Creating the Magic That is Shakespeare’s Hamlet
Recently, Los Angeles-based combat choreographer Richard Squeri visited North Haven, where Shakespeare on the Shoreline’s Hamlet is being rehearsed, to provide some lessons in hand-to-hand combat and how to fight with swords.
The lesson started with a game called Flowing Dragon, where one combatant held a sword up against the other combatant’s sword and made eye contact. Then they danced. The combatants extended the weapon as if it was a part of their arms, getting to know both their fight partner and their weapon better. Squeri talked about the importance of building a rapport with both partner and weapon, of developing a relationship that includes ways to communicate, push, and push back.
Then he showed them how to throw punches.
He explained real fighting is sheer chaos and often visually ugly. Stage fighting not only looks good, it helps tell a story. It requires knowledge about how to use different angles, how to move and in which direction, and how to use noise to supplement that movement.
Those who received these lessons included Hamlet cast members, and also summer interns working in the business office of Shoreline Arts Alliance (SAA), which is putting on the play and offering it free to the public from Wednesday to Sunday, Aug. 1 to 5 on the Guilford Green, working with Legacy Theatre in Branford. Performances start at 7:30 p.m., and there will be pre-show talks at 6:30 p.m. and post-show talks as well. Everyone is welcome to bring a blanket and picnic, and the family friendly event is well-behaved-dog-friendly as well. Details are available at www.shorelinearts.org/shakespeare-on-the-shoreline.
SAA Executive Director Eric Dillner and Emily Whalen, SAA program and marketing associate, laugh when asked if they are worried about working in an office with summer interns who are trained combatants. The fight training is just part of the interns’ experience, they say. Also on the agenda for the interns this summer is a real-life battle, to come up with critical funding to support the free production—one that draws 4,000 to 5,000 visitors to the Guilford Green each summer—now that state funding has been withdrawn.
As the interns and administrators come up with combat plan for that task, the actors back in rehearsal in North Haven have found themselves surprised by what those rehearsals have shown them about a dark play involving insanity, murder, revenge, lies, and deceit. They say their rehearsals are revealing themes they did not expect.
Forgiveness, Empathy, Kindness
On a recent Monday night, Jeremy Funke, playing Hamlet, is rehearsing with Nicholas Fetherston, playing Rosencrantz, and Jake Forsdahl, playing Guildenstern. The rehearsal is taking place in the stark black box rehearsal space at Quinnipiac University, devoid of a set and most props. The actors are dressed not in costumes, but in T-shirts and jeans or gym shorts.
Still, even though it is relatively early in the rehearsal process, as the players play, it feels not so much like watching a drama, but rather like catching a glimpse into Hamlet’s monumentally messed up life and tormented soul.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Hamlet’s friends from college, have, in an earlier scene, been recruited by Queen Gertrude, Hamlet’s mother, and King Claudius, Hamlet’s uncle, to help find out what’s up with Hamlet. What’s up with Hamlet is that his father, the king of Denmark, has been murdered. Hamlet’s father’s ghost told Hamlet (really? He’s talking with ghosts? Is he crazy?)...the ghost told Hamlet the murderer was the father’s brother, Hamlet’s uncle, Claudius, who has now managed to marry Hamlet’s mother and ascend to the throne as the new king of Denmark.
So here we have Rosencrantz and Guildenstern using their relationship with Hamlet to spy on him, on behalf of Hamlet’s unfaithful mother, who betrayed him, and Hamlet’s enemy, King Claudius. Hamlet has been acting like a mad man in the wake of his father’s death, but there are doubts as to whether this madness is real or feigned. Is Hamlet to be pitied or feared? Hence the spying.
The scene, as performed in rehearsal, has Hamlet, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern balancing on a taut tightrope separating friendship and betrayal, between the old bonds of affection and a new deep layer of distrust. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, as they gather information to hand over to Hamlet’s enemies, also seem concerned about him and his manic mental state, conveyed not in words, so much, as in how they move, their facial expressions, and how they dance with each other in the rehearsal space.
During the next break in the rehearsal, Funke steps out of his role as Hamlet for a moment.
“If any of you have ever had to deal with someone going through a manic episode, you did just the right thing,” he says.
Funke has more than two decades of experience with Hamlet, having studied it, directed it, written an alternative version of it, and having played various roles in it, including Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. He says being a part of this production is helping him understand new layers of truth in the play.
“The importance of kindness and empathy comes through more than it has in the past for me. Hamlet can in many ways be a cruel person, and rather than enjoying those moments, we are looking at where they come from and how they impact others,” he says. “I’m also struck this time through the play, by the expectation of, and hope for, relief that things will come to an end soon, whether those things are willed by the self or by forces utterly beyond our own control. Sometimes those ends are gratifying, but often they are devastating and the lessons are learned too late, which of course is what makes this a tragedy.”
He says as rehearsals continue, he expects they will discover new layers and depths to relationships among the characters in the play.
“The depth of this play is truly endless, and if we can give the audience a small taste of that, I think we will count this a success,” he says.
Keely Baisden Knudsen, the artistic director of Legacy Theatre, is directing this play. She is sitting on the sidelines of this rehearsal and directing it like a conductor might a musical performance. She says after the rehearsal that one of the most surprising thematic elements she is discovering in this rendition of Hamlet is the theme of forgiveness. She says there is an interesting thread of forgiveness connecting Hamlet and his spurned girlfriend, Ophelia, who suffers at his hands, and also between Hamlet and Ophelia’s brother, Laertes.
