Hamlet

August 2023, stage at the Marquette Regional History Center.

Director Notes:

“‘Who’s there?’

And thus begins our play as well as our director’s note, with a question. (There will be many tonight, questions) Answer (if you like) with a gander in a mirror, to your left, behind you or- upon the stage. The “characters”- and not to “o'erstep the modesty of nature”- but also the human’s portraying them. Our writer is here, “in my mind’s eye”, skillfully fashioning characters that reveal the variety of human psyche. Our human hero (an oxymoron) firstly steeped in overthought- if there can be such a thing when the “play’s the thing”. Our villains’: complex, damaged and damaging. Our innocence, our clowns, our ghosts. All rattling about in our home, in Denmark, “Denmark’s a prison”, and in the rank sweat of our enseamed bed. Our suffering minds.

Welcome to the consciousness museum, where our psychologies meet the force of a plot (see: life).

So.

‘Who’s there?’”

Hamlet: Alastar Dimitrie

Gertrude: Jessica "Red" Bays

Claudius, Ghost: Tom Laitinen

Horatio: Shane Vincent

Ophelia: Melissa Neal

Laertes, Lucianus: Han Numinen

Polonius: John Sarkela

Barnardo, Player King, Gravedigger: BG Bradley

Osric: Erin Bannon

Rosencranz, Francisco, Player Queen: Kathy Lynn Sliter 

Guildenstern, Marcellus: Damon Butler

Director: Jamie Weeder

Lighting Designer: Vic Holliday 

Fight Choreographer: Tom Laitinen 

Stage Manager: Erin Bannon