Join director Flora Bare for some free bubbly and bites before opening night! Enjoy her insights and leave with a better understanding of the show.

Flora Bare (Director) is a director, choreographer, performer, and educator specializing in devised physical theatre and collaborative storytelling. She holds an MFA from the London International School of Performing Arts and is a nine-time All-American gymnast and Hall of Fame inductee from UC Davis.  Flora has taught at the National Centre for Circus Arts in London, The Actors Gymnasium and DePaul University in Chicago, Wake Tech, UNC Chapel Hill, and currently teaches at NC State.  In 2024, she was awarded the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival Citizen Artist Award for her direction of Ricochet, created in collaboration with the Charlotte-based social circus company, Nouveau Sud.  Recent directing credits include Haughey/Gregory and Paint Me This House of Love at Burning Coal Theatre and The Tempest at the Cary Arts Center. This fall, in addition to directing Dracula: A Fem…, Flora will be directing The Wheels on the Bus at Raleigh Little Theatre and choreographing for Once at Burning Coal.  Her work centers on magical, daring storytelling rooted in physicality and the power of collaboration. florabarearts.com

Through our partnership with the NC Psychological Association, Dr. Cheryl Johnson interprets Dracula as a psychological exploration of charisma and manipulation, showing how a seemingly magnetic figure can exploit others for selfish gain. It examines how people become complicit in their own harm when drawn in by the fantasy such figures create. The talk connects this phenomenon to modern life, highlighting how factors like social inequality, trauma, and systemic oppression influence susceptibility to manipulative charisma. Finally, it addresses how to recognize and resist these dynamics, both in personal relationships and in the political arena.

Dr. Cheryl Johnson is a licensed psychologist in private practice in Raleigh. She has Ph.D.s in developmental and school Psychology from NCSU, a masters in Radio, Television, and Motion Pictures from UNC-CH, and a masters in clinical social work from Indiana University. Through her personal therapy and academic study, Dr. Johnson learned how to claim her power and helps her clients free themselves from chains from their pasts, reclaim their inherent worth and dignity, and make choices that nurture their authentic selves.

What makes Dracula such an enduring story, and why do we keep reinventing it? Before the curtain rises on Dracula: A Feminist Revenge Fantasy, Really, Duke PhD Candidate Katherine Carithers will dig into the origins and cultural history of Bram Stoker’s vampire. She’ll trace Dracula’s roots back to Carmilla: The Vampire, the gothic tale that inspired Stoker, and explore how this novel has meant very different things to very different audiences over time. From questions of gender and sexuality to shifting ideas about power and fear, Dracula has been called “the Moby Dick of British literature” because every generation finds new interpretations in its pages.

Join us to see how Kate Hamill’s adaptation fits into a long tradition of reshaping Dracula to reflect our own world and the image we see in the mirror.

KATHERINE CARITHERS is a PhD candidate in English Literature at Duke University, where she explores nineteenth-century British literature and how it reflects questions of gender, sexuality, and culture. She has shared her love of haunting literature in the classroom through courses like “The Body in Victorian Literature: Filthy, Beautiful, and Strange” and "Monsters: Then and Now." Katherine brings both her research and teaching to life with a passion for the strange, the supernatural, and the thought-provoking.

Stay after the show for a bloody good conversation…

Join us immediately following the show on October 19th for a cast talkback on Dracula: A Feminist Revenge Fantasy, Really?. Hear directly from the actors about their experience bringing this fearsome story to life. The talkback is included with your ticket—just stay in your seat and be part of the conversation.

Feed your local vampires before or after the show! Participate in our blood drive with The Blood Connection and save up to three lives. All while getting a free treat from concessions!

Advance sign-up required. To participate in this event, please sign-up in advance at https://bit.ly/JTPBloodDrive .