BUTTE — The Covellite Theater in Butte is kicking off its season with a production of Dracula, featuring a new adult acting troupe called the Covellite Players. The show includes two versions of the performance — one with blood and one without.
Watch The Covellite Players get into character for Dracula:
The production boasts 13 professional actors and four technicians, all in paid positions. Themed cocktails will also be available for purchase for attendees to sip while taking in the classic horror show.
Actor River Fatale landed the leading role as a naive and somewhat manic businessman — a dream role for someone with little experience performing before a live audience.
"This is a dream come true, and it's a dream that I've never spoken out loud," Fatale said.
Fatale's character crumbles in the presence of Dracula, played by Demetrius Fassas, who also owns the Covellite Theater. Fassas has experience as a child actor and says the evolution of the theater group has given him a new outlet for artistic expression as an adult.
"There have been adult acting troupes in this building in the past, but not for many years. And, so, I really was hoping and praying for something like the Covellite Players to evolve," Fassas said.
Fassas describes the iconic character he portrays as both captivating and primal.
"I mean, he's an iconic character and a character that, you know, has spent centuries learning to woo humans, and he's so charismatic and suave, but at the end of the day he's kind of an animal," Fassas said.
Director Paisley Wannamaker, who once performed on the Orphan Girl Children's Theater stage and now leads children's productions, is excited to work with adult actors for the production.
"An adult has life experience that a child just doesn't have, and so they can bring a lot of their own experience to the role, which brings a little bit more depth and...um...creepiness," Wannamaker said.
That depth is something Fatale draws on when playing a character who ignores every warning sign around him as he falls beneath the spell of the creature.
"You know, sometimes I feel like I'm totally clueless about a space that I go into, and he just ignores all of these red flags, just like, what are red flags?" Fatale said.
The play follows the original script closely, set against a late 1800s backdrop of the Covellite church-turned-theater. Tickets are available online and at the door at 6 p.m. on Sept. 11th and 12th in Butte.
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