This stage version of Dracula was written by Bram Stoker in 1897.

When Bram Stoker finished writing his novel in 1897, he realized that he had a best seller. He also recognized that, without swift action, the value of the book might be diminished by "play pirates". These were unscrupulous entrepreneurs who cashed in on a book’s success by producing an unauthorized stage version. Stoker therefore needed to secure a separate copyright for the stage, and any play written at the time had to be performed at least once on stage to secure a copyright. Stoker hastily used two proof copies of his book and cut out the passages that he could use then added in hand written dialogue and stage directions where necessary to create his play. The result is a different variation of his classic tale.

He had no problem securing a theatre for he was the business manager for Sir Henry Irving and the resources of the Lyceum Theatre in London were freely available to him. So on the 18th of May in 1897, before his book Dracula was published, Stoker produced one performance of his stage adaptation of, Dracula: or the Undead. The play has only been produced one other time as a staged reading on 18th of May 1997 at the Spaniards Inn, Hamstead England.

There are two reasons that the play has not been produced more than this in the past. The first reason is because only one copy of the script is known to exist at the Chamberlain’s Office in the United Kingdom; fortunately, access to the original script was acquired through Micro-form. The second reason is because the play is four hours long and as such not viable for production. The script has been edited to a two hour show without adding any dialogue thus no tampering was made to the intellectual content of Stoker’s play.

Special thanks to: MCCT, BPP, the Irish Lion, the Hilltop, Jimmy John's Gourmet Sandwiches, Derrick Krober, David Nosko, Chris Eller for the wonderful headshots and publicity photos, Betty Schoonmaker for jumping in on costumes and for the home-cooked comfort food, Chase Russell for his tireless efforts to realize the set design into a physical reality, the Goveias for lending space and equipment, Mike Price and the Waldron for lending props, Sammy Terry, and Bela.

The Monroe County Civic Theater Dinner Theatre Series is provided with support from the Bloomington Area Arts Council; the Indiana Arts Commission, a state agency; and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.