Senior Danny Dooling scratches his head, “garlic.”

“Not exactly, gaarrlic,” replies Dooling’s teacher, Jeremy Stoll, “more emphasis on the r.”

Dooling takes a deep breath, “garlic.” He repeats in an almost perfect German accent.

A smile flashes across his teacher face, “good, that was good.”

Dooling looks up from his paper for a moment before he continues running through lines with Stoll. Dooling has to use his time wisely — he only has one week to learn the lead role for Westside’s upcoming school play Dracula.

“At first I had some reservations about it,” Dooling said. “Mr. Stoll came up to me and said I would have to play the lead role 10-14 days before [opening night], but I figured, why not?”

Dooling began his work, setting aside three hours a night to work on lines. He began highlighting and memorizing. Reading through lines over and over again, writing them down and repeating until he had them down.

“It’s been a lot of not sleeping much,” Dooling said. “A lot of looking crazy, talking to myself. I am tired and out of it most of the day, but I am really excited for it.”

In addition to having just a little over a week to learn the lead role, Dooling is facing other challenges in the play. He is still expected to play his prior role, Henry, the father of Lucy, the girl who Dracula pursues in the play, and has had to master a thick German accent.

‘Conversation is a hard one: conver-saw-cion?,”  Dooling said. “To learn a German accent you have to talk to people from Germany and watch a lot of movies with stereotypical German accents.”

German accents, two roles and one week set aside, Dooling is ready for the challenge.

“I am really exited,” Dooling said. “I mean, I still have to use a script on stage, but it is coming along and I am learning my lines.”