Growing up, I was in love with the legend of Dracula. I read the book twice; once in middle school and then another in high school. Both times, it meant something completely different to me, and enthralled me.

So, when I heard there was a show about the granddaddy of all vampires in this year’s Hollywood Fringe Festival, I knew I had to check it out.

The Rise and Fall of Dracula from Cadame Company is an immersive retelling of the story, featuring contemporary dance, original music compositions, and familiar (and not-so-familiar) characters from the story.

The show won’t open for another few days, but I sent some questions along to Cassandra Ambe from Cadame Company, and she was kind enough to answer them for us.

HORRORBUZZ:  What about the legend of Dracula drew you to it?

Cassandra Ambe: Partly, Melissa and I are just drawn to darker art pieces. I really enjoy seeing dark imagery juxtaposed with something graceful like dance. I enjoy embracing my inner-goth kid too. It was easy to run wild with Dracula once we got started. Melissa has a really powerful imagination and once we started talking, the ideas just kept coming. Melissa would say: What do you think of this or that? And I’d reply, “And, then we cover it in blood!!” I don’t want to mislead though–tangible blood is not used excessively in this piece. 

HORRORBUZZ: How does your production differ from others we have seen in the past?

Cassandra Ambe: Well, for starters, Dracula is female. We looked around for a while to see if other productions embraced that choice and we found one production in China that did a traditional ballet. It blew our minds that we couldn’t find more. We have a variety of components to this piece and I think that’s what makes it most unique: sections of the story are told through dance, we move across large timelines, audience is a part of the world for other sections and we also get to see Dracula when she was a human.

HORRORBUZZ:  Can you speak a little more on the subject of immersive nature of the show?

Cassandra Ambe:  This component of the show has been the most experimental. Melissa and I both have backgrounds working in promenade-style theatre and we both enjoy working that way. We decided to keep this show in that style and play with audience interaction for parts of it- some subtler than others. The audience really has a choice in how involved they want to be in those moments. And, not everyone is going to have to same level of “immersion”.

HORRORBUZZ:  You’ve incorporated some ARG elements into the production, with the use of “drops” at locations around LA. What made you decide to do that? Was it to help bring the story of Dracula to people and make it more personal?

Cassandra Ambe: This sounds a little funny but Melissa, David, and I have always been really huge fans of Harry Potter. I presented the idea of having these old, mysterious letters as our marketing materials early on in production and we got pretty excited. I wanted something that looked special–something that would make somebody curious. Most importantly, I wanted something that people were going to have a hard time ignoring and throwing away.

We knew we’d have our postcard inside and later on I had the idea to add an extra part so, we went with some freeform poetry/letters that I was already doing as a part of my character study.  Once we settled on those marketing materials, we tried to think of creative ways to target our market. Bookstores and whimsical boutiques seemed like the right avenue.  We wanted to have a little fun going to these different stores and dressing up and choosing passerby to target for this mysterious letter that was to be delivered to them. We wanted to give people a small taste of what our show is going to be like.  Eventually, it seemed like a good idea to hide the letters different places too so people could happen upon them. A different kind of adventure/experience but still hoping for the same personal touch.

HORRORBUZZ:  Will you do more in the days leading up to the show?

Cassandra Ambe: We’re definitely going to continue having those drops- even through the run as well.

HORRORBUZZ: I am so intrigued by the use of music in the production as well. How did you incorporate music into your re-telling?

David Kayser: I worked closely with Melissa and Cassandra throughout the creation of The Rise and Fall of Dracula so that I could really get an understanding of everything I wanted to portray musically. We would discuss atmosphere, personalities of the characters, their feelings, motivations, and relationships with each other so that I could find the right sound for each scene. Throughout the show you will hear certain musical themes and instrumentation repeat as a representation of an idea or person. What was really great about working with the writer, director and choreographer is that the choreography wasn’t a slave to the music. We would discuss how we wanted the scene to look, general ideas for the choreography of the scene, and what exactly we wanted to portray with the piece. This allowed the story, music and choreography to work together in a way that is not often seen.

HORRORBUZZ: Your teaser trailer was great, and set the tone for the upcoming show. How much of what we saw on screen will we see on the stage?

Cassandra Ambe: Not to give too much away but the trailer strongly resembles the opening number to our play. Both characters you see there and a different version of the same scene does happen in our production.

HORRORBUZZ: What was the collaborative process like between you and Melissa Ortiz when it came to adapting the show overall?

Cassandra Ambe: Melissa has a special flair for storytelling and character work. We went back-and-forth on a lot of plot points and we merged some characters and dreamt up ones that didn’t exist in that world already and it was absolutely rewarding and so pleasing. Melissa had so many good ideas and interesting ways to weave things together that I feel that I learned a lot from that aspect alone.  I definitely got to know her better as an artist because of the process. We nerded out over vampire things, had identical opinions on alot of ideas and have been challenged in ways neither of us saw coming.

To learn more about this production, and to buy tickets to see it, visit their page on the Hollywood Fringe Festival website.