CollisionWorks

In a week and a little under 12 hours, I'll be onstage playing Hamlet.


I'm not off-book yet, but I'm close, and I'll be there. I'm spending about six hours on it today. That'll get me almost there, but probably not quite.


We have four more runthrus scheduled, tonight, Friday, Saturday, and Monday, the last a tech-dress with the full cast - the only time we'll have the full cast before we open. Tonight we're only down one actor, so that's good. We might lose one of the runthrus to deal with fight choreography, costumes, and props (either Friday or Saturday) with, respectively, Qui Nguyen, Karen Flood, and Berit.


I am anxious, but in an odd way. I am anxious that I am not more stressed about the show. I feel like I must be forgetting something and there's something else I have to do, but I think we have things under control. We have to build the platforms by next Monday, finish the postcard and send it out tonight, get the rest of the props (there aren't nearly as many as usual in one of my shows), finish the sound design, buy the fencing equipment, and . . . oh, there must be other things. Berit has a list . . .


But we seem to be together. I just have to get my lines down. Tomorrow I drive up to Maine to get my teeth finally fixed, back late the next day or early the following.


Sent out another round of press stuff and the promo email to my list.


Berit made up scale diagrams of the set positions for the cast in Photoshop - we won't get to work the transitions until tech, so I'd like them to have as clear as possible an image of what things are supposed to look like. Moving everything around at scale also made it obvious that certain plans we had as to where things were going to go will not work, and we had to fix them. Here's some of the settings in this form - a, b, and c are the three platforms (2' high, one of them 6x3.5', the other two 7x2'), d is a writing desk, and e is a step that can be placed by the platforms. The other shapes are chairs and a mic stand. Other lines are the curtains at The Brick, and several hanging 4' pieces of rust-colored paper.


Here is Act I, Scene 3 (our Act/Scene designations), the "dock" where Laertes says goodbye to Polonius and Ophelia:




Act I, Scene 7 - the office/hall in Elsinore where many scenes happen:




Act I, Scenes 9-10 - the play within the play and aftermath:




Act II, Scene 4 - the graveyard:




You can see in the last that we had to shift things a bit to make way for the coffin - it was delivered by Gaby and Nick to the space yesterday while we were there, and was larger than anticipated. Ah, well, it'll work. We have a coffin. Great!


Okay, time to finish up the morning's online business and get back to lines. I've got a week to become a proper Hamlet. Almost there. Almost there.

I'm off to The Brick to help run things in an hour or so, and participate in part of tonight's festivities, as part of something which could be really fun or a great big train wreck (and also fun, as wrecks can be).

Tonight, a whole bunch of "theatre bloggers" will converge on The Brick, first to see Interview With The Author by writer/performer/blogger Matthew Freeman at 5.15 pm, then probably a few might stick around to see the several acts in tonight's Brick-a-Brac while more go and get a good drunk on (I have to stay at The Brick myself), then all the bloggers will return at 9.00 pm for


The Impending Theatrical Blogging Event


which will feature, live on-stage (as far as we know right now, and I may be wrong about this) for your dining, dancing, and drinking pleasure:


Aaron Riccio for New Theater Corps, That Sounds Cool and metaDRAMA
Adam Szymkowicz
Garrett Eisler for The Playgoer
Ian W. Hill for CollisionWorks
James Comtois for Jamespeak
Leonard Jacobs for The Clyde Fitch Report
Ludlow Lad for Off-Off Blogway (Really?!)
Mark for Mr. Excitement News
Matthew Freeman for On Theatre and Politics
Nick for Rat Sass


And possibly (possibly!) joining us from their remote locations:


Isaac Butler for Parabasis
Jaime for Surplus
Moxie the Maven
Rocco for What's Good/What Blows in NY Theatre


This event features all of the above liveblogging entries onto THIS SITE (if you can't get there live and want to see what's going on by hitting your refresh button plenty after 9.00 pm, feel free to check us out) -- and the entries will be projected onto the big Brick projection screen for the live audience to see (and we'll have a laptop or two for the live audience to join in on as well - though I suppose anyone can join in on comments.

