Character Descriptions & Sides, Rehearsal Schedule, Staging

     Hello. Thank you, ladies and gentleman for taking time out of your very busy

schedules to come and hear us speak. We've been asked to do this because, about a

month ago, one of us was killed. I didn't know him well, not really, there being so

many of us and all. As we were planning what we all wanted to say to you today, we all

realized that none of us ever really knew him.

     So one day when no one was looking, I snuck away to where I'd

been told he lived. It was a small room, just like mine, and had already been wiped clean. Brick walls, rusty bed frame, barred window, nothing that even hinted that this man had ever

existed. I was about to leave when this caught my eye.

     This was his! Stuffed in between two bricks where no Doctor would think to look.

Look at it! All that's left of a man's life is in my hands.

     Therefore, if you will permit us, we would like to present today a play. A play that we

here have written ourselves. A play that will tell the story of the last few weeks of one

R. M. Renfield, so that he may be remembered as more than a man who lived and died

in a mad house. So you may know us as more.

     Good afternoon, ladies and gentleman. It is a pleasure to welcome you all to my

humble facilities today. For those of you new to the board of trustees, my name is Dr.

Jack Seward and I am the owner and proprietor of the Whitby Asylum for the Mentally

Insane.

     Our brains are one of the most vital organs in the human body. The brain is responsible

for thought, for memory, every possible vital function needed for survival is reliant on

a gray mass of cells hidden within our skulls. So much of our lives is reliant on this

one organ, and yet we still understand so little about it.

     Each patient in this building is of the utmost value to me, so you can imagine my

distress when I learned of the tragedy that had taken place here a little more than a

month ago. To lose a patient is hard enough, but to be lost in such a fashion...

We only hope that these recent events will not cause you to bring the safety of our

facilities into question. 

    He is a very good, and decent man, but goodness and decency are not enough to

persuade me into loving him. I know I am making the right choice, I know I am...but I

also know the temper of men, and that now that I have wounded his pride I shall

forever become a resentment. The arrogant woman who turned down the most

promising offer of marriage for...someone less distinguished.

     That is indeed quite the problem.

     I am not so naive. As much as I wish I could say I did not need his good opinion, I also

know that the opinion of a man bears more weight then the character of a woman. One

wrong step, and I may fall off the scale all together.

 There's a cat that I sometimes see walking around the grounds. This big orange mangy sort of thing. Every so often I'll be sitting in my office and I'll see him through the window, walking about. Sometimes he likes to splay himself out on the top of the wall surrounding the hospital, and I'll think to myself "What a fat, lazy thing." To spend all day, flat on your back, lying in the sun. To not have to think about work, or status, just enjoying an uninterrupted hour in the sun; and the more I think about it, the more I find myself becoming envious...of a cat!

You trusted Lucy, didn't you? Lucy was as dear a friend to me as one could ever ask

for. If she thought that there was something in you that warranted kindness, I do not see

why I should act any different. If that weren't reason enough, I know exactly where

your going. You're headed to an abandoned estate about a half mile away down the coast. A cold, empty place of thick stone, and barred windows. A forgotten place that no one, even

with the bravest spirit, would dare to enter. But it's not the place you're running too, it's

to the person waiting there. Someone who has promised you things. Someone who

you've sworn complete and utter loyalty in return for these promises. Am I not correct,

Mr. Renfield?

     MEN? What are men compared to me? What is a sheep in the presence of the mighty

wolf? Do not forget my changeling child, that the natural order does not apply to us.

Even now, though you can not see it, the wind howls, the sea rages, and the sky roars

all because I wish it so. No man shall overpower us, and no man will outlive us. Time

is on our side.

     Together, you and I shall soon begin planting the seeds of our revenge. Soon we will

begin bringing about our new world, where all shall cower before us. But, in order for

me to give this to you, I must know for sure that your full, unwavering allegiance

belongs to me.