Emerson Scholar Plans to Write a Play Based on His Research

For most people, "vampire" means Joss Whedon’s hit TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Fans of the show abound; most of them do watch and read a lot of vampire literature and maybe there are even some who ask strangers what they think of vampires. But William Welles ’08 (Greenwich, Conn.) is more than your average Buffy fan, all this and then some: he is a Buffy fan with funding. The history and theatre major has an Emerson Grant this summer to work with Visiting Instructor in Comparative Literature Janelle Schwartz, researching the figure of the vampire in contemporary American culture.

As Welles explains, the vampire figure has been reinterpreted numerous ways since 1897, when Bram Stoker launched it into popular culture with his novel Dracula. What interests Welles, however, is the change which has taken place over the last 40 years, a change which transforms the portrayal of the vampire in America from horrific to comic. "Modern American representations," says Welles, "have seemingly made the shift from the macabre and self-affirming to the macabre and the overtly self-parodic." It is this change which intrigues Welles, as well as the question of whether an entity which is by (evolved) nature self-conscious can remain effective.

Welles is conducting his research in a number of ways. He is watching many films, from Tod Browning’s 1931 version of Dracula to Mel Brooks’ 1995 Dracula is Dead and Loving It. He is also doing a lot of reading, both of vampire narratives and secondary sources. In designing the project, Welles knew that he wanted his work to move beyond a library research project and have a "real world application." To this end, he will also include an interview portion in his study and has spent the first half of the summer conducting interviews with people on the street in Cleveland, Atlanta, Seattle, and New York City. He asks his subjects about their concept of horror and then for their opinion about why vampires are now comic rather than terrifying; the answers he has received cover a wide variety of views.

Welles will spend the rest of his summer writing a play based on what he has seen, read, and, most importantly, heard. "They’re fascinating," he says. "[These interviews] are the most important part of my research now." While he had at first envisioned a one-man show, he now says that his research, especially the interviews, has pushed the final project into something bigger. "That’s where the play comes from - what people have to say." What exactly the play will entail, Welles is not yet sure. His central idea, he explains, will be the claim that the vampire has moved away from a figure of horror because we no longer have need of a personification when horrific images are so liberally splashed across magazines and television screens. "What [the vampire] represents is just so obvious;" it ceases to be necessary and can be relegated to the comic.

Welles has "always been interested in vampires." He took a course on vampires from Schwartz, which stimulated the "revelation" that let Welles decide on his topic. He had been drawn to summer research because he wanted something more than a standard summer job. "I wanted to contribute," he says. "I knew I had something to say and it was just a matter of finding the medium to say it."

He says of his first summer research experience, "it’s been fantastic...I’ve learned so much. It’s such a gift, such a privilege." Though a rising junior, Welles has big plans. He hopes to mount a production of his vampire play this fall and eventually use it as a basis for his senior thesis in theatre. He will probably not have too much difficulty. Welles says he tries to be involved with any theatre effort on campus. He is a member of the Hamilton student-run theatre organization "Untitled at Large," and "Yodapez," the campus improvisational comedy troupe.

His research is funded by the Emerson Foundation Grant Program, which allows students to work closely with a faculty member researching in depth an area of the student’s interest.