Two Days Before Auditions

In two days, we will cast the Southeastern Teen Shakespeare Company’s production of Hamlet. It’s our tenth anniversary year, so we’re finally mounting the mother of all Shakespeare plays. It’s the play I’ve seen produced most often. I’ve seen Val Kilmer, Stephen Lang, and Ralph Fiennes perform it professionally (Val Kilmer was my favorite), I’ve seen local college productions, and I’ve (of course) seen all the movie versions. In all of these productions, there has been something lacking for me, and I hope to find what that is in this process. And I hope that in our production there will be nothing lacking. Some people would say attempting a production of Hamlet is insanity itself, much less attempting a production with teenagers. And yet the wisdom of teenagers has surprised me again and again in the seven years I’ve been directing this company. However, as this is our tenth anniversary year, we have invited company alums, who might have reached the sage age of as much as 29, to come and play. The cast will be a mixture of young actors who have experience playing in such works as Macbeth, The Tempest, and Love’s Labor’s Lost along with actors who have never been on stage before. The learning curve is huge. Hamlet is a four hour play. I have cut it down to three hours. I couldn’t find ways to cut more than that without seriously affecting the flow. We have six weeks of rehearsal, and we will be rehearsing afternoon and evening. Can we produce a coherent and effective Hamlet in that amount of time? I think we can. I will be writing about the experience here. I hope my language doesn’t become too pointed when I become frustrated (and I know I will). The venue where we are renting space for the production has informed us that they cannot give us any platforms except for the squeaky, portable units that they rarely use and keep piled in a closet. So, no levels. I have worked out a design using those platforms that I believe will work effectively for the staging. We will attempt to fix the squeak with a little 3-and-1 oil, but if we are unsuccessful (WD40 failed us in the past), I do hope that the squeaking of the stage will add to the atmosphere. Cross your fingers. We will not be updating the play. Sets and costumes will be minimal. We will be mining the language and reaching deep for substance. We will not play the caricatures I have too often seen. We will not play the “English teacher’s” version. We will begin by tossing out everything we’ve ever seen or read: we will begin with the words. I will report on our challenges (and triumphs) as they arise.