Dracula comes alive at Grey Towers

MILFORD - Tickets for a reading of Dracula, that valiant vampire who has come to symbolize Halloween, go on sale on Friday, Sept. 15, 2006, at Grey Towers National Historic Site, Milford. The American Readers Theatre Company will present two comic melodramatic readings of this classic Halloween tale on Saturday, Oct. 28, at 6 p.m. and 8 p.m., in the Great Hall of Grey Towers. The show is appropriate for high school age and older. Dramatic readings were a common form of entertainment for nineteenth century families. The US Forest Service re-creates this at Grey Towers, ancestral home of the Pinchot family, as part of its Conservation and the Arts program. The American Readers Theatre (ART) is a nonprofit performing arts organization dedicated to promoting literacy through the art of dramatic readings. The comic adaptation of Dracula was created by the theater company’s co-founder Jeffrey Stocker and is based on the 1926 Broadway play that starred Bela Lugosi. “This is a comic melodrama and very campy played for laughs ... a real Halloween trick or treat,” Stocker explained. The actors will receive professional hair and make-up treatment by James Weis, professional make-up artist and company board member. Dracula is the third production performed by the company at Grey Towers and continues the Grey Towers tradition of providing a community event with a Halloween theme. This production is supported by the Pennsylvania Partners in the Arts (PPA), the regional arts funding partnership of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency. Partners is administered in this region by the Pocono Arts Council. Tickets are $10 in advance or $15 at the door on the date of the performance. They can be purchased at Grey Towers or by mail with a check written to the US Forest Service, PO Box 188, Milford, PA 18337. Enclose a stamped, self-addressed envelope. For more information, call 570-296-9630 or visit online at www.fs.fed.us/gt