NOSFERATU On Stage! World Premiere. 8 Shows Only! April 19, 2012

Based on the 1923 German Expressionist film by F. W. Murnau, Alex Dawson's stage adaptation additionally draws on Chinese shadow-play, Shakespeare, and explorer/orientalist Richard Burton's translation of Hindu vampire fables to tell the story of Count Orlock, a rat-fanged Romanian looking for love even as he brings a boatload of Black Death to a German village.

With makeup by Tom Savini alumnus Dan Diana and original music by composer Bruce Donnola, Nosferatu: The First Vampyre, which stars film actress Quinn Shephard as Ellen Hutter and Shakespearean actor Caryle Owens as the eponymous Nos, opens with a scene so unsettling even the swooniest Twilight fan would be hard pressed to find the conceit remotely romantic ever again.