Lee Ordeman as Vladimir Tepes (Dracula)
Who is Lee Ordeman? He is a DC-based stage and film actor. He most recently appeared in Scena Theatre’s production of The Marriage of Maria Braun. He appeared in Arena Stage’s workshop production of One Arm, originally an unrealized screenplay by Tennessee Williams, directed by Moises Kaufman. Recent film work includes supporting roles in HBO’s Game Change, the feature Better Living Through Chemistry and the web series Drakul, in which he does not play a vampire. Before focusing on theatre and acting, he trained and danced with the pioneering choreographer Kei Takei and toured internationally with her company Moving Earth. Lee is a native of Baltimore. He trained at Williams College and Catholic University’s MFA acting program.
Who is Vladimir Tepes? A man of sophisticated tastes and excellent manners; a wealthy and considerate host; a mentor of sorts…by profession he is a Washington, DC lobbyist – a very persuasive one. He is ennobled by his passionate love for his dying wife Mina, and all who know him admire him. Also, this, from Wikipedia:
Impalement was Vlad’s preferred method of torture and execution. Several woodcuts from German pamphlets of the late 15th and early 16th centuries show Vlad feasting in a forest of stakes and their grisly burdens outside Brașov, while a nearby executioner cuts apart other victims. It was reported that an invading Ottoman army turned back in fright when it encountered thousands of rotting corpses on the banks of the Danube. It has also been said that in 1462 Mehmed II, the conqueror of Constantinople, a man noted for his own psychological warfare tactics and the impalement of subjugated peoples in the Ottoman Empire, returned to Constantinople after being sickened by the sight of 20,000 impaled corpses outside Vlad’s capital of Târgoviște. (footnotes omitted).
He may have been dozens of people, good and bad – Jack the Ripper, Peter the Great, the Prophet Elijah. He is no more understandable from our moral and ethical framework than is a virus. He is Dracula.
Carolyn Kashner as Lucy Cervas
Carolyn Kashner is thrilled to return to the Capital Fringe Festival in Dracula, a Love Story. A native of the DC area her whole life, Carolyn graduated with a BA in Theatre from the University of Mary Washington in ’05 and then subsequently continued her training with the Studio Theatre. Recent credits in the DC area include The Balcony, The Plague (Scena Theatre), Ah! Wilderness, Marathon ’33 (The American Century Theatre), Man of La Mancha, Rent, National Pastime (The Keegan Theatre, Rent – Winner, Helen Hayes Award for Best Ensemble), The Last Five Years (1st Stage), Richard III (WSC Avant Bard), Witness for the Prosecution (Olney Theatre Center), A Brief Narrative of an Extraordinary Birth of Rabbits (E.M.P. Collective), James Joyce’s The Dead, The Iceman Cometh (Quotidian Theatre Company), Richard III (NextStop Theatre Company), Failure, A Love Story (The Hub Theatre), The Wonderful World of Dissocia (Theater Alliance). Carolyn has also performed with the New York Fringe Festival in The Fall of the House of Usher and Exiles from the Sun. Carolyn is an Equity Membership Candidate.
Who is Lucy Cervas? Lucy is a graduate student in Psychology at Georgetown University. She lives at home with her father, Will, and is engaged to her childhood friend, Jack Klaxon, but is experiencing a certain restlessness in her life. She wonders if she is making the right choices about her profession and her life…if she’s chosen the safe and the tame, at the expense of the wild and the free. As our story opens, she is interviewing for a position as the companion of the dying wife of Vlad Tepas. Her life is about to change.
Lynn Sharp Spears as Dr. Eva Calderone
Lynn Sharp Spears is a director, performer, designer and teacher.
Lynn has created with Arena Stage, The Atlas Theatre, The Kennedy Center, The National Theatre, The Olney Theatre, Source Theatre, The Studio Theatre, Toby’s, WSC Avant Bard, Networks and Troika National Touring Companies, The Learning Channel, The History Channel, Discovery, National Geographic and more. Lynn’s artwork is in private collections in the United States, Canada and Australia. She painted and sculpted the Pollinarium for The National Zoo, was Production Designer for the World Premiere, Song of Eddie, which was considered by the 2004 Pulitzer Committee, and has masks on permanent exhibit in the library at Penn State University.
