Hartford Stage is kicking off its 64th season with something you don't typically find in a Victorian vampire tale: Dracula told almost entirely through Mina Harker's eyes, performed by a cast of five women and one man. The U.S. premiere of Morgan Lloyd Malcolm's new stage adaptation runs October 9 through November 1 at the theater's home at 50 Church St. in Hartford, with tickets ranging from $10 to $120.
The production, directed by Jackson Gay, frames the entire story as a traveling theater show and opens on the single word “fear,” according to the Hartford Courant. Sara Gutierrez plays Mina, Scout Backus plays Lucy, and Lucas Dixon takes on Jonathan Harker, while Caitlin Elizabeth Clouthier, Anney Giobbe, and Pauli round out an ensemble that, aside from Gutierrez, each juggles multiple roles across the run, per the same report.
Gay is no stranger to Hartford Stage audiences, having previously directed The Mousetrap there in 2022 and Make Believe in 2017. Her connection to Dracula itself goes back decades: she first encountered the story at age 15 in a community theater production, the Courant notes. Gay also directed Little Women at the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis and co-founded the company New Neighborhood with Rolin Jones, which once staged a 24-hour reading of the Mueller Report in 2019.
A Script With a Transatlantic Pedigree
Malcolm's adaptation didn't originate in Connecticut. It made its UK premiere at London's Lyric Hammersmith Theatre in September 2025 under director Emma Baggott, with Umi Myers starring as Mina in a production that similarly framed the story as a play-within-a-play, according to The Stage. From there, it crossed the Atlantic for its American debut in Hartford, officially launching the theater's 64th season under Artistic Director Melia Bensussen, as reported by BroadwayWorld.
Malcolm brings a track record of feminist reimaginings to the material. She won the 2020 Olivier Award for Best Entertainment or Comedy Play for Emilia, an all-female historical drama centered on 17th-century poet Emilia Bassano, per Shakespeare's Globe. In 2021 she also co-founded the female-led theater collective Terrifying Women alongside playwrights Abi Zakarian and Sampira, a group dedicated to developing original horror plays written by women, according to The Guardian.
Blood, Fear, and the Mechanics of Stage Horror
Pulling off scary effects and blood effects night after night takes specialized coordination. BroadwayWorld reports that Shura Baryshnikov serves as both movement coordinator and intimacy coordinator on the production, working alongside fight director and special effects coordinator Rod Kinter to choreograph the show's physical intensity safely.
Visually and sonically, the production leans on a creative team that includes scenic designer Riw Rakkulchon, costume designer Fabian Fidel Aguilar, lighting designer Paul Whitaker, and sound designer and composer Caroline Eng, the outlet notes. Scout Backus previously toured nationally with To Kill a Mockingbird, while Lucas Dixon played John Hinckley in Assassins at Yale Repertory Theatre in 2017; Gutierrez most recently starred in Sanctuary City at TheaterWorks Hartford in 2024, according to the Courant's reporting.
More Than a Century of Dracula on Stage
Bram Stoker himself wrote the first stage version of the story, staging a reading of Dracula, or The Un-Dead at London's Lyceum Theatre in May 1897 just to secure his stage copyright before the novel was published that same year, per The Stage. Decades later, Hamilton Deane's streamlined 1927 adaptation became the basis for Universal's iconic 1931 film.
Hartford isn't the only Connecticut stage conjuring Dracula this Halloween season. Kate Hamill's feminist adaptation is running at the Brookfield Theatre through October 10, and Curtain Call Inc. in Stamford will stage Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors from October 29 through November 15, according to Backstage. Regional theaters elsewhere are riding a similar wave this fall, with Hoodline previously reporting on Ballet West's return to Salt Lake and a comedic Dracula staged at Taunton Performing Arts Center last October.
Showtimes, Student Discounts, and a Meet-the-Cast Event
Performances run Tuesday through Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m., with added matinees at 2 p.m. on October 17, 24, 28 and 31. There's also a Sunday evening performance on October 25, but no show on October 20.
Connecticut State students, faculty, and staff can grab $5 One Play discount tickets through a partnership between Hartford Stage and the Hartford Heritage Project, which is also hosting an October 29 Meet the Actors panel on campus, according to the Hartford Heritage Project. Dracula is the opener for a six-show 2026/2027 season at Hartford Stage that also includes Theresa Rebeck's Bad Dates: End Game, Phanésia Pharel's Dead Girl's Quinceañera, August Wilson's Radio Golf, Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard, and the theater's annual staging of A Christmas Carol.
