A Series of Interviews of Dracula Cast and Crew

Conducted By: Eesha Nanjundappa and William Mammes

Interview 1: Zeke (orchestra member and composer for Dracula.)

Interviewer: Eesha Nanjundappa

Zeke is a Senior and a member of the Asheville High School Orchestra, they play the viola and have been playing the viola in Asheville since the 6th grade. Zeke also plays many other instruments but mostly bass, guitar, and viola. They love being in the orchestra because of the community, stating, "It's just kinda nice to play music with other people." Zeke also likes to express themselves in other ways, such as embroidery and general arts and crafts. They plan on attending App State to study nursing and continuing to play the viola, joining the orchestra there.

After getting to know Zeke, they began to give us the inside scoop on the orchestra's role in the play. The orchestra has been composing the music for Dracula for about a month, Zeke describes the experience of composing the music in the class, stating that "We've been splitting off into small groups, and then [each of us] has been working together to write stuff, the groups vary based on the day" Zeke tells us that they have had a pretty consistent small group throughout the process, mentioning that their group's method is to "randomly start playing stuff, and anything that sounds good we would all kind of combine and make it sound a bit more polished." Zeke tells us that this is not the first time they have composed music for the school, divulging that they wrote the music for Radium Girls last year. Zeke then tells us something no one else knows. The orchestra will be playing live and on a catwalk for the duration of the play.

Interview 2: Sofia Costanzo (playing Marilla)

Interviewer: William Mammes

Sofia is a Senior and has been acting since she was 5, with her first gig being in Cinderella. She has always been obsessed with acting and dancing so much so that she would "do performances on the kitchen counter." She enjoys acting because she likes to see the world from the perspective of the character she is playing. Sofia plans on getting a Bachelor's in Fine Arts either theatre or acting, she states that at this time, she doesn't know which one she is going to pursue. She is also captain of the dance team and she is an intern at the theatre company 'Different Strokes' which is housed at the Diana Wortham Theatre.

Sofia tells us in depth the process that went into choosing the play for this year, she says that the International Thespian Society (which she is a part of) chooses the play every year. Costanzo says that the Thespian Society tries to “balance it out with the play in the spring, and we need a play with a lot of roles.” She recounts how they almost chose a play called “Puffs” but ultimately decided to go in a different direction because the play was too obscure and not well written. Sofia acknowledges that “Dracula also wasn’t written very well, but the director, Ms. Hilliard, found an amazing version of it for us.” Sofia is playing Marilla, who is one of Dracula’s wives in the play, so make sure you keep your eye out for her on the big stage!

Interview 3: Vic (orchestra member and composer for Dracula)

Interviewer: Eesha Nanjundappa

Vic is a sophomore and plays the viola alongside Zeke in the Asheville High School Orchestra. He has also been playing the viola since 6th grade. Outside of school, Vic likes to draw. He also wants to go to art school in the future, and hopefully continue to play the viola. Vic tells us that the best part of this whole process is getting to see the finished result of the music, he states that “It’s been really fun to actually get the music whenever it’s finished, because I was like, ‘Wow’, as a whole, we collectively made this.” Vic has high hopes that the music will be received well by the audience, noting that Radium Girls last year was a big learning curve for them: “it definitely wasn’t as in-depth as this one (Dracula) is. It definitely didn't turn out as well…it was a learning curve. We’ve done this before, but now it’s for real.”

Vic also describes how his experience composing the music differed from everyone else, “There were some that really got into it. I struggle, personally, to make things like that, just because I’m not great at impro, but some people are.” Vic is also very excited to play on the catwalk and describes how it’ll be very dark and that he’ll get to look down on the audience and the stage.