What will happen? Anyone's guess? Will we play music? Will people embed videos? Stuff the blog with LOLCATS? Will theatre get discussed, or, god help us, actually MADE? Will Berit and others read the entries aloud into microphones as they go up on the screen? Will any of us be able to get a coherant thought out? Will there be any kind of actual dramatic arc, building to a real conclusion, or will it just peter out disappointingly?


Join us, JOIN US . . . live or at the blog, tonight at 9.00 pm!

Back to the iPod. 21,235 songs in there now. I'm taking a break from Ian W. Hill's Hamlet work for some music and music removal (I have more good stuff to go in the iPod, and almost no room, so, time to take some of the fun-but-mediocre stuff out).

Here's what comes up now:

1. "Stormy Monday Blues" - Manfred Mann - Best of the EMI Years

I had to look up who was the blues harp player for Manfred Mann listening to this. Last night, driving home from The Brick, another song from the group came up on random in the car - "5-4-3-2-1" - which featured some great crazed blowing - ah, it was Paul Jones, the vocalist. Nice work, there.

And great vocal, too. What happened to Paul Jones? Ah, he's fronting a couple of blues-rock bands now, including "The Manfreds." Good.

2. "Jump in the River" - Sinead O'Connor - I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got

One of my favorite SO'C songs. I used to play this on guitar all the time myself, and it came out sounding just like a Lou Reed song. Very simple and effective. Sharp. Wish she was doing work like this still . . .

3. "Baby, Let Me Be" - The Rutles - The Rutles

An early track from the Pre-Fab Four, Dirk, Ron, Stig, and Barry. Pretty derivative, still smelling of playing American rock and roll in Hamburg all night.

4. "Psycho" - Eddie Novack - Wavy Gravy: For Adult Enthusiasts . . .

A terrifying novelty number, obviously somewhat inspired by the classic film of the same name. I first got to know this through Elvis Costello's cover, originally just released as a single, but eventually on the Rykodisk version of Almost Blue. Costello heard the better song that was underneath this original version, which is a bit clumsy, even as its first-person account of a murderer listing his crimes to his mother and practically begging her to have him put away becomes more and more horrible (as it becomes apparent that "Mama" is in no shape to stop her son anymore), and EC did some slight rewriting to sharpen it. Costello's version, with a passionate vocal, is harrowing, but the casual off-handedness of Novack's soft C&W vocal on this original is maybe a bit more unsettling.

5. "So Free" - The Blitzz - So Free 7"

A great power-pop single from somewhere out there. Aw, man it just gets better and better. Wow. Ends with a giant chanting singalong on the title.

6. "Cruel Sister" - Pentangle - Light Flight

Oh, my. Yeah, something fulfilling my semi-embarrassing enjoyment of sweet-voiced women singing psychedelicized folk music. Yes, very lovely. Not hip. Not in the slightest. Lyrics about minstrels, and sweet ladies with yellow hair, and strumming harps, and so on. Okay, it's going on a bit. How long is this? 7:03?! Yeah, that's pushing it, even for me.

7. "Strength of Strings" - Gene Clark - Covered By This Mortal Coil

Something I got from a downloaded collection. Not too far off from the previous song, but a little more rocky, and without actual words. Kinda folk-prog. Pleasant. Thought I might get rid of it, but then it gets really good. Oh, there are some actual words eventually . . . pretty dopey ones, really, but s'okay.

I wish the Tim Buckley songs that were supposed to be in this collection had come through okay (the files didn't work).

8. "So Excited" - B.B. King - King of the Blues

Huh, at first this sounds like some kind of 60s San Francisco Blues-Rock, then B.B. starts singing. Not a bad backing sound for him, actually. Yeah, like Big Brother plus horns and B.B.'s voice and guitar. Nice, real nice.

