Halloween season is upon us, and it’s about to get bloodier and boozier thanks to the Drunk Shakespeare Society, which will once again present Lori Wolter Hudson’s Drunk Dracula at The Emerald Theatre from October 2 through November 15.
If you’re not familiar with Drunk Shakespeare, here’s the set-up: At the start of each performance, one actor takes five shots of their liquor of choice before leading the rest of the cast through one of Shakespeare’s classic plays in under 90 minutes.
“If somebody hasn’t seen the show before and they’re planning to come, what they can expect is drunk, professional, and outrageous performances from five actors who are all trying to keep the show going, while one of them is blasted, completely obliterated, with alcohol,” says actor Joey Herrera, who will don the Count’s fangs in Drunk Dracula.
Herrera, an original member of Houston’s Drunk Shakespeare Society, says when it comes to The Bard, all the actors are “huge nerds,” and the alcohol just lets that nerdiness out.
“The whole point of the drinking is that it enables us to geek out as much as we want,” explains Herrera. “If we’re the drunk actor, we’ll do a monologue, and we can cut in between and talk to the audience, break the fourth wall a little bit. It’s almost like you’re preaching to your friends. It’s that back-of-the-bar-room vibe where it almost feels like a bunch of Shakespeare nerds are getting together.”
A graduate of Texas State University, where he studied acting, Herrera says a “party animal instinct kicks in” for the drunk actor that makes acting become “like second nature.”
“As an actor, you’re always in your head about something…And then, as soon as you get five shots of tequila in your body, all that goes out the window, the confidence level goes up, and you’re like, ‘You know what? I don’t care. I’m just going to be me. I’m going to be as authentic as I can be. I’m going to nerd out about Shakespeare, or I’m going to nerd out about Halloween, and I’m going to take you guys along for the ride,’” says Herrera.
In honor of Halloween, the ensemble will take audiences on a drunken ride through Bram Stoker’s 1897 vampire tale Dracula.
“We have the book that we reference, and then the drunk actor has the freedom to mess around with it,” says Herrera. “And there’s a lot of inclusion of pop culture references. We stay with the times, with the zeitgeist, and what’s currently trending, and we have a lot of fun with it.”
For his own take on the Transylvanian bloodsucker, Herrera says he found inspiration in Stoker’s source material and every single film he could get his hands on featuring Dracula. He also pulled from some unexpected places.
“A little bit of my own twist into it is pulling from a lot of performers, like I pull from Michael Jackson and Prince and anybody who has stage presence, because with a character as iconic as Dracula, you have to command the room,” he says. “I think leaning into campiness has done wonders for the production, because at the end of the day, we’re all being silly, and we’re all portraying these heightened versions of these characters. But at the same time, I’ve taken bits and pieces from every iteration of the character.”
The production marks Herrera’s second year in the role of Dracula, and he says the show developed something akin to a cult following last year.
“I didn’t know so many people were into vampires,” says Herrera. “We had a lot of people come see the show multiple times, and then they’d bring their friends, and they’re really there for the vampire. They’re there to see some blood sucking and get hypnotized. They love it.”
One thing that pleasantly surprised Herrera was the number of people who showed up in costumes for the show. “We don’t really get that for Romeo and Juliet or any of the other Shakespeare things that we’ve done.”
For those big spenders that would like a few guaranteed audience participation opportunities, there’s “The Royal Experience,” a package which offers its buyers a chance to be a Count or Countess for the evening, complete with a throne and crown, a bottle of champagne, two hand-crafted cocktails, treats, and a little bell, which they can ring twice, at any time during the performance, to have the drunk actor complete a challenge or take another drink.
“They kind of become characters in the story themselves,” Herrera explains. “They love it. They just soak it up.”
But even if you’re not royalty for the night, Herrera says you may still find yourself in Dracula’s crosshairs.
“As Dracula, drunk or not, I like to lurk around the audience. And by the end, you won’t know who’s bit or not bit,” he says with a laugh. “It’s fun connecting with the audience that way, and that’s essential—to make them feel included, even people in the back rows. To give them a memory to leave the show with.”
The result of it all is a show that can be completely different from night to night, with Herrera saying there is “a lot of unpredictability to it.”
“You never really know what kind of performance you’re walking into. The configuration of the cast, whoever the drunk actor is, it always changes. And it’s just ever evolving.”
One thing, however, does not change, and it’s the message Herrera wants anyone considering Drunk Dracula to know: “We will welcome you with open arms and open fangs.”
Performances are scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays, Thursdays, and October 28; 7 and 9 p.m. Fridays, with an additional 5 p.m. performance on October 31; 3, 5, 7, and 9 p.m. Saturdays; and 5 and 7 p.m. Sundays through November 15 at The Emerald Theatre, 412 Travis. For more information, visit drunkdracula.com. $49-$199, with The Royal Experience available for $500.
Drunk Dracula is an adult-only show (21+) featuring strong language, vulgarity, sexual humor, and audience interaction, with potential elements of nudity. It also contains fog, strobe effects, and loud noises.
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