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