9. "Lilian" - Puccio Roelens - Beat 600—'60s and '70s Golden Nuggets Tracks

Okay, this is maybe the kind of thing I should be dropping from the iPod. This is in the "Italian jivey movie score" genre that I like, but it just kind of ambles, sounding cool, but going nowhere, and gets boring less than halfway through its 3:14 length. I've got dozen of other tracks like this one, only better. That's it. It's gone . . .

10. "I Am Not Your Broom" - They Might Be Giants - No!

An enjoyable silly thing from their kids' album which I knew from way back when it was a tossed off video on their website:

We did a photo shoot at The Brick the other night, Berit and I, trying to get some usable images for the postcard (and elsewhere) of Ian W. Hill's Hamlet. We got a few good ones of varied kinds. We'll probably use an altered closeup of me for the card, so here's one of the other images of me as Hamlet we got:




I'm going over all the line work I did last night and discovering that, of course, I've lost about 10% of all the lines I got down last night. I have four hours to get them back. Great.

Man oh manischevitz, have I been shagged and fagged and fashed this week, as Alexander DeLarge might say.


Rehearsals on the weekend, all going well, as they have been. Sunday, a bit held back by my still being on book for an important scene (sorry, Stacia).


Monday, I had to be at The Brick at 9.00 am to let in a show for rehearsal, then stay until 2.30 pm to help another show coming in.

Then I got to go to Gyda Arber's Memorial Day BBQ for a couple of hours and eat too much meat.

Then back to The Brick from 6.20 pm to 3.30 am to work on getting the tech ready for the Pretentious Festival and have the space ready for a shoot the next day. I was going to have rehearsal Tuesday evening, but after getting home at 5.00 am I emailed the cast and told them I'd be in no shape to work (I might have been able to direct a bit, there was no way I could do anything of value as Hamlet).


Back to the space at 9.30 am Tuesday to open up and supervise the shoot, which featured Ms. Kathleen Turner. Yes, at The Brick. They had to shoot an interview with her for a tribute they're doing at some Massachusetts film festival, and a friend of a friend put this film crew from Boston in touch with us, and it wound up with Ms. Turner giving a great, funny, and candid interview on the stage of The Brick.

Meanwhile, Berit was off at Big Apple Lights getting us the last supplies we needed to finally get the house plot in The Brick set up the way we've wanted it for months. So after the film crew left, we finished the work, sat back a moment to admire it as Amanda, the lighting director for the Fest, wrote some cues for one of the shows she's designing, and then got the hell home to rest a bit.


I'm glad I took Tuesday evening off, and spent Wednesday just doing simple paper and email work at home. I got the first good night's sleep I've had in weeks, got a huge amount accomplished in production work and line-learning, and actually felt relaxed for a while.

Which helped with the line-learning. I'm now almost completely off-book for Act I, with a couple of gaps. I'm going to try to do it tonight with no book, but no matter how well I get it at home, in front of the mirror, I'll still probably lose something and call for line still tonight. Some of it comes so easily and some just won't stick. Almost there on the act. I have 4 hours or more to work this afternoon (I have to be at the space at 5.00 pm, and then have rehearsal at 7.00).


I realized, in line-learning, that Berit and I both missed something in one of my lines that messes up the timeline we worked out for the play - there's one more day in there (we both confused some lines and thought the play within the play happens the same day as when the players arrive - it's the next day). So there's an extra day as what was "July 16" gets split into two days. Oh, well, don't think it'll change anyone's intentions or anything . . .


We now have the great Karen Flood on board doing our costumes for Ian W. Hill's Hamlet, which makes me very happy. She's designed a number of Kirk Wood Bromley's shows, and I've wanted to work with her more, but I think thus far we've only done my production of Mac Wellman's Harm's Way together, back in '98, though she's supplied me with an item here and there (a VERY important bowler hat for Temptation). I wrote her some extensive notes about the show, which I'll put up shortly.

So, more soon.

