Inside A.C.T.

By Elspeth Sweatman In Hamlet , Shakespeare uses doubling—the mirroring of characters, situations, plot points, themes, and rhetorical devices—to make his characters and the world of Elsinore more intriguing and explore the themes of identity, power, and truth at the heart of the play. One of the more noticeable uses of this device is that there isn’t just one man in the play avenging his father’s death; there are three. Hamlet (John Douglas Thompson) presents a play about murder to the court. Photo by Kevin Berne. Hamlet, Laertes, and Fortinbras all lose their fathers: Hamlet at the hands of his uncle Claudius, Laertes at the hands of Hamlet, and Fortinbras at the hands of Hamlet’s father. Although all three vow to avenge their fathers’ deaths, they go about accomplishing this task in completely different ways. Hamlet gathers evidence of his uncle’s guilt before acting. Laertes returns from France immediately and demands to know who killed his father; he is only stalled in his q...

By A.C.T. Publications Staff Reviewers have lauded John Douglas Thompson’s performance in A.C.T.’s production of Hamlet . Charles McNulty of the Los Angeles Times says Thompson “shatteringly portrays the melancholy Dane” in a way that “heightens the plight of a character forced by treacherous circumstances to relinquish his youthful ideals.” The San Francisco Chronicle ’s Lily Janiak says “Thompson’s crisp and loving enunciation of every consonant” is a “testament to the power of classical training if there ever was one.” We sat down with the Tony Award–nominated actor to gain insight into his process as an artist and how he approached creating this demanding role. John Douglas Thompson in A.C.T.'s Hamlet . Photo by Kevin Berne. The character of Hamlet has almost 1,500 lines. How much of a challenge was this to take on? When I did Tamburlaine the Great , people would ask me, “Why are you doing it?” Here’s a play in which I had 1,700 lines, more lines than Hamlet, a ...

By Elspeth Sweatman and Simon Hodgson The Elsinore of A.C.T.’s Hamlet is a world swirling with rumor and falsehood. It’s filled with kings and courtiers who say one thing and do another. Scenic and Costume Designer David Israel Reynoso wanted the play’s set to reflect this duplicity. His vision incorporates majestic elements—towering walls and ramparts—but hints at the corruption embedded in Shakespeare’s text with heavy, abattoir-style sheeting through which we see images we can’t quite decipher. Is that Polonius we see hiding? Is it Claudius? “The space has a lot of partitions, nooks and crannies where people can spy on each other,” says Reynoso. “This idea that you don’t know where you are in relationship to anything and anyone is at the core of this play’s world.” We sat down with Reynoso to unravel some of the set’s secrets. Set rendering by David Israel Reynoso for A.C.T.'s 2017 production of Hamlet . This production of Hamlet is set in a world that is polluted, but...

By A.C.T. Publications Staff The opening line of Hamlet ’s “To be or not to be” soliloquy is theater’s most iconic, most referenced quote. What’s less known is the famous speech’s history, with Hamlet ’s earliest publications offering varying versions of its language. Also questioned is its meaning—is Hamlet contemplating suicide or is he weighing the consequences of murder? Though definitive answers are unlikely to arise, the questions “To be or not to be” asks have kept audiences, scholars, and actors engaged for centuries. Hamlet ’ s "To be or not to be" speech as it appears in the three original editions of the play. Photo by Georgelazenby. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons. The first edition, or First Quarto (Q1), of Hamlet was published in 1603. Because the text is much shorter than later editions and its language is less poetic, it is nicknamed the “Bad Quarto” by scholars. “To be or not to be” in Q1 reads as: To be, or not to be—ay, there’s the point. To die, ...

