ON STAGE
Castle High’s ‘Dracula’
By John Berger
is fine theater
Special to the Star-BulletinHIGH school theater is inherently a training program, but Castle Theatre Department's staging of Ted Miller's "Count Dracula" is on a par with recent shows at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and some community theater groups as well.
Count Dracula, 8 p.m. tonight, Friday and Nov. 7; Bright Theatre, Castle High School. Tickets $7-$10. Call 233-5626.
The musical runs more than 90 minutes with a single intermission but never seems to drag.
Tahiti Fernandez (Sybil Seward) sparkles in a strong comic role. Aiko Schick (Mina) brings broad dramatic range to a role that requires her to morph several times from sweet Victorian heroine to seductive and malevolent modern temptress and back again. Schick plays both sides of this split personality convincingly.
Jacob Akuna gives a Po'okela Award-worthy performance as the demented, fly-eating Renfield. Dustin Malama makes a promising debut as a slightly campy Dracula, and Jason Deluca deftly adds bits of melodrama as Jonathan Harker. (DeLuca exaggerates for effect at key moments but doesn't overdo it.)
Jordan Silva keeps his Germanic accent firmly in place as Von Helsing, and Lance Tomomoto is a solid and reasonably stolid Dr. Seward. (A second cast plays these roles in some performances.)
A dozen-plus "extras" provide pre-show entertainment as inmates of Seward's insane asylum. Their performance onstage is a show in itself. Be prepared to interact with them when they come out into the crowd and roam the theater.
The show also benefits from a serviceable set, a surprising number of pyrotechnics and other special effects, a semianimated flying bat and the best audio quality to date in that facility.
Castle's "Count Dracula" is ambitious, unpretentious, entertaining and well worth the $10 ticket price.
John Berger has covered the local entertainment scene since 1972.
