Dracula Makes a Return to Bannerman Island

BEACON – For the fourth consecutive year Theatre on the Road, a locally based traveling company, will produce and stage a play on Bannerman Island. Collaborating with Neil Caplan, founder and Executive Director of the Bannerman Castle Trust Inc., theater owner Frank Marquette read four adaptations of Dracula before selecting this version written in 1976.

Receiving critical acclaim in New York and Los Angeles and countless stages in between, this production has been described as “entertaining and elegant”. The New York Times called it, “fascinating…eerily worthwhile”.

Director Frank Marquette offers, “I can’t think of a better marriage of play and backdrop. Who wouldn’t like to experience Dracula set against the Bannerman residence on an island in the middle of the Hudson River? I’m setting this in the 1920s with period costumes and making full use of the amenities on the island including outdoor archways, doors and barred windows. Speaking of windows, watch for Renfield!”

The cast features a roster of accomplished actors including Andrea Sadler of Cold Spring as Van Helsing and Dan Anderson of Beacon as Doctor Seward. Kristen Marquette, Theatre on the Road’s co-owner, will provide costumes and styling and the set designer is theater veteran, Thom Johnson.

Performances are outside and on Bannerman Island September 20, 21, 28 and 29 all starting at 7:30 pm. The guest boat will leave from, and return to, the dock in Beacon.
For ticket and reservation information: 855-203-1316. To purchase advance tickets visit www.bannermancastle.org

Theatre on the Road is the creation of actor, writer and director Frank Marquette and wife, Kristen. Producing plays for educational, charitable and private events since 1998, they offer original scripts, professional actors, period styling and handmade costumes. Original productions include, Poe’s Last Mystery, Voices from the Past, A Taste of Shakespeare, Whisky Women and seasonal “living history” tours at the Old Dutch Church in Kingston and the Rhinebeck Cemetery in Rhinebeck.