I think I come on here and post videos as relaxation from all the rest of the time being spent on Ian W. Hill's Hamlet. When I get home from another rehearsal, I don't feel all that much like recapping it here, though that's supposed to be a big part of the point of this blog. There is a point where you can't say, "another good rehearsal, some problems, worked them out, got stuff done, got more to do" any more.

I know this is a big weekend for people going away, but I'm still a little stunned that no other companies in the Pretentious Festival are rehearsing in The Brick this weekend. I'd think with all these shows about to go up, starting this coming Friday, at least a couple would be able to be in town and working in the space. I can't have large cast rehearsals, as I'm down a great number of people, but I have a cast of 18! No one-person to five-person or whatever shows around? There's one rehearsal in after me tonight at 6.00 pm (a one-person show), but no one else has been in since Friday afternoon. Huh.


Yesterday we did scenes with the soldiers (Francisco, Bernardo, Marcella), Horatio, and Hamlet. Lots of talk and working things out. Difficult scene now, the opening. I cut it down severely - I might have cut it altogether, as I've now seen a couple of productions do, but for the fact that the Fortinbras material is so crucial to this production, and all of that is set up here. But the scene has all kinds of awkward in it, and my cutting, unfortunately, maybe makes a bit of it worse - I'm not sure that The Ghost has quite the feeling he should. He needs to have a bit more awe and respect around him. Now, he seems more important as merely a creepy omen that something is rotten in the state of Denmark rather than also having the impact of "Holy shit! It's a fucking ghost! And it's our dead king! And he's dressed for battle! This ain't good!"

The conversational and colloquial aspects of the scene are working beautifully. Just a scholar and some soldiers, cold as hell, sitting around chatting worriedly.

The scene where Horatio and the soldiers tell Hamlet what they've seen went well, though my own performance was off. Usually, I find it easy to direct myself - I've done it for long enough and often enough to be used to it - but Hamlet's another case. The director in me keeps telling the actor in me to hurry up when that's not always the right choice, and I don't seem to be getting scenes right unless I'm going into them from other scenes. I'll be a lot happier when we get into just doing runthrus and I can feel the whole arc. Right now, I spend the rehearsals of some scenes trying to imitate what I've done in previous rehearsals that has worked without actually filling it or expanding on it.


Did I say this before? I'll say it again. I haven't had stage fright as an actor in many years. As a director, yes, every performance of mine that goes up, sure. But as an actor, no, not in over 15 years. I'm nervous about my Hamlet. I think I'm doing the right thing, and what I want to do, but I can't shake the nervousness.


I had two dreams recently. I almost never remember my dreams but these stuck with me. One was a nightmare where as I was waking up yesterday, I completely believed that it was the opening day of the show, and we weren't any more prepared than we were yesterday. Not pleasant. I had several minutes of terror as I was positive that we had a show that night, with a sell-out house waiting, and nothing nearly like a ready show.

Another dream started nightmarishly, then took a completely opposite turn. In this dream, Jessi and I were doing the Hamlet/Ophelia scene, and right after a bit at the start of the scene, where something rather nontraditional is done, some of the large house began booing and hissing. Then a shoe was thrown at me. I dodged it and kept going. Then as I got to the "indifferent honest" bit, the same person threw their other shoe and clocked me in the head (woman's shoe, a high heel, hard and sharp, from the fourth row, house right). I stumbled and caught the shoe as it bounced off me, made eye contact with Jessi and got across between us that we were going on with the scene, and went on, angrily using the pain and twisting the shoe in my hand as part of the scene.

Here's the oddest part . . . the most "nightmarish" aspect of this dream was that I was aware that I was giving a crowd-pleasing but bad performance at this point -- that my anger and pain was causing me to overact in a way that was impressing the audience, but destroying the show. Just one note of impressive violent anger - something I can turn on very easily that blows people away but is just impressive in its awesome size rather than for anything rich or deep about it.

