The Blake High School Stage Company will be presenting six performances of William Shakespeare’s classic tragedy, HAMLET, this March 20, 21, 26, 27, and 28 at 7:30 pm. The 28th will also feature a 2 pm matinee presentation.
Considered by many scholars as Western civilization’s greatest theatrical work, HAMLET follows the attempt of Prince Hamlet of Denmark to find out the murderer of his father, King Hamlet of Denmark. His investigation is prompted by an eerie visitation of his father’s Ghost, who asks Hamlet to seek revenge for his death. The Ghost suggests that the murder was the King’s brother, Claudius, who has also just taken the former King’s wife, Gertrude as his wife and Queen.
Hamlet wants to trust the Ghost’s directive to revenge his murder, but he also knows that Ghost might not be real, and , in fact, could be the agents of Satan. So he goes slowly in marking Claudius’ and Gertrude’s actions before making a decision on what to do. Along the way he commits some actions that call his sanity to question and results in the deaths of innocents around him including his girlfriend, Ophelia.
The story ends in phenomenal fashion with intense emotions going unchecked in this revenge tragedy.
HAMLET is a story about the terrible effects of revenge in our lives. How timely a story in today’s world! However, the Stage Company takes this story even further as we project the tale and its themes to the year 2043. Why 2043? Several authors, environmentalists, and seers of the future predict that by 2043 we will see the demise of mankind to computers, machines, and the decaying Earth itself! So, in placing this play in 2043, the Stage Company hopes to find what lies ahead for mankind and what we might be able to do about it all.
The play’s universal themes easily take us into the world of 2043. It remains for the Stage Company to further illuminate audiences with settings, costumes, make-up lights, and props that impact our visions of the future. We hope our audiences can see into the future with us!
All-Female Cast
Another feature to the Blake Stage Company’s presentation n of HAMLET (2043) will be a chance to see an all-female cast perform the play. This is an idea of director Michael D’Anna who experienced working at the re-constructed Globe Theatre in London beginning in 1999. Over those years of teaching Shakespeare in performance he saw many of Shakespeare’s plays done in different styles.
The Globe does two “authentic” play presentations each year with all-male casts as the plays were performed in the 16th Century. The entire Globe Company gave itself over to how these all-male casts came to the Globe, put on their make-up and costumes, and then performed all the parts, male and female, to audiences.
During this time, Mr. D’anna had the opportunity to see an experimental presentation of RICHARD III performed by an all-female cast under the direction of the great director, Catherine Howard. It was a rousing production with Howard playing the King in an electrifying manner.
From seeing this production, and knowing that a great number of students in the Stage Company are female who eagerly seek to play challenging roles, Mr. D’Anna made the decision to attempt an all-female production at Blake.
The all-female cast will present plays on March 21st at 7:30 pm and on March 28that 2 pm.
The other four shows will be presented with heterogeneous casts. The role of HAMLET will be played by Joey Ellinghaus in 3 mixed-cast(by gender) shows and Elizabeth Iduma in one mixed-cast(by gender) show and two all-female cast shows.
Other students with key roles include: LJ Enloe and Ericka Njeumi as King Claudius; Carmen Hamlett, Adalia Jimenez, and Nia Smith as Queen Gertrude; Addison Cole, Nicole Kister, and Tori Nelson as Ophelia; Tegwen Feldbush, Damon Lue-Maxwell, and Jacob Proctor as the Ghost of King Hamlet; Logan Dechter, Cheldone Jones, and Tess Maltagliati as Polonious; Logan Dechter, Julie Jordan, and Jacob Proctor as Laertes. An ensemble of many students fills out a story with many, many interesting characters.
Staff on the show besides Michael D’Anna as the Director, include John Ovington as the Technical Director, Mary Wagner as the Business Manager, Paul Gallagher as the Fight/Combat Instructor, and Jeremy and Darius Williams on Sound and Lights.
Reserved Seat Tickets may be purchased online, and general admission tickets will be on sale at the door each performance.
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Blake Stage Company will be performing Noises Off on March 24-April 1. (See below for dates & times.) Called the funniest farce ever written, Noises Off presents a manic menagerie as a cast of itinerant actors rehearsing a flop called Nothing’s On. This hilarious romp about the on – and off – stage shenanigans of a mediocre acting troupe is a tour de force of precise timing and comic ability. Slamming doors, feuding actors, missed cues, girls in their underwear, guys in their underwear and errant plates of sardines are all part of the choreographed chaos.
