Charlotte Balla | Staff Photographer

Featuring badass women, cowboy hats, and men in distress, the Cast n’ Crew performance of “Dracula: A Feminist Revenge Fantasy, Really” sold out three shows last weekend at the Village Black Box theater. With this bloody and heartfelt play, Cast n’ Crew dazzles audiences once again with their completely student-run shows. 

In this adaptation, playwright Kate Hamill centers the sidelined women of the original classic. “Dracula: A Feminist Revenge Fantasy, Really” focuses on the friendship among three women: a genderbent Dr. Van Helsing (Mina Farrow Prater), a no-nonsense and know-it-all vampire hunter; Lucy Westerna (Evelyn Halbach), a vivacious, soon-to-be-wed woman trapped in Victorian norms; and Mina Harker (Amelia Kaye), a settled lady and wife who needs to break away from her upbringing when chaos erupts.

On opening night, Nov. 5, the Village Black Box teemed with cellophane doors, daunting wooden flats, crew members with headsets, and cast members braiding hair while drawing on bite marks for a 7:30 p.m. show, all of which stemmed from Google Sheets filled out in August.

As students returned from summer break, senior Ally Wilmot, the show’s director, spent her first weeks back envisioning and casting the play. A member of Cast n’ Crew since her first year, this play marks her seventh show with the club. Previously, she worked in the costume department, helped stage manage, and even acted onstage herself.   

“It’s super cool to be on the other side of every role I’ve ever had,” Wilmot said. “Having these other roles gives me a perspective into each corner of the process.”

Charlotte Balla | Staff Photographer

Cast n’ Crew, a 34-person team for this show, worked for weeks on end in various classrooms to rehearse. Because they have to share the Black Box with other student theater groups, Cast n’ Crew wrangled with set design, prop making, and acting outside of the theater, mostly in Seigle Hall. Technical Director and first-year PhD student Teija Suhas helped in organizing the numerous production teams by coordinating budgets, building sets, and fitting an 8-by-8 wooden background through a 7-foot-wide Village door.

“Whenever you watch a production, you can tell that everyone on and off stage had a lot of fun making it,” Suhas said. 

In this play, Dracula (Esteban Castaneda), the titular villain, remains a vampire. Yet his role shifts and serves to critique possessive, toxic masculinity and the power of men in both the 18th century and today. 

“The acting is amazing,” Suhas said. “There’s misogyny; these are the sweetest men alive saying the most vile things.” 

These productions offer a peer-to-peer, neutral environment where actors and techies become one: Everyone builds the sets, and actors collaborate to pick apart these characters. From workshops exploring their Halloween costumes, comfort foods, and backstories before the play’s events, Cast n’ Crew sits with these stories. First-year Evelyn Halbach as Lucy Westerna dramatically turns from a damsel to a sadistic vampire sister-wife.

“I love to play a villain … and get to embody that creepy physicality. Halbach said. “I want to provide the audience with a sense of uncanny valley.”

Charlotte Balla | Staff Photographer

From karaoke nights to a murder mystery party, the camaraderie Cast n’ Crew cultivated showed on stage. After spending hours together preparing, the club celebrated opening night with a group dinner at Raising Cane’s. Though the characters split divisively between vampires and hunters, the students themselves built a tight-knit community through their shared love for theater. 

“The amount of connection we have with each other as a cast is really great,” Halbach said. “I feel like I’ve found my people with Cast n’ Crew.” 

Moving into their winter cabaret and spring musical “Alice By Heart,” Cast n’ Crew will welcome a new set of WashU performers mixed with fresh and returning faces. As the cast transitions away from Victorian wives and vampiric parasites to snowy showcases, “Dracula’s” success and the friendships forged will linger through the Village and Seigle hallways.  

“It’s a pleasure to work with people who are so talented and willing to lean into the weird,” Wilmot said of the cast.