“Ophelia’s funeral scene offers an opportunity for connection between the two who loved her most,” she says. “The staging of the final duel between Laertes and Hamlet is fueled by revenge, betrayal, and pain, but ultimately finds a very palpable tone of forgiveness, which is one of the many heartbreaking, but surprisingly hopeful moments of this tragedy.”
She says she’s thrilled to be working daily with such a gifted company, with cast members from all over the country, along with a cameo Ghost of Hamlet voiced by James Roday (Shawn Spencer of the TV show Psych), and with the fight choreography and training by Squeri. She says her cast and crew are “artistically bold as well as true scholars of the Bard’s work.”
“It makes for one of those treasured, unique experiences that highlights the importance of creating theater and providing it for the community, in short, it reminds me why I do what I do,” she says. “And I hope that those in the audience who experience this Legacy production will feel the same awe and reverence towards Shakespeare’s grasp on the human condition as we as a company feel in the development of this piece.”
How to Create Magic
SAA’s Dillner says the interns loved the fight training and are now focusing on the task of working with others in the organization to help come up with funding to help support the production. There are about eight or nine interns, coming from Guilford, Madison, Durham, Lyme, and other locations in the shoreline area.
Specifically, SAA used to receive money from the state that it no longer receives.
“They used to give us a $10,000 check. Now it’s zero,” Dillner says. “The truth is, it is not enough for the audience to put a couple of bucks in the bucket that we pass at intermission. But we also don’t want to say to the crowd that they can’t come unless you pay, we want to keep it free. So we are trying to figure out how to make that fun and have people give a little more
“The interns are helping to focus on the business side, and what’s great is that they are really thinking outside of the box, and how to give the audience more things to like to support their wonderful evening,” Dillner says.
The tactics, with an eye to giving as much as they receive, including introducing something sweet at intermission to supplement the salty popcorn that is already available.
“Maybe caramel popcorn would fit the bill?” Dillner says.
Other strategies include reaching out to local companies to see if they might donate high-end goods that could be raffled, and to participate in other sponsorship opportunities.
“That was their project last week, to reach out to businesses in the community,” Dillner says.
As we talk, his phone dings. It’s the person preparing the Braille programs. Dillner says that’s one of the relatively recent developments of which he’s particularly proud, how SAA is always striving to make the productions more accessible.
In addition the Braille programs, there will be signing interpreters there for people who are hearing impaired, and there will be listening devices as well. And Dillner says Funke, with his vast experience with Hamlet, will help make the production easily understandable as well, for everyone who attends.
“He’s going to make it so we all can understand it. His delivery is perfect for the layman to understand Shakespeare. I can’t say we’ve always put on shows that were easily understood, but this one absolutely will be,” he says.
SAA also is presenting Inside Hamlet roundtable lectures, free and open to the public, already underway, continuing with these:
Thursday, July 26 at 7 p.m., at the Willoughby Wallace Memorial Library, 146 Thimble Island Rd, Branford
Thursday, Aug. 2 at 11 a.m., at the Guilford Free Library 67 Park St, Guilford
They are also offering Hamlet, Abridged!, a children’s show free and open to the public:
Friday, July 27 at 2 p.m. on the Madison Green, Madison
Sunday, July 29 at 2:30 p.m. at Guilford Community Center, 32 Church St, Guilford
Tuesday, July 31 at 10 a.m. at Evergreen Woods, 88 Notch Hill Rd, North Branford
Friday, Aug. 3 at 10 a.m. on the Branford Green, Branford
While Hamlet Abridged! is technically a children’s show, Dillner says anyone can go and that everyone should go.
“It is fun and silly. You’ve got to go. It’s only about 40 minutes long and it’s perfect,” he says.
SAA and Legacy Theater are also offering performances suitable for those with sensory issues, including people on the autism spectrum. Still, those are also performances that anyone can go to, Dillner says, “So whoever wants to come, can come and enjoy.”
And these aren’t just any old fidget toys, they are fidget toys that will help people connect with the production, he says.
The discussions offered before the play opens, along with the pre- and post-show talks will be an opportunity to take a deeper look at Hamlet, and to talk about the production process, and to tip people off about things to look for, he says.
Our discussion comes back to money, and how to pay for all of this, and Dillner says he’s confident people in the community will step up to help, because there is so much to love about Shakespeare outdoors. And he says the discussions, the fun abridged show, the pre- and post-show talks will allow people in the community to connect with the cast, crew, and production people working so hard to bring Hamlet to the Guilford Town Green.
Dillner says he remembers one time, he was involved in putting on a production in a little town and right before showtime, one of the light fixtures blew a fuse.
“And the audience thought watching the stage crew change the light out was more interesting than what I had to say,” he says, laughing. “And they thought seeing the mic check was fascinating.”
In other words, people love seeing not only the magic, but getting a glimpse into how that magic is created. At the same time, the cast, crew, and production company get a deeper understanding into how their magic affects the audience.
Dillner tells another story, about a young man, maybe in his 30s, who came to see a production of King Lear. He was hearing impaired, and was able to understand the play thanks to a signing interpreter. He was almost in tears with gratitude.
“This was the first time he felt comfortable at the theater, actually knowing what everybody else knew and it was life-changing for him,” Dillner says. “When we look at the budget, we don’t cut things like that.