…the sound of a flute.
As many of you know, we had to cancel our remaining Hamlet performances.
While the cast and crew are mourning, we are excited to continue to bring Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead through the rest of the week.
We hope you will join us!
Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 7:30pm – make your reservations now! Tonight we were 3 seats from sold out!!
Reservations@littleindependenttheatre.com
Tonight is opening night. That’s right, its the day of the show y’all!!
And just in case you weren’t motivated to come to Hamlet yet, here are some photos to inspire your attendance!
First, we find Polonius’ family – with both Ophelia (Tiffany Clark) and understudy Ophelia (Livian Kennedy). [See the family resemblance? Interesting how much Reynaldo looks like Laertes, isnt it?]
But really, the two girls are just besties.
And the love of their life, Hamlet finds himself struggling with his “mad” inner child.
Perhaps that is due to his strained relationship with his mother, Gertrude.
Ever since she married his uncle, Claudius, things havent been the same at home.
Claudius has been very busy since becoming King, and has taken it upon himself to educate the servants and the Doctor of Divinity on the way things ought to be…
…and then spends some extra time with his most loyal and entrusted servant, Osric.
With her status increasing around the castle, the Doctor follows Claudius’ lead and makes the servants of the castle follow her… directives.
When Hamlet returns from Wittenburg, Marcellus regales Hamlet with a fascinating story, but Horatio cannot help but to laugh…
Soon thereafter, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern arrive in town at the behest of the crown, and try their luck, convincing Hamlet to enjoy the Players.
But first, there is a Wittenburg reunion.
That done, the Players (the Tragedians of the Traveling Troupe) arrive and Hamlet spends some time asking a little favor, after giving the Player King his attention, of course.
The Players thoroughly entertain, but Scarlett and Ming-Pow are far more concerned about their relationship than anything else.
Alas, the play goes terribly wrong, and after a handful of “mad” moments, Hamlet (and Horatio) find themselves before the Gravedigger, and things go from bad to worse.
To see what happens next, come see the show!
Hamlet runs at 7:30pm on Thursday July 11, Saturday July 13, Tuesday July 16 (understudy show), and Thursday July 18. Hamlet matinee on Saturday July 20 at 1:00pm.
Tickets are on sale now – and with a small house, you should reserve your tickets now!
Email us at reservations@littleindependenttheatre.com.
*photos in this post courtesy of Ashley Lorenz
Our new Hamlet & Laertes show off their quick learning skills in this video from day 2 of their Fight Call work!
Thanks to Jim Azarelo for the brilliant fight choreography and to Nick & Keegan for working so hard to pick it up as quickly as possible; they are so on top of it, we dont have to alter the choreo, even in this limited time!
The weapons have arrived, and they are AWESOME!
Wait till you see this fight… its got multiple phrases, involves no fewer than 5 weapons, and is so fantastic to watch!
There is something truly edifying when you give an actor a character suggestion, or ask them a question, and they digest it and make it a part of their work… and then, when they embrace it, evolve it, and enlarge it – well, then, things just become AMAZING! Who knew?!?!
As some of you may already know, we have had a lot of upsets to our cast. We have lost several tremendous actors who, for various reasons, could not continue with the production. In light of that, we could have quit. There were some tears for some of the changes, but ultimately, as a cast and crew we came together and I have to say, I could not be more honored to be working with the folks I have on board!
To announce all at once, some of the major cast changes:
NICK POPIO is the new HAMLET
ALEX VANDERMAAS-PEELER is the new HORATIO
KEEGAN KENNEDY is the new LAERTES
MARK TARANTO is the new GUILDENSTERN
Yes, folks, we lost Hamlet, Horatio (who is our new Hamlet), and Laertes all in one week. Talk about what could have been a demoralizing week – BUT the cast and crew have embraced these changes, and our rehearsals are lighter, more playful (OH the things we are DISCOVERING), and it is invigorating to come into rehearsal and have the actors all ABUZZ about choices and eager to get on their feet!
I am proud to work on this show, and I cannot wait for everyone to see it… things are coming along so swimmingly, its hard to believe we’ve had such upheavals. Truly, these people are AMAZING!
-julya (director)
I am very lucky.
I have a tremendous tech team, and they are patient, understanding, and full of inspirational ideas.
Sunday night we have a VERY long meeting (sorry guys!) to make up for missing one prior. Good news is that it went by fairly quickly (at least for me) and we came up with some really AMAZING ideas.
We solved set piece problems, backdrop questions, settled on some costume pieces, began to prep the forthcoming “Wheres Alfred” campaign, and worked through the most unique curtain calls…
…and then I went to dinner with my SM and she and I took that “most unique curtain calls” decision and made.it.AMAZING (with some help from our lighting maven).
Truth is, Im SO excited by it, I WONT share, because it will be SO worth it to see it yourself!
So start thinking about when you want to come see the shows. They will surprise you, entertain, and evoke sentiment. How awesome is that?
-Julya (director)
I was thoroughly amused at our Wednesday night Players rehearsal, to the point where we had to stop so I could get a breath!
Not only are these actors tackling a challenging role (they are the acting troupe that comes to town and performs in the play-within-the-play in Hamlet AND the troupe in R&G), but they are constantly evolving! Their individual character traits, skills, and relationships make for some excellent comic beats. They will truly engage the audience!
The rehearsals are long and sometimes laborious, but the results are AMAZING!
I cant wait for everyone to get to meet Arthur, Ollie, Vlkrm, Zelda, Alfred, Lutka, Ming Pow, Scarlett, Viktor (Vicky), and Theodora!
-Julya (director)
So in rehearsal this week, as part of our character work, Julya had each of us write down a secret our character knows about another character.
Because I am mean, I gleefully wrote something scandalous about Guildenstern. (Sorry, David. Except not really.)
Then Julya announces that our secrets will be worked into the play somehow. (Sorry, David. Except not really.)
After rehearsal, I wait around until Julya is free and tell her I want her to read my secret now, so that I can see her reaction.
She unfolds my secret (Which is folded into an origami swan because reasons.), reads it, and goes into the Full-On-Julya-Belly-Laugh for a good minute. She passes my secret on to Deirdre.
…Who smirks. And says “You need to read David’s.”
Deirdre digs out Guildenstern’s secret (which I presume is about Rosencrantz) and passes it to Julya, who reads it.
And begins to laugh so hard that she can’t breathe. A good three minutes of gasping and wheezing and waving her hands around.
we held our completion casting auditions on saturday and between the Fayetteville road closures, people accepting roles in other (conflicting) shows, and illness, we had a handful of the 15ish we were expecting.
that being said, we had some great auditioners – actually, they were all great in their own ways – and we were able to cast a couple. in trying to make conflicts work i was able to cast one person with conflicts due to a terrific creative solution, mostly because of my Rosencrantz, Noelle (who has worked with me for the last 6+ years), who made a terrific suggestion. i was just smart enough to act on it! so now im feeling good about what can be done, and i think that the audience will be pleased at how i can integrate an actor with conflicts… of course, no one will really KNOW who that was, but still. LOL
we are still, however, looking for folks who can help backstage. this show is going to require lots of moving bodies, especially bodies who can also be a part of the human props/set pieces. so if you want to be in a show, but dont want to memorize lines, or if you want to help out backstage – get some credit/volunteer hours/something you need for school, do let us know!
if not, im sure we’ll find a creative solution to that, too!
A good friend sent me this and I couldnt resist sharing… our Hamlet, Bill, is far more emotive, but I have to say, this bird is on the right track!
Come see our production and see if we cant evoke more of Hamlet’s passion than this!
little independent theatre 