Hamlet

In honor of the upcoming 450th celebration of Shakespeare’s birth in 1564, Grinnell’s Theatre and Dance Department presents Hamlet. In its time, the play was the most popular of the revenge tragedies or “tragedies of blood,” in vogue from the 1590s through 1620.

Evening: 7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 22, Bucksbaum Center Roberts Theatre
Evening: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 23, Bucksbaum Center Roberts Theatre
Matinee: 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 24, Bucksbaum Center Roberts Theatre

This production is based on the 1623 Folio edition of Hamlet, newly co-edited by Eric Rasmussen ’82 and Jonathan Bate as part of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Complete Works of Shakespeare series, with some elements from the Second Quarto version.

Many in the ensemble of sixteen are doubling roles as Shakespeare’s troupe would have done at the Globe Theatre in London.

The production features Matt Steege ’17 as Hamlet.  Steege, a first-year from Racine, Wis., has performed Hal in Henry IV Part I and Posthumus Leonatus in Cymbeline and has trained at the Utah Shakespeare Festival.

Other players include students in Renaissance Hamlet, a dramaturgy seminar with Ellen Mease, the director. Economics professor Mark Montgomery plays the Ghost, Hamlet’s father.

Professional guest artists include scenic designer Erica Zaffarano and composer/sound designer Michael Croswell from the Twin Cities, fight director Casey Kaleba from Washington D.C., and Chicago-based lighting designer Carolyn Voss ’07. Erin Howell-Gritsch designed the costumes. 

Tickets are required for this free public performance. You can pick up tickets at the Bucksbaum Center box office beginning Monday, Nov. 18, noon to 5 p.m., or call the box office (641-269-4444) during business hours. Tickets will also be available at the door. A limited number of tickets are also available at the Pioneer Bookshop in downtown Grinnell.

No tickets are required for open dress rehearsal at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 21.