By Robert Richmond, Director of Hamlet, National Theatre Conservatory

 

As the ensemble and I began to explore Hamlet for NTC 2^nd Year Shakespeare Project we asked a question: What was in Shakespeare’s mind when writing Hamlet in 1601?

 

He was 37. His father was dying. His own son, Hamnet, had died five years earlier at the age of 11. The Shakespeare family name would vanish having no heir and there was national anxiety about Queen Elizabeth’s successor.

 

What also seemed important to remember is that as Shakespeare put quill to parchment, over 400 years ago, he was trying to write a new play. A play that when performed had to survive in the biggest of commercial theatres of its time, the Globe. If the play was not favorably received it would pass for nothing and most likely never be performed again. So despite the fact that he had gained a well-earned reputation and great success, he was writing under considerable pressure – add to this a renewed appetite for Revenge Tragedies that had taken London theatre scene by storm.

 

Hamlet, above all of his plays, is a play in which we are constantly made aware that a stage is just a stage, upon which the artifice of acting, or playing a role, is frequently acknowledged. It is the meta-theatrical art that makes the central characters so completely audience aware. This allows us to feel complicit in the continuity of the drama, and responsible for the outcome of the tragedy as it unfolds. It is one of the finest testaments to what it feels like to be human.

 

Our aim was to produce this remarkable story in a way that you will find just as compelling as Shakespeare’s audiences did in 1601. So, we set about to find a concept that would serve the complexity of this great play, and yet make it come alive in a vibrant and relevant way for our audience.

 

It was while I was walking through a Denver bookshop one evening that I stumbled upon the graphic novel section. There where several be-hooded young men perusing the new publication of Watchmen. Two questions came to mind: how could you ever get young people like this to come a see a Shakespeare tragedy, and could you stage Hamlet like a graphic novel? The next morning we discussed the nature and structure of the art form and what the resources were at our disposal. The result at the end of that rehearsal process was a fast moving nightmare of stimulating images within a very dark room. It provoked the audience’s imagination and forced them to engage in the images, and connect with those that the words conjured. It told a spooky ghost story of murder, revenge, and betrayal. The project was wryly renamed Hamlet: Prince of Darkness.

 

The graphic novel conceit allows great freedom in changing perspective. Often we would turn a scene completely on its head and view it from the point of view of looking at it from the ceiling. In this production there are times when the focus is not the actors face but something else: their hands, or perhaps an object that is in the room. The new design elements will help us upgrade and fully realize this production bringing clarity to location, period and status.

 

I believe that all of us that have taken this journey have learned a great deal and created a unique experience to view a classical play in a brand new way. Students, faculty, and designers have all shared a passion to tell the story of Hamlet in what has proved to be a truly collaborative experience.

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By Terrence J. Nolan, Director of When Tang Met Laika, Denver Center Theatre Company

 

Playwright Alan Bennett has said that “theatre is often at its most absorbing when it’s school.” The same holds true for making theatre. One of the great joys of directing is the opportunity it affords to continually enter new worlds – to be surrounded by teachers who generously share their knowledge and experience. I have discovered that I am my best as a director not when I tell people what to do, but when I listen for it is then that I learn. And there is much I have had to learn to direct the world premiere production of Rogelio Martinez’ WHEN TANG MET LAIKA.

 

When Tang Met Laika tells the story of the US and Russia’s cooperative efforts to build the International Space Station. It is also a fantasia, jumping from space to earth and back again. As you might have heard, there is a dog — and several other surprises.

 

We have been fortunate to have a team of teachers helping us find our way: Dramaturg Doug Langworthy provided extensive research so that we better understood the political and historical context in which this story is told; Russian Language Consultant Maria Pakulova and Dialect Coach Kathy Maes made sure we understood what we are saying and how it should be said; Video Designer Charlie Miller, with tremendous assistance from NASA, helped us visualize life in space; and astronaut Bruce McCandless shared with us what it is like to be an astronaut and, most importantly, put us in touch with the authentic. In addition, we have had an extraordinary team of stage managers and artisans and technicians and assistants (our own Mission Control) to ensure that we can successfully launch this amazing new play. The Denver Center knows how to make school fun.

 

I live in Philadelphia where I am the Artistic Director of the Arden Theatre Company. My wife and two boys, Liam and Flynn, came to visit during rehearsals. (While Amy was here, she helped train Paul, our dog. Another teacher.) Liam and Flynn are 10 and 6, so a plane ride to Denver and staying in a new place was a grand adventure. We saw the fireworks on the 16^th Street Mall on New Year’s Eve. We ate at Sam’s (the boys’ favorite). One beautiful day we went up into the Rockies. But the highlight of the trip was a visit to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science where Liam and Flynn discovered Space Odyssey.

 

Space Odyssey is an exhibition that celebrates space exploration. It is When Tang Met Laika brought to life. There is a display of the International Space Station where you can dock the space shuttle. There is a room in which kids can get dressed up as astronauts and sit behind the control panels of the shuttle. Overlooking the exhibition is an astronaut wearing a replica of the Manned Maneuvering Unit that Bruce McCandless wore when he made the first, untethered space walk. How amazing to look up at that astronaut and say to my boys, “I met this man.” How amazing to see my sons sit behind the shuttle controls — dressed in blue NASA jumpsuits — and “pilot” the shuttle (though the jargon Flynn used was more Star Wars than NASA). How amazing to be in school with my family here in Denver.

