Count Dracula's tale feels as old as time. For more than a century, books, movies, cartoons, TV shows and comic books have adapted the tale of the mysterious man and supernatural monster with a taste for blood and the ability to put people under his spell.
Ozark Actors Theatre in Rolla is sinking its teeth into the Dracula legend with a production that opens Thursday night at its Cedar Street Playhouse.
But the professional theater company isn't staging any of the dozens of existing Dracula plays or six musicals. Like Dracula's potential victims, Ozark Actors Theatre is motivated by survival, and a new work based on the world's most famous vampire is its garlic and wooden stake.
"We are having to figure out ways that we can save money and still create art," said Blane Pressler, the theater's artistic director. "One of those things is finding pieces that the royalties don't cost an extreme amount of money."
Pressler said in the past five years, the fee that theater companies pay for the right to perform plays and musicals has increased, doubling, tripling or even going up by a factor of 10. "We did 'Little Shop of Horrors' (in 2021), and the up-front on that was $800 versus something like we're about to produce 'Elf' (in December) and that's $7,000 up front," Pressler said.
So Ozark Actors Theatre is trying a new tactic, commissioning Rolla High School English teacher Lesley Pitts to write her own version of "Dracula." Because the original novel was published in 1897, the characters are in the public domain.
Ozark Actors paid an undisclosed amount for the work and can perform it free of charge in perpetuity. Pitts can license it to other theater groups and would retain all the profits from those shows.
High licensing fees threatening long-term viability are not unique to Ozark Actors Theatre. Paul Steger, dean of the college of fine arts at Webster University, said it's not clear why licensing fees have gone up so much in recent years, but consolidation and buyouts of companies that own those rights is likely part of it.
He said community theaters, small professional troupes and colleges and universities are all facing costs they didn't have five to 10 years ago.
"That becomes a real challenge for producing organizations to come up with that kind of money on the front end because you've got to be able to pay that fee prior to selling any tickets," Steger said. "Not to mention [paying more fees] on the back end on whatever it is that you made from the audiences."
Steger said that using 50% of a production budget on licensing is not sustainable for small theaters, and that commissioning new works is a good way to avoid those costs.
The downside, Steger said, is it can be harder to get people to buy tickets to a play they have never heard of, but going with a well-known character like Dracula that isn't attached to a copyright is a smart move.
"It's a story that everybody knows," he said. "You hedge your bets in the right kind of way, and that's what a good producer does."
The company is doing something else novel to try and make this new strategy successful. Ozark Actors usually does its productions in the summer but looks now to start a tradition of scary plays in October.
"Specifically, the spooky season vibe, we're hoping that this does well. So we're hoping to create something a little niche and special with this, too," Pressler said, adding there may be an audience for theater outside summer and Christmastime when there are typically more offerings.
Pressler said not having to pay licensing fees will also lead to a better production, making it as much of an artistic choice as a financial one.
"It's essentially a $10,000 chunk that can go elsewhere," he said. "We're able to pay people more. We're able to make the sets a little more lush, we're able to make the costumes a little more lush. And we also hope that is part of what draws people to come to the theater."
First-time playwright Pitts is aware of the business side of her commission. She approached the work hoping to be faithful to the original book but is adding her own flourishes and personality.
"My Dracula character is very much true to the novel. He really, really is. I also think Van Helsing is very true to the novel," Pitts said, "but I'm really excited for my friends who know me really well to see it because I think they're going to have those moments of, 'Oh, there she is. Here's our friend.'"
Ultimately, she is focused on the audience's response.
"I hope they get a little spooked," she said. "And I hope they walk away from it and say, 'Wow, that scared me. That was fun."
Ozark Actors Theatre typically sells about 50% of its seats over the run of a show, and Pressler said if that happens with "Dracula," it will be both an artistic and financial success.
As with any good theater company, Ozark Actors is putting most of its attention on opening night and this production. But the staff has been having discussions about what might be next if this experiment works and what could be on tap for a production next October.
"'The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow' is in the public domain," Pressler said. "Oh yeah, I've been watching a lot of horse puppetry to get ideas."
Ozark Actors Theatre will be performing "Dracula" over the next three weekends with shows Thursday through Sunday. You can find more information on its website.
Copyright 2026 St. Louis Public Radio
