This weekend, another run-through — the lights stayed on for us this time, and our Hamlet was present. It was our last rehearsal before the holiday break. Hamlet holds its breath until January 10th, and when we come back, it’s a break-neck ride to opening night. I told the cast to make their theme for…
Today was a big, big day in #cbuhamlet history: the first table read. Nearly all of our Danes were in attendance — only a handful who had other commitments couldn’t make the read-through. It was a bit intimidating to see the long line of tables pushed together, and the towering stack of scripts waiting for…
Had another quick rehearsal with WJC two days ago. We looked briefly at the scansion for Hamlet’s second, oft-overlooked soliloquy, “O, all you host of heaven,” which occurs in 1.5 immediately after the Ghost’s exit, but before Horatio and Marcellus find the Prince. It’s a nice moment to demonstrate the “relief” that WJC believes exemplifies…
Shortly after I cast Hamlet, Ophelia, and Claudius, I asked the actors to draw up a short list of milestones on their characters’ journeys through the play. I tried to keep it very confined: “Write up three, or maybe five, stages to your journey or transformation. Where do you begin? What happens to change you?…
A summary of my last post, before we move along: Why do we read/watch/produce/talk about Hamlet? Mostly because of the titular character’s heroic attempts, not to exact revenge for his father’s death, but to stabilize and heal a wounded world. Hamlet is crafty, witty, insightful, poetic, and sensitive, all of which helps us to sympathize…
Two posts ago, I explored the implication that a successful Shakespeare production (especially one that advertises itself as an “adaptation”) had damn well better have a firm grip on “the truth” of the text. Absolute truth is a heresy in postmodernism, and while it’s fine and dandy to assert, like Hamlet, that “I’ll have grounds…
Sometimes, truth comes at you from the most unexpected direction. I spend a lot of time reading about Shakespeare (are you shocked?), but once in a while, I will steer my browser to some unrelated obsession — indie electronica, Community, Dungeons & Dragons, or in this case, comics. In my adolescence, I was a big…
My actors’ Big Questions zero in on their own characters, as you might expect. As director, I have other concerns. And right from the start of my relationship with Hamlet (that is, 25 years), Gertrude has been a concern. At a guess, I’ve seen a dozen stage productions in that time, and half a dozen…
