HAMLET is coming...

On May 13, 2010 we will open our first mainstage Shakespeare play since losing the Pelican Studio Theatre in January 2006. 

NPTC's track record with the Bard has been a good one, winning us critical acclaim for innovative stagings of Macbeth, Romeo & Juliet, Othello and Julius Caesar, as well as an OOBR Award for our Burlesque production of The Taming of the Shrew.

Our production of Hamlet will continue in this tradition, offering a singular NPTC vision for this play that incorporates historical, scholarly and theatrical research in a highly physical production.

This is not your grandfather's Hamlet!

Considered by some to be one of the "problem" plays, theatre practitioners, literary critics and average folks have debated the true meaning of this play for centuries.  Is Hamlet actually a tragic hero?  Is his lunacy feigned, or is there some deep misogyny lurking in his antics?  Is it bi-polar disorder? An Oedipal Complex? 

NPTC has looked at some fascinating but relatively obscure scholarship tying the structure of the script to The Book of Revelation!  Author Linda Kay Hoff makes a compelling case, identifying the parallel elements in the play and the Bible, and puts forth a convincing argument as to Hamlet's viewpoint from a 16th Century perspective and the almost century-long religious wars that took place after Henry VIII's establishment of the Church of England.  The Book of Revelation was very much on Protestant minds.

As always, NPTC takes the source material, existing scholarship and the First Folio version of any play we are working with, and applies these to our contemporary world in order to find our own "perspective".  What we have "found" is that concern with The Book of Revelation and "end times" has once again entered the POLITICAL realm and its deeply disturbing.  NPTC's vision of Doomsday isn't quite the one that the Apostle John "witnessed".

We hope you'll join us in May for some Theatrical Liturgy as we unravel the mystery that has puzzled humanity for ages!

HAMLET

directed by Melody Brooks

production designer, Meganne George

sound and video designer, David L. Schulder

at THEATRE 54, 244 West 54th Street (between 8th and Broadway)

PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE:

Thursday, May 13, 2010 to Sunday, May 23, 2010

Tuesday - Saturday at 7:30pm; Sundays at 2pm.

TICKETS: $18; $15 for students and seniors with ID.  Contact us for Group Rates.

FEATURING:

Bill Blechingberg (Claudius), Bernardo Cubria (Hamlet), Jenny Greeman (Ophelia),

C. Amanda Maud (Gertrude), Rafael Jordan (Horatio), Kim Sullivan (Polonius),

Terrell Tilford (Laertes)

along with

James Edward Becton, Amanda Johnson, Mikaela Lynn Johnson, Steve Lynn, Ray Rodriguez and

Kerry Watterson as the Ghost

SPECIAL THANKS TO JOHN HUDSON, founder of The Dark Lady Players, for introducing me to Hamlet's Choice, by Linda Kay Hoff, and for sharing his research on the Shakespeare Authorship Question with us (and the rest of the world.)  Check out John's theories on Amelia Bassano Lanyer as the true Bard!  Although I am not specifically using John's conclusions on Hamlet in our production, they have informed my own thinking on it.  Melody Brooks