Lynn served as Artistic Director of Adventure Theater 2002-2003 and is on the Board of Directors for The International Center for Sustainable Development. She is also the founder and director of Summer Theater Experience an organization that focuses on helping young people age 12-17 find their creative “Voice”, which is based at Artisphere in Rosslyn, VA.
Who is Dr. Eva Calderone? Winner of the coveted Lasker Award for scientific breakthroughs as a result of her work linking Parkinson’s disease to the practices of the eaters-of-the-dead in Fiji, Dr. Calderone, 55, is a brilliant but controversial scientist who has, as the play opens, just been denied tenure at Duke University because of the unconventional nature of her research. Dr. Calderone is a longstanding friend of Will Cervas and his family, but even they do not know of her most radical research, which skates off the plane of the rational and into the realm of forbidden knowledge. But “no knowledge,” says Dr. Calderone, “is forbidden to mankind.”
Christine Hirrel as Mina Tepas
Christine Hirrel is a grateful theatre cat with credits from many exciting little lifetimes, most recently A Piece of My Heart (Martha) and Native Son (Peggy) with American Century Theater. Among prior credits: Floating Rhoda and the Glueman (Storm), The Universal Wolf (Little Red), Shooting Simone (Olga/Kate) with The Theatre Conspiracy; The Walk (Haddie) with Keegan Theatre; Woyzeck (Marie) with Open Theatre; (Emma) with Three Way Productions. As a dialect coach she has worked with WSC Avant Bard, Theater J, The Kennedy Center, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Quotidian Theatre; Catholic University, Bowie State University.
Who is Mina Tepas? As we first meet her we see a tragic young woman, living out her final days in a profound coma. As her husband Vlad alternately rages and weeps over her recumbent form while plotting to find her successor, we learn some other things about Mina….that she owns a vineyard. That she is the daughter of a Spanish Duke. That she is five hundred years old…[/e
Joe Brack as Jack Klaxon
Joe Brack is a DC based actor and playwright. Locally, he has performed at The Kennedy Center, Studio Theater, Theater J, Constellation Theatre Company, Forum Theatre, WSC Avant Bard, Longacre Lea and Imagination Stage. Regionally, Joe has been seen at the Virginia Shakespeare Festival, Warehouse Theater in Greenville, SC, and Common Ground Theatre in Durham, NC. He also toured his one-man production of My Princess Bride to several Fringe festivals and theaters along the east coast. Joe has also performed abroad with Failbetter Productions’ tour of Sarah Kane’s Crave. Local teaching credits include The Academy of Learning Through the Arts, Camp Arena Stage, Round House Theatre, the National Conservatory of Dramatic Arts, and Imagination Stage. He also writes and creates comics for DC Theatre Scene and The Maryland Theatre Guide.
Who is Jack Klaxon? Jack is a Master of the Universe in the making, who figures that he has made the right choices to launch his lucrative career as a stockbroker and to win the hand of his childhood sweetheart, Lucy Cervas.
Although he has a somewhat Klaxoncentric view of the universe, he considers himself basically a realist who succeeds because he can see through the romantic assumptions which confuse others, including Lucy.
Josh Speerstra as Mr. Redland
Josh Speerstra is thrilled to be involved in this production for the Fringe Festival. This show marks his first return to acting since bringing a new life onto this planet with his lovely wife. Previous Fringe exploits include Glitter in Diamond Dead (many times), Klaus in The VonPufferhutte Family Singers, and the music direction of I Like Nuts the Musical. Josh is not unfamiliar with the prince of darkness. He played Dr. Van Helsing in Landless Theatre Company’s Dracula. Other Landless credits include High Fidelity, Spooky Dog and the Teen-Age Gang Mysteries, Cannibal! The Musical, Carrie Potter at the Half Blood Prom, and President Harding is a Rock Star. He has also appeared in Les Justes and The Mistorical Hystery of Henry (I)V. Josh is so very happy to be working with this talented group of individuals. He would not have taken time away from his ladies at home, had it not been for that fact.