Delaware Shakespeare

Delaware Shakespeare website

Donate Now!
  • Home
  • Performances
    • Summer Festival
      • Tickets
      • Festival Schedule & Activities
      • Cast & Creative Team
      • Plan Your Visit
      • Behind The Scenes
    • Community Tour: Twelfth Night, A New Musical
      • Tour Performances
      • Studio Performances
      • Cast and Creative Team
    • Shakespeare, Poe & Fiends
    • Shakespeare + St. Valentine’s
  • Learning
    • Community Cornerstone: Merry Wives Jam Session
    • The Bridge
    • Nancy B. Lynch College Apprentice Program
    • High School Internships
    • Juvenile Justice Acting Classes
    • Education
  • Support
    • Donate
    • Volunteer
    • Advertise
    • Sponsor
  • About
    • Vision, Mission, and Values
    • Diversity
    • Arts Journalist Insights
    • Sponsors & Partners
    • Donors
    • Production History
    • Board of Directors
    • Staff
    • Jobs
  • Contact Us

Griffin and David Talk HAMLET – September 2013

September 19, 2013 by David Stradley

Audience favorite Griffin Stanton-Ameisen will play Hamlet for DSF in 2014 and Artistic Director David Stradley will direct the production. Once a month, Griffin and David will be getting together to talk about the play, the character, and all sorts of other things. They’ve agreed to share a short “journal entry” with DSF after each meeting.

September 14, 2013

DAVID STRADLEY

“Griffin and I had our second chat today about Hamlet. We focused on where Hamlet is before the play. And there’s kind of two parts to that – who he is before his father dies, and who he is after. Most of our talk had to do with relationships.

Some of the interesting things we discussed – Hamlet and his father are two totally different kinds of people. King Hamlet is a Nordic warrior king. Prince Hamlet has chosen the intellectual path, and dad probably doesn’t know what to do with that.

A possible backstory for the Ophelia relationship is that Hamlet and Ophelia were always close growing up, there was always some kind of connection. When Hamlet returns grieving his father’s death, perhaps the depth of his feelings drive him to Ophelia for comfort and connection – particularly when everything else is going horribly wrong (uh, my mom has married my uncle???).

Finally, we tackled the question of Hamlet’s madness – a question we’ll keep coming back to again and again. I put on the table the possibility (and this is based on something I read in Stephen Greenblatt’s Will in the World) that in the intensity of his reactions to his father’s death and his mother’s wedding, he starts to lose it slightly. Perhaps Hamlet already fears he is going slightly mad. So, after his father’s ghost tells him to seek revenge, almost the first thing he does when his friends come back is say, “Hey, if I start acting slightly crazy, it’s all part of my plan.” Maybe he uses the disguise of madness to cover his own fears of going mad.”

GRIFFIN STANTON-AMEISEN

“This past weekend David and I had our second meeting regarding the beast that is Hamlet.

We started talking about the important relationships in the play. Where they may have been before the play, how they are at the start and where they evolve to. And how each one is important to Hamlet’s journey.

We also discussed the why’s. The biggest one being, why do this play?

Why do this play now, in Delaware, in what will be 2014, etc. And why do we personally want to do it.

For me, the world is a little crazy presently. I live in Philadelphia. With the education system in Philadelphia being so traumatized, the economy being off-kilter, one could view the world quite pessimistically. Us Gen “Y”ers, according to many sources, think we’ve had the rug pulled out from under us.

Now, I don’t personally feel that. I feel I live in the world I live in, and I make my choices based on what I love and care about. I have to strive for that. Is it always pretty? No. Now Hamlet pretty much has his wall-to-wall carpet ripped out from beneath him. I think in the world in which we live that is a very relatable experience. One that audiences can feel for and get behind. Action. We can’t sit around and let the world come to us. And Hamlet cannot either.

Until next time.”

OTHER GRIFFIN & DAVID JOURNAL ENTRIES
One Last Time
May 2014
April 2014
March 2014
February 2014
December 2013
November 2013
October 2013
August 2013

Filed Under: Home Page Worthy, News

Black Lives Matter

View “Anti-Racism Next Steps” Shakespeare is not a voice we naturally turn to for racial justice. There are elements of his work that are problematic for Black artists and audience members. But at his best what Shakespeare tries to do in his plays is to see every person as a full and complete human being. […]

Send a Shakespeare Love Note to Our Community

Let’s fill social media with messages of love in the run-up to Valentine’s Day! We’re inviting Del Shakes fans to record a video of a brief Shakespeare love quote, and share it with us. We’ll post on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Here’s a list of ten Shakespeare love quotes compiled by Associate Artist Emily Schuman. Or you […]

Shakespeare + St. Valentine

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13 at 7:30pm ONLINE Our annual Valentine’s program shifts to a virtual format in 2021. A diverse group of Del Shakes actors will read romantic Shakespeare scenes. Each scene will be paired with a drink idea from Swigg and a chocolate from a local chocolatier*. In this interactive program, there will also be […]

Hip Hop or Shakespeare? Quiz Night

Hip Hop or Shakespeare? Quiz NightFebruary 4 at 7:00pmOnline via ZoomPay-What-You-Decide  Think you can tell your 2Pac from your Shakespeare? Join us for a virtual quiz night to find out. In this fun interactive program, you’ll learn about the surprising connections and poetic similarities between the wordplay of the Bard from Avon and hip hop artists […]

An ancient tale told anew

by Gail Obenreder, Arts Journalist-in-Residence To end a challenging season – an amalgam of virtual events and safely distanced outdoor presentations – Delaware Shakespeare rounded out 2020 with an online reading of a challenging play, William Shakespeare’s Cymbeline. After a year spent offstage, exploring the canon’s scenes, monologues, and nooks and crannies, Del Shakes actors […]

Building Bridges Through Culture

by Christian Wills, Arts Journalist-in-Residence The topic around race and culture among Shakespeare productions is an ongoing conversation with those in the theatre. Audience members can gleam onto an actor’s struggle between their true selves and what’s being represented on stage. For Del Shakes, the discovery of what a culturally-specific production is and how impactful […]

  • New Castle County

    Matthew S. Meyer, County Executive. New Castle County's Rockwood Park is the summer home of Delaware Shakespeare. www.rockwood.org

  • Delaware Division of the Arts

    Delaware Shakespeare is supported, in part, by a grant from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts. The Division promotes Delaware arts events on delawarescene.org.

  • Janssen's Market

    Delaware Shakespeare is delighted to have Janssen's Market as our Picnic Sponsor. www.janssensmarket.com

  • Highmark Delaware

    Highmark Delaware is our Children's Activity Tent Sponsor.
    www.highmarkbcbsde.com

  • Swigg

    Swigg is our Wine Shop Sponsor.
    www.swiggwine.com

  • Delmarva Power

    Delmarva Power have generously donated assistance and resources to Delaware Shakespeare. www.delmarva.com

Summer Festival Location

Rockwood Park
4651 Washington Street Extension
Wilmington, DE 19809
Map This

Mailing Address

4 S. Poplar Street
Wilmington, DE 19801
Phone: 302-468-4890
Contact Us Online

About Del Shakes

We envision a Delaware where people from all walks of life celebrate and explore their shared humanity through the lens of Shakespearean works.
Read More

Links

Buy Tickets
Donate
Volunteer
Press Room

Contact
News
Blog

Copyright © 2021 · Outreach Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in