Created by Philadelphia artists Asha Bagal Kelly and Sabrina Caruso, My Carmilla transforms Sheridan Le Fanu's groundbreaking 1872 novella into a folk horror experience combining movement, original music, ritual, and atmospheric design.

Directed by Barrymore Award winner Rayne (Angela Bey), the production features Laura and Carmilla's roles alternating each performance, inviting audiences to reconsider identity, memory, desire, and the stories we inherit.

Rather than presenting monstrosity as simple supernatural terror, My Carmilla explores how fear, repression, and inherited violence shape both individuals and communities. Drawing inspiration from global folklore traditions, the production expands beyond familiar Gothic conventions to create a theatrical language all its own.

Produced as part of the 2026 Philadelphia Fringe Festival, My Carmilla offers a fresh perspective on one of literature's earliest queer classics while asking timeless questions about power, transformation, and what societies choose to fear.

We have deliberately chosen not to use the word "vampire" in this adaptation.

Undead, blood-drinking beings appear in folklore across the world, not only in Eastern European traditions but also throughout Asia, Africa, and the Americas. These figures often reflect universal human anxieties surrounding death, disease, morality, desire, and social transgression.

By placing My Carmilla within this broader global lineage, we invite audiences to experience the story not simply as a Gothic vampire tale, but as part of a much older tradition of folklore, transformation, and the stories communities tell to make sense of fear.

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