By Rivka Borek During my second year here in the M.F.A. program at A.C.T., a new email popped into my inbox. “Dear all,” the email began. “We have the incredible privilege of doing some developmental work on Hamlet in preparation for our opening show of the 2017–18 season at The Geary. This Hamlet will star John Douglas Thompson.” Um, what?! I had seen John in four plays in New York, and witnessed his tour-de-force performance in Satchmo at the Waldorf  here at A.C.T. during my first year in the program. The fact that my classmates and I would be workshopping my favorite play with him seemed too surreal to be true. Peter Fanone, Rivka Borek, John Douglas Thompson, and Carey Perloff at the first rehearsal  of Hamlet . Photo by Elspeth Sweatman. On the first day of the workshop, I entered Studio 9A and there John was! We all got to work, reading and discussing different scenes throughout the play. When we arrived at the famously tricky “nunnery scene,” Carey scann...

By Simon Hodgson Ever since graduating from drama school, John Douglas Thompson has been thinking about playing Hamlet. When he came to A.C.T. in 2015 to prepare for Satchmo at the Waldorf , Thompson talked at length with Artistic Director Carey Perloff about playing the role. This fall, two years after those conversations and two decades after his original yearning, Thompson will step out onto the Geary stage as the prince of Denmark. As A.C.T. prepares for Hamlet , opening September 20 at A.C.T.’s Geary Theater, we met with the Tony Award–nominated actor to talk about this iconic role and the feeling of returning to The Geary.  Show artwork for A.C.T.'s 2017 production of Hamlet .  Photo by Nigel Parry/CPi Syndication. What is it about Hamlet that draws you toward it? It’s everything. It’s not just the play but the part itself, because the part is so iconic and synonymous with the journey that the character goes through. It’s been written about more than ...

By Elspeth Sweatman When you studied Hamlet in high school, you may have seen footage of accomplished stage and screen actors such as Kenneth Branagh, Mel Gibson, and Ethan Hawke playing the tragic title role. But, did you know that Shakespeare’s tale has become such a part of our popular culture that you almost get a daily dose of Hamlet ? Here are a few of our favorite adaptations, references, and parodies of the Bard’s most famous play. Mel Gibson teamed up with Elmo in 1994 for the Sesame Street segment “Monsterpiece Theater.” The Simpsons devoted an entire episode to an adaptation of Hamlet in 2002. Hamlet is played by Bart, Claudius by Moe, and Laertes by Ralph Wiggum. According to The Simpsons ’s supervising producer Don Payne, the Royal Shakespeare Company cast of Hamlet (2008)—starring David Tennant—watched this episode at its first rehearsal.  There are several Star Trek episodes named after Hamlet : “The Conscience of the King,” “Remember Me,” an...

By Taylor Steinbeck Something may be rotten in the state of Denmark, but the air in 30 Grant Avenue is alive with anticipation for A.C.T.’s 2017–18 season opener, Hamlet . Monday’s first rehearsal gathered the cast, crew, A.C.T. staff, and donors for a presentation on what A.C.T. Artistic Director Carey Perloff calls “the hardest play in the world.” A.C.T. Artistic Director Carey Perloff at the first rehearsal for  Hamlet . Photo by Brad Amorosino. Having thought about  Hamlet much throughout her education and many years of theater-making, Perloff is prepared and excited to dive deep into the consciousness of this notoriously complex play. “This is play about someone who’s thrust by circumstance into making an impossible choice” she says. “If he kills the murderer of his father, he immediately becomes a murderer himself. If he doesn’t, then he is forever the son who permitted this toxic crime to stand. There is no right answer.” The production’s set de...

Theater Manager Kevin Nelson in the Sky Bar at The Geary Theater. Photo by Elspeth Sweatman. By Taylor Steinbeck Fresh on the scene and eager to meet you: introducing Kevin Nelson, A.C.T.’s new theater manager! Kevin began working for A.C.T. this summer during A Night with Janis Joplin . We ventured into the unusually quiet Geary Theater on a Tuesday afternoon to get to know Kevin and chat about his experiences with odd lost and found items and rowdy audience members. For somebody not in theater, what does a theater manager do? My job is mostly spearheading the Front of House operations. I organize the bartenders, ushers, and house managers, and oversee whatever is happening in The Geary, The Strand, and The Costume Shop in addition to our rental spaces. Basically, I’m the connection between the spaces and the staffing needs for those spaces. Theater management is all about listening to your audience and making sure they feel like they’re being taken care of and understood. ...