We started looking into our next project, Dracula, today. I have to say, that I am especially excited about this project, and so I cannot wait to get on planning the scenes and really starting to design the over all look of the show. But first, there is some research to do.
Dracula was originally written by Bram Stoker in 1897 as a Gothic horror novel. Even though Bram Stoker did not invent the vampire, he did create a story that created the modern form of vampires, touching upon the themes of women in Victorian culture, sexual conventions, immigration, colonialism, and post-colonialism in his novel.
The novel introduced the vampire count Dracula, that tries to move from Transylvania to England. Bram Stoker was himself Northern Irish, and most likely never visited Transylvania, just read about it. So, the description of Transylvania in the book probably isn't close to real life, but a improvised version of it. Transylvania is a historical region in the middle part of Romania.
At this time, literacy levels in England were counted by those who could sign their names on a marriage register. Only about 50% of the women and 70% of men could do this, but this percentage isn't necessarily precise. Functional literacy - being able to actually cope with everyday levels of text - was harder to measure.
We also talked about the different movie adaptations of the book, especially the 1931 version and 1922 German movie Nosferatu, that is heavily based on the book, but I will make a separate post about them.
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