Zandor Vorkov

While living in Asheville, NC, Raphael Peter Engel (screen name: Zandor Vorkov) assembled a team for Unity in Diversity, a city-wide event addressing the sacredness of all life. Members of four cultural groups came together from the four directions to sing, dance and proclaim their oneness. Engel later co-founded the Asheville Playback Theatre, a member of an international improvisational theater consortium, which is still going strong nearly 50 years on. He has managed, performed, and taught in various educational settings throughout the American South, including in prisons and at festivals. During his company's 20-year run, he conceived and produced a global performance on kindness, as well as working with the educational arm of the United Nations on issues of human rights. Engel has hosted and MCed at, and has collaborated on, various diverse events with the aim of "uplifting the human spirit."

Under his screen name Zandor Vorkov, Engel starred as a memorable and unique Count Dracula in the low budget cult classic horror film Dracula contre Frankenstein (1971). The bloodthirsty Count has recently re-materialized in Engel's life, spurring him to co-write a story about "a new Dracula" and to create an outline/treatment geared for a film version. Engel reports that the new story and outline/treatment "comprise an outside-the-box look at the iconic figure" he portrayed more than 50 years ago.

Says Engel, "I am excited about whatever possibilities the near future has in store."