[audio:http://www.wdde.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/TheGreen_07112014_ArtsPlaylist_DEShakespeare.mp3|titles= Delaware Public Media's Cathy Carter interviews Delaware Shakespeare Festival’s producing artistic director David Stradley and Hamlet lead actor Griffin Stanton-Ameisen.]
A First State favorite has returned to Wilmington.
The annual Delaware Shakespeare Festival is back for another season at Rockwood Park in Wilmington. It kicked off Friday and will run through the end of the month.
DSF’s yearly celebration of the Bard broke attendance records last summer and so this year the organization is upping the ante by staging what is arguably the Bard’s most famous work, ‘Hamlet,’ Shakespeare’s longest and most performed play.
Something is rotten in the state of Denmark when a prince returns home after his father has been murdered.
Hamlet, the grieving son, becomes obsessed with revenge after a visit by a mysterious ghost, resembling his deceased father.
The apparition tells the prince that his father was murdered by his uncle Claudius who assumed the throne and married Hamlet’s mother.
The show’s lead actor, Griffin Stanton-Ameisen, says Hamlet’s story arc is sweeping in scope.
“He begins by having a bunch of things just ripped away from him,” notes the actor.
“He’s trying to figure out how to be in this new world that he has come to, or has been forced to, be part of. I think by the end, he gains an understanding of humanity and himself as part of this world through all of this horrific stuff he goes through," added Stanton-Ameisen. "He gains an appreciation for humanity and almost the lack of definitive knowledge about what we can and cannot grasp. I think we see Hamlet’s growth as the play progresses. At the end, he wants to say something to the audience but instead he says, ‘but let it be.’ Because in the end, it’s the individual’s journey to figure out the things that Hamlet has kind of figured out by the end of the play.”
David Stradley, producing artistic director of the Delaware Shakespeare Festival, says mounting the playwright’s best known work presents the company with a unique challenge.
“It almost reads like a greatest hits of Shakespeare. I mean, it’s just famous line after famous line after famous line," said Stradley. "It’s finding ways to make those lines not just seem like their famous lines but to make them come to life in the moment.”
Stradley admits preparing for the production has been a bit daunting, and he's felt the pressure.
“I had this passing vision that Shakespeare came to me and said ‘don’t worry man, don’t stress out.' He’s like, I didn’t know I was writing this incredible play, I was just writing this play and hoped it was good and all I want is actors to do it and fun with it and bring it to life and just bring yourself to it,” said Stradley.
The production, which runs through July 27th, features DSF’s largest set to date. Gates open 75 minutes early each night for pre-show activities and patrons are encouraged to bring blankets and a picnic.
In addition to mounting the production, DSF last spring laid the groundwork for this year's effort by attempting to engage audiences in the show's development. They visited First State high schools and retirement homes to discuss the play with their ‘I Am Hamlet’ initiative.
Photo Courtesy: Alessandra Nicole.
This piece is made possible, in part, by a grant from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency dedicated to nurturing and supporting the arts in Delaware, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.