Then, in a part of the dream that felt . . . well, the opposite of "nightmarish," triumphant, I guess, I continued the scene, yelling the lines as I walked up the aisle and to the front door of The Brick, taking a pause in one line (I don't remember where) to exit the building, run halfway across an empty Metropolitan Avenue (only possible in a dream like this) and toss the shoes thrown at me into the vacant lot across the street, then return quickly to the stage to finish the scene, to the audible approval of the audience.

The show happened in fast-forward after this point, and the dream ended in confusion at the curtain call as I was left wondering if I had done the right thing or not in using the disruption rather than ignoring it. I was aware that the audience was cheering and applauding wildly at the end because of the extra energy the incident had put into the performance, but I was also aware that we had done a shallow, easy show that had played to that aspect of the audience, and not the deeper, richer aspects of the play we're trying to plumb. We were being rewarded for being brazen and supposedly "heroic" rather than for anything truly virtuous. I awoke disturbed and confused.


In the real world, after scene rehearsals yesterday, Christiaan Koop dropped by to have a detailed character meeting about Voltimand.

Yes, Voltimand. Interestingly, but understandably, I'm having more and longer discussions with the actors in the "smaller" roles of the show. The "main characters" all talk a lot and explain themselves and you can get where they're coming from, but everyone who stands around a lot and listens? We've been having many talks about them, what they're doing in this world, their positions, how they feel about the incidents of the show, etc. etc. They are so crucial to the feel of the world of this production (people are always around, people are always listening, people always have opinions), they've been taking up a lot of the rehearsal process. So we pretty much filled out the whole backstory of Voltimand, and what she goes through over the course of the show. Worked well.


Then Berit and I did the photo shoot for the postcard. With any luck, we'll have some images from that up here soon. We leave for The Brick shortly to rehearse scenes with Claudius, Laertes, Gertrude and Hamlet. I need to get my lines down for the closet scene a lot better. More soon.

Didn't have a chance to upload and share these shots till this morning.


Hooker was the first cat we got, in 2001. He bonded immediately with Berit, and wouldn't leave her alone - I had a day job at that point, so she was at home with him far more often.

Two years later, we got Simone, and I no longer had the day job. Moni latched onto Berit, and completely claimed her (still, she follows her around the apartment, constantly demands attention, etc.). Hooker moved his primary affections over to me.

They're both really lovey, to the point of annoyance - especially after we were gone for a month last Summer. Since we got back then, they won't leave us alone, EVER. Well, maybe for an hour here and there.

To the point of annoyance, yes, but not quite there.


Moni spends time with Berit on the couch:





Hooker wants it known that he should be more important to me than the computer:

Today, I'm here at The Brick, letting in rehearsals for The Pretentious Festival.

Right now, as I'm uncomfortably jammed behind the bar/box office, John Del Signore is rehearsing his show The Mercury Manifesto, which sounds extremely good and funny. At 2.00 pm, Cole Kazdin comes in with The Cole Kazdin Amnesia Project. Then I get to go home. In the meantime, a random 10 and then I work on my lines for Ian W. Hill's Hamlet.


So, here's 10 out of the current 21,252 in the iPod:


1. "Listen to My Heart" - The Ramones - Ramones

Sweet pop music for the kids.


2. "Il Re Dei Pagliacci" - Neil Sedaka - Rato's Nostalgia Collection 25

Sedaka sings in Italian. I'm sure this is an American single of his, it sounds familiar, but I can't place it - the lyrics (what I can make of them) don't give me a clue (lots about being a "big clown" or something, I think).

There's more and more non-English-language songs on this device, which I like.


3. "Big Chief" - Professor Longhair - Big Chief

Nawlins driving-piano-and whistling-r&b gumbo. I like, but this is from Berit's collection - she's gotten me more into music like this or Dr. John. A great swing to it.

Eventually, singing -- which is in the English language . . . kinda . . . I think. Not sure it matters.


4. "All Grown Up" - The Crystals - Phil Spector - Back to Mono (1958-1969)

I used to revere Phil Spector, and "Be My Baby" may still be my favorite recording of all time, but a lot of the rest of the Wall of Sound has less appeal for me now - and not just becuse Spector's a gun-wielding psycho.

