Hunter Mainville, Staff Writer

On Thursday, Feb. 23 through Sunday Feb. 26 in Strebel Auditorium, the Department of Performing and Fine Arts at Utica College presented Dracula – an adaptation by Alec Barbour based on the novel by Bram Stoker.

The exciting stage production on the famous novel starred Margarita Molina as Mina, Spencer Mayo as Harker and Cormac McCambridge as the constantly frightening Dracula.

The production opened to a set painted in dark colors and dimly lit with an eerie fog rolling over the edge of the set and into the seating. This set the tone for the start of the show and beyond behind the efforts of set designer Laura Salvaggio and lighting designer Mike Diederich, along with the rest of the set and lighting crews.

One aspect that helped keep the audience immersed in the events was the fantastic sound effects done by the sound designer Virginia Monte and assistant lighting designer/sound board operator Shantia Hunt.

Director Alec Barbour was excited how accurate the play became in practice.

“The big thing I wanted to get across was how close we stayed to the book and show the idea of trust versus doubt, and how when the characters all begin to trust each other everything comes together in their favor,” Barbour said. “This is how the story was meant to be told.”

McCambridge, or Dracula, immersed himself in the role.

“I was trying to get the audience to feel pure terror,” McCambridge said. “If nobody felt like leaving because they were scared, then we didn’t do our job.”