Next week, TIC's 32nd production, Women Playing Hamlet, opens for a quickie run from June 22-26, 2016 at Theatre 54 @ Shetler Studios, 244 West 54th Street, 12th Floor.
Get your $18 tickets at www.tictheater.com or by calling 212-868-4444. We interviewed one of the show's actors, Ms. Jennifer Teska, who plays 'Jessica,' the woman at the heart of the story. Jessica has been cast as Hamlet and immediately is faced with nay-sayers, doubters, and Patrick Stewart stalking her. We interviewed the funny lady about Shakespeare's role and roles in her life. This play is about your character, Jessica, being cast as Hamlet. What "male" role would you like to take on? Is it too cliche, given the context of this show, to say Hamlet? Because that's definitely up there. In the realm of Shakespeare, top choices (right now) would be Hamlet and Iago. In musical theatre land, I think it would be Pippin in Pippin. I've always loved his songs. Favorite Shakespearean quotation? "Frailty, thy name is woman!" (KIDDING.) "We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with sleep." The Tempest, Act IV, Scene i What's an early Shakespeare-related experience you can recall? When I was about 12 years old, I played Portia in a VERY abridged version of The Merchant of Venice. For years after that, my mother would have me deliver "The quality of mercy" speech at dinner parties/family gatherings. Because nothing says "Happy Thanksgiving" like a pre-teen reciting Shakespeare. In just over a week, TIC's 32nd production, Women Playing Hamlet, opens for a whirlwind run from June 22-26, 2016 at Theatre 54 @ Shetler Studios, 244 West 54th Street, 12th Floor.
Get your $18 tickets at www.tictheater.com or by calling 212-868-4444. We interviewed one of the show's actors, Ms. Lori Funk, who plays several roles in the piece, from a Freudian psychiatrist to a ghost to a Home Shopping Network Host to a few others. What's your favorite line in the show? When Gwen says, "My acting teacher, the great Stella Adler, said, 'Life crushes your soul--theatre reminds you, you have one!'" Every time I hear those words in rehearsal, I think to myself, AMEN. Life can and does crush your soul at times (it crushed mine on the A train this morning). But, if you have art in your life (theatre, music, dance, drawing, painting, etc. etc. etc.), then you are ultimately un-crushable. Favorite Shakespearean quotation? "To thine own self be true." (Hamlet) They say "Dying is easy. Comedy is hard." Do you agree? Yes. Thanks for reading and we hope to see you next week at Women Playing Hamlet! Over the coming weeks, we'll be blogging about our team for TIC's 32nd production, Women Playing Hamlet by William Missouri Downs.
The show marks the NYC premiere of the play, which runs for 5 performances, Wed-Sat June 22-25 @ 7:30 pm and Sun June 26 @ 2:30 pm at Theater 54 @ Shetler Studios (244 West 54th Street, 12th Floor). Buy your $18 tickets at www.tictheater.com or by calling 212-868-4444. Kicking off our blogging series for this show is our production's director, Ms. Molly Ballerstein. We asked her a few questions about the show and Shakespeare. What's your favorite line from this show, and why? In Act II, Jessica says "Dear Sarah. Why Hamlet? Why cast yourself in a role that would for sure bring condemnation from the critics?" The Sarah mentioned is Sarah Bernhardt, who played Hamlet in 1899 and then again in 1900. At this point in our history, many women have played Shakespeare's men. As we rehearse for this play, The Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park is an all female production of The Taming of The Shrew. Every production seems to need a twist for justifying the choice to critics and even with this justification there is often condemnation. So why do theatre companies continue to produce all female Shakespeare? Why do directors make this a story telling choice? Why do female actors take the roles and even seek them out? I have my answer for the question posed in this line and I'm sure Jennifer Teska (Jessica/Hamlet) has one as well. The discussion surrounding story-telling choices in theatre, the questions raised, and the reactions to these choices by critics fascinate me. Favorite Shakespeare quotation? “Our doubts are traitors, And make us lose the good we oft might win, By fearing to attempt.” —Lucio in Measure for Measure When did you first work on Shakespeare in a meaningful way? We had to read Hamlet my senior year of high school and our English teacher (whom I used to get in, let's call them, intellectual debates with nearly every class) was a fan of group projects. A lot of the theatre kids and a group of guys that often made short films decided to group up for what we thought would be an awesome short film version of the bard's work. For some reason that is no longer remembered, we thought the due date was a week later than it actually was and were naturally all procrastinators. Well, the resulting script and project were perhaps not this group of top ten students and theatre kids best work, but it entertained us. As evidence here's the edited down version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XrGeDA6xRA I don't recall why the effect on my voice was chosen and my favorite part of this project will always be Ophelia's death. |
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Past Productions
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- Relentlessly Pleasant
- Ruby PCTF18
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- Plus 1 - Fall 2017
- Buffalo Heights PCTF
- Rapture, Blister, Burn
- Women Playing Hamlet
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- Up Next
-
Past Productions
- Plus 1 - Fall 2019
- Untransmittable
- Recent Tragic Events
- Plus 1 - Spring 2019
- Relentlessly Pleasant
- Ruby PCTF18
- Relentlessly Pleasant - Reading
- Mauritius
- Plus 1 - Fall 2017
- Buffalo Heights PCTF
- Rapture, Blister, Burn
- Women Playing Hamlet
- The Inn at Lake Devine
- The Inn at Lake Devine - Reading
- Whale Song
- Plus 1 - Fall 2014
- Plus 1 - Spring 2014
- Buffalo Heights
- News & Reviews
- About
- Contact
- Blog
- Podcast
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