Research sheet

Dracula  - Research

Bram Stoker’s Dracula – What was he trying to say with this book? Any information about his life or the novel may help here.

The novel of Dracula by Bram Stoker has many themes in such as, - Sexual conventions, - Victorian culture, - Immigration, - Post-colonialism, - Gothic When Stoker wrote the novel, I believe he was putting all of these themes, but not making them too obvious as these are all things people in the society disapproved of. In Stoker's life, he spent 7 years researching into vampires until he was influenced by a woman called Emily Gerard, who wrote a biased essay on Transylvania. Maybe, as Stoker was inspired by a woman, that's the reason why he gave the woman in his novel a larger part? Also, back then vampires were believed to be true in Europe and he probably wanted to give them more of a scare by writing Dracula.

Vampire Myths: Researched information on any aspects of the historical mythological origins and related data.

"Vampire stories can go back as far as Biblical times, Lilith the first vampire" "The term 'Vampire' was not a everyday superstition or fear until 17th and 18th century" "Many countries have their own blood suckers like Russian Vurdalak to the Romanian Strigoi" "From the start it was believed vampire's were stabbed in the heart with wood, to kill them and that's the only way you can kill a vampire" "Dracula means Dragon" "Back in the day vampire's were shrouds and were often described as bloated and of ruddy or dark countenance, markly different from today's view" "After all the superstition around the globe, Europe began to increase superstition which lead to what was called 'Mass Hysteria', which means threats to the whole society" "Random people on streets were accused of being vampire's" "Folkloric belief in Vampire's is the ignorance of the body process of decomposition" Greek mythology also comes in to Vampires, because people see that the first Vampire was in Greek mythology and he was blessed and the cursed which created a vampire different to the version that is today"

Antonin Artaud – What is the Theatre of Cruelty? Any ideas about how this could help us?

The Theatre of Cruelty is something that Antonin Artaud created, he believed that this would release the actor's and audience's biggest fears. A thing that he'd say is "Lancing the abscess" this is where he used theatre to push out any instincts that he believed was hidden beneath the civilised society. Artaud believed that if the actors pushed themselves to the absolute extremes it would release "The Double", another thing the Theatre Of Cruelty was known as was "Total Theatre". Well, in Dracula there's a lot of lust, so we could release "the double", because you can't say lust, so you need to think of other ways to show it, for example; breathe. We could also use the grid method, so we can push ourselves to the absolute maximum.

Your character(s) in the play: Describe your character using information given in the script/ storyline. How would you describe your character? Provide a personal view about what you feel and think about your character.

Renfield, my character is a fictional character from Bram Stoker's "Dracula". Renfield is Dracula's "puppet" through most of the play. In the play, he is known for eating living creatures, starting with flies, then spiders, then birds. He starts getting a taste for living creatures after his encounter with Count Dracula. The resultant belief that he can extend his life by draining the life of others-(like a vampire)- (this can link back to the research we did a few weeks ago about vampire myths. Lockhead could have got this idea of "external life" from Elizabeth Bathory's belief of killing virgins to keep herself young and beautiful forever). In the script, Dr. Seward describes him as "a paranoid schizophrenic with alternating homicidal and suicidal phases. And zoophagous to boot" and Dr. Van Helsing describes him as a "poor brave man.." I personally think Renfield is absolutely mad, but sometimes, for a short while he can be sane because in scene 7 act 2 he says "I pray thee, Lord.... portrayed it as a winged thing as butter or even the common fly?". So I believe that he madness can be switched off for a short amount of time and then it turns back on. It's almost like he remembers who he once used to be before Dracula turned him mad.

Style of Production Watch the 2 films  - Dracula (1931) – Nosferatu (1922) What can we learn and use in terms of: ·         Lighting ·         Costume ·         Staging, Set and Props ·         Costume and Make-Up ·         Acting Style

Dracula and Nosferatu are very similar with all the technical support for both films, but there are a few difference and some of them work better than others to our benefits. For instance in Nosferatu and Dracula the lighting is very different, in Nosferatu the lighting they use is natural daylight where as Dracula uses lighting of candle light and dark to create shadows and i feel as a company we can use Dracula's lighting for our show because the dark and light shows good and evil also the lighting they use on Dracula's eyes gives a good effect that we can use both films have costumes which are set in the victorian times so we can think about getting Victorian costumes also the make up is very similar, having dark make up around the eye's to show the evil characters and also a pale face to show illness. The style of acting is very different in Dracula and Nosferatu. In Nosferatu they use mime for acting and also make their actions very big and over the top where as Dracula's style of acting is Absurdism. I think we can use both of their styles of acting, we can use Nosferatu's style of acting for miming the props and then we can use Dracula's style of acting to help us make it scary and bring out the double. Also in Nosferatu instead of wolves they have hyenas and I think we could use this for movement for more animals instead of just wolfs.