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Neil LaBute spent a lot of time over the past few months talking about blood. A lot of time.

"There were many discussions about blood," said the playwright, who is the executive producer — the show runner — of the new Syfy series "Van Helsing," set in a near-future world that has been overrun by vampires. "We knew for a fact that, no matter how much we based our ideas on science, rather than folklore ... the audience really does expect there to be blood."

"Van Helsing" is a twist on the vampire legends. (Professor Abraham Van Helsing was a character from Bram Stoker's 1897 novel "Dracula.")

Three years from now, Vanessa Van Helsing (Kelly Overton) wakes up from a coma to discover vampires are everywhere and her daughter is missing. Turns out Vanessa's blood can turn the monsters back to being human, so she may be the last hope for mankind.

"I think the best thing that we accomplished is she also bites characters, but they happen to be vampires," LaBute said. "That seemed like something that we haven't seen before."

Vanessa becomes "an object of derision and fear and all the things that outsiders often are. So I think it was kind of a great place to put your hero — at the center of this controversy where both humans and vampires fear her and desire her in kind of equal measure."

And, with great frequency, there is blood all over the place. LaBute and the other writers/producer would "trot downstairs" for "many demonstrations" in which "guys would carefully pour out six or seven mixtures of blood and say, 'We think that this one would be a good vampire blood, and this one would be a good human blood.'

"So we would stand around and talk about, 'Look at that one.' And, 'Hmmm, that one kind of throws too much light off it and looks a little too much like paint.' You spend a lot of time talking about stuff that, normally, you just would never talk about."

If you're somewhat surprised that LaBute — the BYU-educated playwright whose works include "In the Company of Men" and "Bash: Latter-Day Plays" — is helming a vampire series, you're not alone. It wasn't exactly in his plans.

LaBute was directing an episode of AMC's "Hell on Wheels" when that show's producer asked him, "How do you feel about vampires?" And he had some experience in the area.

"I actually adapted, years ago, 'Dracula' for the stage and changed Van Helsing into a female character," LaBute said. "There was something simpatico there."

(That was in Provo, "at an old WPA theater that was out behind the state hospital.")

"I like the world [of vampires] and was interested in trying to create something that was familiar and also new," he said. "But it also allowed me to do something in the world of television, which I hadn't done — which was running a show."

LaBute has worked in TV before, most recently in the 10-episode series "Billy & Billie" (about step-siblings who fall in love) for DirecTV. He wrote and directed all the episodes, but that was a singular effort and the scope of his duties was not like running "Van Helsing."

"I had, up to that point, never written another word with another writer," LaBute said. "I hadn't worked in a writer's room. I had no sense of what it was like to sit down and break a story for 13 episodes and work on all those characters with all these other people, who all seemed to love the genre more than I did and knew more about it. It's a little bit humbling to be the boss and be the one who's trying to catch up."

But being the show runner goes far beyond just writing episodes.

"I was responsible for having some say in everything — every costume, every sketch of a set. I'm still working on sound mixes and music and the last of the visual effects," LaBute said. "I've been a part of every major decision throughout the entire show. … I've had to learn or be a part of so many decisions that, as a writer, I would never be a part of."

About the only thing he didn't do was direct, because, in order to receive tax rebates from Canada, where "Van Helsing" filmed, the show had to employ Canadian directors. But he was still on the set making suggestions. And directors tend to take suggestions from show runners quite seriously.

The schedule could be "overwhelming." While episodes were filming, later episodes were still being written and editing was already under way on episodes that had already been shot.

"I was being pulled in so many directions," LaBute said. "You just constantly are on the move and trying to remember how all these things work as dominoes to tell the story that you want to tell. So there are moments where you think, 'Wow, there's not enough time in the day to do all this work.'"

But it's not the only thing keeping LaBute busy these days. His play "All the Ways to Say I Love You," starring Judith Light, just opened in New York. And he's currently in Germany directing a stage production of Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya."

"I like to work," he said. "I like to keep busy." —

On TV

New episodes of "Van Helsing" air Fridays on Syfy — 8 and 10 p.m. on DirecTV and Dish; 11 p.m. and 1 a.m. (early Saturday) on Comcast.