.

Dracula features the most extensive use of pyro-technics in Charleston Stage’s history. While the goal is to produce the most spectacular effects ever, safety is paramount, in fact to produce pyrotechnics onstage all effects have to be cleared with state and local fire marshals and a Charleston City Fireman is on hand for every performance. Effects can also only be set off by licensed pyro technecians and Chris Russell, who designed the pyrotechnics for this show, has been licensed and also supervises many of the areas fireworks displays each year.

To further insure safety all the curtains, scenic elements, even actors costumed have been fireproofed and each effect carefully rehearsed.  So while some of the spectacular effects last only seconds, hours and hours have gone into them to insure they are not only spectacular, but safe as well.

Featured above: Dr. Seward's study.

This production of Dracula requires multiple sets from a fog laden graveyard, to Dr. Seward’s study at the insane asylum he runs, to the asylum’s laboratory, to Mina’s tomb and Dracula’s lair. Because of the rapid paced acting, these five sets have to quickly morph from one to the other requiring an army of stage hands backstage to move each scenic unit on and offstage. Co-set designers Julian Wiles and Stephanie Christensen created totally original sets for this special production, building every unit from scratch. “We wanted all the familiar elements, gravestones, fog, etc. but we wanted original touches too. We researched other productions and of course, looked at 19^th century laboratories and meticulous drawing rooms from the period,” says Wiles.

Charleston Stage recently surveyed audience members, and the set was one of the top things patrons loved about Dracula. Come see for yourself! Dracula continues running Oct. 19 – 30 at the Historic Dock Street Theatre.  Purchase tickets online at www.charlestonstage.com.

Featured above: Mina's tomb.

While Dracula will have the traditional black cape of course, costumes for Dracula, set around 1890’s requires period costumes and costumer Barbara Young has been busy making wonderfully romantic costumes for this production . . . often making two copies so that actors have a change after their bloody vampire encounters.

Prentice Clark as Mina Grant and Charleston Stage Resident Actor Gabriel Wright as Count Dracula.

Resident Actor Vanessa Moyen as Lucy Westphal and Timothy Shaw as Jonathan Harker.

Featured Above: Prentice Clark as Mina Grant and Charleston Stage Resident Actor Derek T. Pickens as Dr. Thomas Seward.

Over 10 gallons of stage blood will be used during this production of Dracula! “The blood is the life” says the raving lunatic Renfield, and blood is certainly a key part of any production of Dracula. In the era when Dracula was written, medical science was still in it’s infancy and the focus was certainly on the blood. Bleeding to remove impurities in the body was coming and just going out of practice. Blood transfusions were just being tried but, since no one yet knew that there were different blood types, these often lead to tragedy. The idea that blood could be sucked out of humans goes back millennia and has been part of the folklore of many cultures. For the blood onstage, we have three recipes, one of which is actually edible!

Audiences are in for a theatrical, gory treat this Halloween. Charleston Stage’s Dracula opens tonight at the Historic Dock Street Theatre! Purchase tickets online at www.charlestonstage.com or call the Box Office at (843) 577-7183 M-F, 12pm-5pm.