Padua Franciscan High School is proud to announce our fall play for 2025, Dracula, The Vampire Play, with performances set for October 30, as well as November 1 and 2.
Dracula, The Vampire Play is a different script than the original Dracula, but many of the same characters are featured. Along with the famed Dracula himself, a pair of his victims -- Jonathan and Lucy -- join Renfield and Van Helsing in the cast. The overall plot of the play focuses on Van Helsing setting up a plan to capture Dracula.
“Our show weekend is actually Halloween this year, so I was really thinking about atmosphere and mood, and what do we love more than Halloween?” said Elizabeth Malloy ’11, Padua English teacher and Fall Play Director.
“This play is not a comedy. The past few years, we’ve gotten really into these comedies, and we’re doing well, but this year, we’re leaning into more of a specific straight play with some horror elements. We’re talking fog and bats, and can we make you lean in to hear the story?”
Auditions for the fall play have been held, and casting was done during the first full week of school to give the actors plenty of time to rehearse and for the set to be built ahead of the Halloween weekend performances.
After the early rehearsals, Malloy said the response from students participating in Dracula, The Vampire Play have been positive.
“We had a lot of interest, a lot of kids excited to do things that are different than what we’ve done before,” Malloy said. “For some of our more seasoned actors in the building, they were really excited that this was a different genre than what we’ve done before. They’re really excited that we have talked up a fog machine and some of the practical effects that we’re going to use on stage.”
“They were excited because we introduced this as a show focused on storytelling. We’re really thinking about if we’re sitting at a campfire and telling the story: ‘What do we do with our voice? What do we do with our bodies to make people lean in and to maybe get some jump scares out of the audience?’ That has been really exciting, not something we’ve been able to do in a while.”
Last year’s fall play, That’s the Spirit, featured a unique element with the use of a ventriloquist character. With Dracula, The Vampire Play, there is the special makeup work that needs to be done to mimic the wounds Dracula leaves on his victims.
However, more than the onstage work, selecting Dracula, The Vampire Play as the fall play is a nod to Padua’s past. The school’s first-ever fall play in 1992 was the original Dracula.
“This was the first play in our current rotation of fall play-spring musical, and this might be the last play in the gym before we’re in a new dedicated space for performing arts,” Malloy said. “There was the ability to do this nice full-circle moment on Halloween weekend with this really moody play and using a fog machine.”
While being performed on Halloween weekend, there will be no Friday night performance as to avoid any potential conflict with a first-round football playoff game. However, to make up for the lost Friday performance, Malloy and the cast added a Saturday matinee to the schedule.
Additionally, there will be a Wednesday Student Preview, where all Padua students are welcome to attend the free performance. That show will serve as Senior Night, where the 12th-grade students and their families will be recognized.
“My favorite thing that happens is you have a kid who comes in who’s really nervous, really tentative, and is looking for some place to belong. Enter theater,” Malloy said. “Maybe they’re really shy, and they’re really quiet, and then, by senior year, they’re one of the leaders on stage, they’re one of the leaders off stage.”
“They have these parts that are engaging and dynamic, and to hear their parents in that moment say, ‘You don’t know how much this program has done. You don’t know how much theater has done in terms of my kid finding friends, my kid feeling comfortable with themselves, my kid feeling confident in what they’re doing, my kid being able to advocate for themselves, my kid being able to stick to a schedule.’ The parents being able to reflect on the program is my personal favorite part of that night because over the course of time, I think they see the payoff of investing time and talent into a program like performing arts.”
Showtimes
- Thursday, October 30, 7:30 p.m.
- Saturday, November 1, 1:30 p.m.
- Saturday, November 1, 7:30 p.m.
- Sunday, November 2, 1:30 p.m.
- Sunday, November 2, 7:30 p.m.
Tickets:
Tickets will be available for purchase at a later date.
