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 -- Renfield and Van Helsing make up 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 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 12 th -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 the time, I think they see the payoff of
investing time and talent into a program like performing arts.”
Show Times:
- 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.
