The stakes are high and the hammer is in full swing.
With the Halloween season in full swing, the Navarre High School drama students bring ‘Dracula’ to the stage this week. The students involved with the school production warn this production is no way child friendly. Fliers for the event said the production may only be appropriate for middle school age youth and older.
“This is a very dark play, it’s great,” said Raistlin Drouillard, who plays the title character. “You really don’t want elementary school kids going to this.”
In addition to the acting, the production behind scenes as far as designing the sets, costumes and make up is arduous. The production will also feature some impressive special effects not typically found on a high school stage, thanks to a local effects artist Eric Dupre. His work will create a monster mask for Tim Jones II, which is appropriate due to Jones’s character simply being referred to as ‘the Monster.’ In the process, a facial cast was created for Jones.
“We wanted to make it look scary,” he said. Jones added the production did not want to take the cost effective route and simply purchase a discount mask from a local retail store.
Jones said he did not mind going through the process of having Dupre set a head and shoulders cast for the ‘monster’ mask.
“It was kind of fun,” Jones said. “I played ‘rock, paper and scissors’ and I had to write in order to speak.”
The patience and hard work will all be worth it come opening night.
‘Dracula’ is expected to provide some “jump scares,” according to Jones which is timely with the upcoming holiday.
“It’s Halloween, so let’s do a horror play,” he said.
Kaylee Fowler, who plays Lucy Westphal, said attendees “can expect the unexpected” from the this week’s performance.
“That is our goal is to make the audience not know what was going to happen next,” she said. “I think that is really cool part of this story, because you don’t know what to expect from it.”
WANT TO GO?
WHAT: ‘Dracula’ at Navarre High School
WHEN: Performances begin at 7 p.m. on Friday, October 23 and Saturday, October 24
WHERE: Cafeteria at Navarre High School, located at 8600 High School Boulevard in Navarre
COST: $5 for general admission, NHS faculty and staff get in for free
INFO: Dracula is appropriate for middle school age children and older
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: 'Dracula' promises to provide scares, surprises