 

I was Flynn’s age when the Apollo 11 mission landed on the moon. My parents woke us up so that we could watch the live coverage on TV. I remember gathering together late that night, dressed in our pajamas, watching the black and white images of Neil Armstrong taking those first steps. There is a mystery to space, a sense of possibility. Rogelio Martinez’s play has awakened in me a renewed fascination for this mystery.

 

I thank Rogelio for this great adventure — and all the teachers who have made it seem possible.

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By Christy Montour-Larson, Director of WELL, Denver Center Theatre Company

 

We have been rehearsing WELL for 4 weeks and it is going… WELL! Very well, in fact. Today we moved from our rehearsal room in the Newman Center to The Ricketson Theatre for the first time for a “spacing rehearsal.” This is the day we explore how the movement and choices we are making in rehearsal transfer over to our actual performance space.

 

Although we had a scale model of the Lisa Orzolek’s wonderful set and excellent approximations of the scenic elements for our rehearsals, it is always is an adjustment to get used to the actual size of the entire theatre, walking up actual stairs, using the actual scenery pieces.

 

 If you were there today, you would have seen us rehearsing the choreography of the transitions, (Me: “Great idea, Rachel – let’s have you move that table instead of Shauna”), marveling at the beginnings of set decorations, (Kathy Brady: “That collection of bird figurines reminds me of my mom!”), and figuring out how Kate Levy as Lisa can ride a bike around the Fourth of July float. (Kate: “If we move the float over 4 inches, I can make the turn.”) I am so pleased how the work we did in the rehearsal room has transferred over and how we were able to find creative solutions for the inevitable challenges we came across.

 

I can’t help but be reminded of my first experience in The Ricketson Theatre — ten years ago as an audience member. On my very first day in Denver, I saw my first Denver theatre production: Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde with Jamie Horton. If you saw that amazing production, you understand why I knew Denver would be a great city for me to put down my artistic roots.

 

And over the past ten years, I have directed at several local theatre companies like Curious Theatre Company, Arvada Center for the Arts & Humanities, Paragon Theatre and Town Hall Arts Center. I even directed Jamie Horton in Curious’ Trumbo a few years back.

 

And over the past ten years, I have seen many marvelously funny, insightful and heart-breaking plays in The Ricketson Theatre. I especially recall Dinner with Friends, The Laramie Project and Doubt. I am so excited and honored to be making my Denver Center Theatre Company directorial debut in “The Rick” with WELL by Lisa Kron – a play I find marvelously funny, insightful, and heart-breaking at the same time!

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By Chad Henry, Literary Associate, Denver Center Theatre Company

 

I caught up with Bruce Sevy, DCTC Associate Artistic Director and director of THE VOYSEY INHERITANCE a few days ago as he was running to an afternoon rehearsal.  I managed to get a few questions in as he was putting down his briefcase and coffee at his director’s table, ready to take a look at some “bits and pieces” with his actors.

 

Chad:  You’re in previews for VOYSEY now, right?

 

Bruce:  Yes, we had our first preview on Thursday and it went really well!  The sets and costumes are beautiful and I couldn’t ask for a better cast—they’re all brilliant.  The play I think takes a little concentration on the audience’s part—the language is somewhat formal, along the lines  of George Bernard Shaw–but the play barrels along at a fast and very entertaining clip—there are some nice comic moments along with the family drama.  The audience stayed with us all the way, and of course there were the “oohs” and “ahs” of recognition when they got what the story was about—they gave the cast a great standing ovation.  The play’s almost a hundred years old but it might as well have been written yesterday.

 

Chad:  Right, it’s about financial shenanigans among the high and mighty—in Edwardian England.  Isn’t this script an adaptation by David Mamet?

 

Bruce:  Yes, it sure is.  A lot of people know Mamet from contemporary, knuckle-duster  plays like Oleanna, Speed-the-Plow and Glengarry Glen Ross, which DCTC presented last season.  Also, audiences know his  movies–The Verdict, The Spanish Prisoner and RedBelt to name a few. But he’s also written period movies like The Winslow Boy.

 

Chad:  Adapted from a Terrance Rattigan play.  What do you enjoy most about these period plays?

 

Bruce:  Well, the research is great fun—and educational.  I spent a lot of time with set designer Lisa Orzolek looking at period libraries and drawing rooms—those great homes of England were magnificent.   And I didn’t miss an episode of Jeremy Brett’s Sherlock Holmes on PBS!  Of course our costumes are gorgeous—Bill Black, our costume designer, not only gets the silhouettes exactly right, but the costumes have incredible detail.

 

Chad:  Have you had challenges with this play or the material?

 

Bruce:  Every cast member is a total pro and a joy to work with– we did some work with accents—getting them right but making them clear and comprehensible for a contemporary U.S. audience.  You want to walk  the fine line between upper class BBC British dialect and communicating the story!

 

Chad:  Thanks, Bruce.  Have a good rehearsal–and a great opening on Thursday!

 

Here’s Edward Voysey, played by Sam Gregory, explaining his dilemna:

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