Sierra Stages to Continue 'Theater by the Book' Series with DRACULA, 10/23

Sierra Stages and Miners Foundry Cultural Center announce a special Halloween event on Wednesday October 23 as part of their ongoing "Theater by the Book" series of informal play readings: DRACULA by Steven Dietz. The reading will be directed by Jac Royce and will take place at the Miners Foundry in Nevada City at 7:30 PM. Admission is FREE, with a suggested donation of $10 to cover costs. There are no advance tickets. The doors open at 7 PM. Refreshments will be available for purchase.

"I want your fear," says Dietz's Dracula. "For your fear, like a current, rushes through your body. Your fear makes your heart pound, it renders your veins rich and full. Your fear hemorrhages deliciously within you."

When Dietz wrote his adaptation of the novel, he had misgivings about tackling this popular piece because, "I thought the book had been captured quite well in a number of other adaptations, but after re-reading the novel, I became very surprised at the extent to which so many theatre adaptations veered a great distance from the book. My friends kept asking what my `take' on the story was. . . what did Dracula `represent?' I was tempted to join in their esoteric aerobics, [but] I realized that to make Dracula a metaphor was cheating. It was akin to putting a muzzle on the most terrifying aspect of the story. You can hide from a metaphor. A metaphor doesn't wait outside your window under a full moon. A metaphor doesn't turn into a bat and land on your bed. Instead, I took Mr. Stoker at his word: the actual being is the most haunting. The question, then, is not what Dracula represents, but what he is: a brilliant, seductive, fanged beast waiting to suck the blood from your throat. Hide from that."

The "Theater by the Book" series is presented by Sierra Stages and the Miners Foundry Cultural Center for the community. All of the readings are FREE (with a suggested donation of $10 to cover costs). The final reading will be Allan Miller's psychological drama THE FOX (based on the short novel of the same name by D.H. Lawrence) on Wednesday November 20.

Sierra Stages' final production of its fifth season - the intimate musical CLOSER THAN EVER opens October 31 and plays through November 24 at the Off Center Stage in Grass Valley.

For more information, visit www.minersfoundry.org or www.SierraStages.org or call Sierra Stages at 530.346.3210.