English professor presents his latest revamp of Count Dracula
A new variety of sex symbol has invaded pop culture in the past few years.
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That would be, of course, the fanged heartthrob.
Some go for the trenchcoat-wearing, broody vamp who glitters in the sun.
A smaller but still sizable percentage lust after the more R-rated yet gallant Vampire Bill from HBO's "True Blood." Then there are the hotties from TV's "The Vampire Diaries," not to mention oodles of paranormal romance novels that feature a vamp and a mortal in love.
John Vance, an English professor at the University of Georgia who also writes and directs plays and acts, was puzzling over this phenomenon when a thought occurred to him: "I wonder what the old boy would think of all this if he were around?" he asked himself.
That "old boy" would be Count Dracula, Bram Stoker's famous character who has taken hold of Vance's imagination before. Vance penned two other plays inspired by the most famous vampire tale: "Dracula: The Unending" in 1998 and "In Mind of Dracula" in 2005.
The playwright's pondering gave birth to his newest parody, "Dracula Comes to Atlanta," which runs Friday and Saturday at the Seney-Stovall Chapel.
With the show, Vance tried to capture a tone similar to Mel Brooks' "Young Frankenstein."
As "Dracula Comes to Atlanta" opens, the audience meets the great vampire, played by Vance, who is entering his seventh century. Age has started to take its toll. "Dracula has to go to the bathroom more than he ever had to before," Vance said.
As the title suggests, the play finds Dracula in Atlanta, where he plans to be interviewed by one of Stoker's descendants.
Vance selected the Georgia setting by a process of elimination.
Other writers already had set vampire stories in Transylvania, London and New Orleans.
"Well," he
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