Everyone thinks they know the story of Dracula. They usually forget to include the cowboy, though.
Re: Dracula is a new fiction podcast telling an old story, an adaptation of the original vampire novel by Bram Stoker. This close adaptation will use immersive sound design and some of the best-loved names in fiction podcasting to bring the bite, with a new twist: every episode will appear in chronological order, on the date it occurs in the novel. Never fear, the cowboy is included.
Re: Dracula (pronounced “regarding” if you feel like embracing your inner Victorian bookkeeper) is currently crowdfunding, and although their original goal was $12,000, they’ve blazed past their first and second stretch goals, and are working on their third. If the campaign reaches $25,000, they intend to make a concept album with Newt Schottelkotte (Where the Stars Fell, Inkwyrm) and The Blasting Company (Over The Garden Wall).
The crowdfund will run until October 30th, 2022, and is offering such donation perks as ad-free episodes, a vampire-centric TTRPG bundle, a recipe zine, campaign-specific merchandise, and a full audiobook of Dracula.
Re: Dracula has already begun announcing its cast and crew. In addition to music by Newt Schottelkotte, the series will be produced by Tal Minear (Someone Dies in This Elevator, Sidequesting, What Will Be Here?), Stephen Indrisano (Human Error, Feminist Fairytales), Hannah Wright (Inn Between), and Ella Watts (Doctor Who Redacted, Eliza: A Robot Story, The Orphans).
Voice talents have joined the show from all corners of the audio drama scene, including Karim Kronfli, Jonny Sims, Alasdair Stuart, and Sasha Sienna of The Magnus Archives, Beth Eyre and Felix Trench of Wooden Overcoats, Ben Galpin of Victoriocity and No Small Rolls, Alan Burgon of The Amelia Project, David Ault of The White Vault, and Giancarlo Herrera of Valence and Caravan. The cast will also be joined by television actor Isabel Adomakoh Young from Netflix’s Heartstopper.
Kronfli will be stealing the show as the titular Dracula.
“This project was directly inspired by Dracula Daily – a newsletter that delivers the story into your email inbox. We’re big fans of this ingenious way of reading the novel, and we wanted to take it to its natural next step and do a podcast.”
Because of Dracula Daily, the old book has gained a renewed following among the literati of the internet at large and Tumblr especially, spurring new memes and fresh takes on one of the foundations of gothic horror.
The team behind Re: Dracula wants to engage with the book through a variety of different lenses, digging into the extant LGBTQ+ themes inherent to the story in new ways. They plan to work with the outdated attitudes toward mental illness and ethnic minorities not by changing the text, but with nuance and care both for their cast and their listeners. Content warnings and transcripts will be included and available with every episode.
Re: Dracula will premiere May 3rd, 2023, in your favorite podcast apps, and will run through November 3rd of the same year. If you want to support the campaign, head to SeedSpark to support Re: Dracula!
