Judd Wiltse has delighted local audiences for years with his frequently off-kilter roles. He was masterful as Lurch in The Addams Family, unforgettable as Scrooge and uproarious as one of the Wicker-sham Brothers in Seussical the Musical Jr.
This week he assumes the title role as the obsessed Dracula.
The Allen Community College theatrical production runs tonight, Friday and Saturday at the Bowlus Fine Arts Center.
BASED on the 1996 Steven Deitz incarnation of Bram Stokers iconic vampire, the Allen version stays true to the storys Gothic roots, eschewing the decidedly campier versions made famous by Bela Lugosi.
The play, set primarily in London, but occasionally venturing to Draculas native Transylvania, follows the story of best friends Mina and Lucy, (Chloe Bedel and Aubrie Arevalo, respectively), who are at various stages of their respective love lives.
Mina is engaged to be married to Jonathan Harker, a solicitor summoned to Transylvania to aid a mysterious Count Dracula in his quest to find land nearer London.
Unbeknownst to Harker (Aaron Terhune), Dracula is in dire need of a new home. Hes essentially drained Transylvania of his only form of sustenance blood and has grown noticeably weak and weary. London, he figures, would offer an inexhaustible source.
Little does Lisa know, but she may already be a target, through her connection with Dr. Seward (Ian Malcolm), a psychologist who runs a local sanitarium. Among its patients is Rensfield (Brogan Falls), a fellow scientist who years earlier ventured to Transylvania to study Dracula, but in so doing returned to London in a state of delirium and madness under his masters spell.
Told through a series of flashbacks, Dracula is certain to keep the audience on edge as strange occurrences begin popping up around London as the mysterious Count takes on an increasingly healthy glow.
A concerned Dr. Seward calls for help from an old professor, Van Helsing (Austin Wickwire), who is convinced he knows the cause, a vampire on the loose, but is reluctant to speak out for fear of being declared a madman himself.
Will Van Helsing, et al, stop Dracula in time to save his new targets, Lucy and Mina?
Find out by getting tickets for 7:30 tonight, Friday or Saturday, for $6 apiece, $4 for students and free for ACC students with a college ID. Tickets will sell at the door or in advance at Iola Pharmacy.
One word of warning: as a true gothic horror story, some scenes are unsuitable for young viewers.
WILTSE perfectly encapsulates the fiendish vampire, mostly with a menacing, entrancing stare powerful enough to put his enemies under his spell. (And occasionally with a terrifying shriek of delight.)
He headlines a masterful ensemble troupe assembled by director Tony Piazza.
Wickwire shines as the increasingly desperate Van Helsing, whose efforts to stop Dracula are complicated by his hesitancy in speaking out on what hes convinced is a skeptical populace. Likewise, Falls highlights every scene in which he appears as the insane Rensfield.