Too many of the Spector tracks now sound sludgy and dull-edged - especially his Crystals singles, there not even being a real "Crystals" by this point - it was just a catchall name for singles sung by a group of women that Spector put out (Darlene Love sang lead on many of them; Cher is in there on a few).

Eventually this led to the horrible overdone production of Ike & Tina Turner's River Deep Mountain High album, which features great songs ruined by Spector's Wall of Noise interspersed with good songs well-produced cleanly by Ike Turner. And how's that for a duo of important and unpleasant rock and roll figures producing an album?


5. "All Cried Out" - Dusty Springfield - Dusty Volume 1

Great song, great singer, great recording.


6. "Click Clack" - Dicky Doo & The Don'ts - Back to the 50s 04

Somewhere between dopey 50s novelty record and catchy insipid 60s bubblegum. Not a bad 2:25.


7. "That You Love Me" - The Impressions - A Taste of Doo Wop Vol. 1

Smooth and lovely. Not a classic, but nothing wrong with that, or it. The backing vocals on the bridge elevate it quite a bit.


8. "Can I Go" - Roger Nichols & The Small Circle of Friends - The Complete Roger Nichols & The Small Circle of Friends

I wish I'd get a little something harder in here. The iPod has a taste for the midline pop music today. I'd like a change-up.

This is also pleasant, but on the verge of something like The Fifth Dimension or something - a little harder, but also whiter. Not quite middle-of-the-road, but almost. Just edging onto the double-yellow here and there. I could use a loud guitar or something . . .


9. "The Little March" - The Mothers of Invention - You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore vol. 5

Well, not exactly rock or guitar-based, but spiky enough to do. A Zappa instrumental, late 60s, with my favorite Mothers. Scaled-down, but similar to his orchestral work. Grand and stirring.


10. "Farewell Song" - Big Brother & The Holding Company - Live at Winterland '68

Janis works it and it's great. I usually prefer the Big Brother tracks to her other bands, and this is a good illustration of why -- she's special, and leading it, but it's still a band working together.

Her voice tears me apart.


Ah, well, off to The Brick's dressing room to quietly work on lines. Rehearsals again tomorrow and Sunday. Work to do.

Rehearsals continue for Ian W. Hill's Hamlet. All goes well. The slogging time now -- things get better, but aren't there yet; scripts are still mostly in hand; practicalities are being worked out as original concepts prove unworkable.

We've been lucky enough to be in the space a couple of times recently, and we'll have a couple more chances to do so before tech. As we work in the actual space, we are freed in certain ways, and become aware of what we can use, and also fall into bad actorial habits that need to be struck down quickly -- everyone starts projecting properly, good, but with that at first is an accompanying quality of overemoting, bad, and I have to bring back the conversational tone I've been working towards here.

My original concept and image for the finale of the show, a very important one, was impractical and had to be modified. The original involved the dragging of dead bodies from all over the place to center upstage, but as it turns out it will take way too long and be way too difficult to get done in any reasonable amount of time with any reasonable efficiency, so I had to fix it and go another, acceptable way. It won't be as effective in certain ways as I'd hoped (especially, I fear, for the back row, who will have too much of a view of something I'd rather they don't), but I'd rather go with an almost totally successful compromised image rather than a completely failed attempt at a perfect image.


In those times when people have mostly been off book and everything has been smooth, I am quite happy. The work lives, it has reason and purpose.


Other times I despair and wonder why the hell I'm doing this at all. Is it still, despite my desire to do all I can to make this play a living, breathing, relevant dramatic work, an old chestnut, and who gives a shit?

But then, there's almost never been a show I've directed where I didn't just want to walk away from it at right about this part of the rehearsal process.


I've been simultaneously reading two books specifically about 1960s productions of Hamlet -- William Shakespeare's "Naked" Hamlet - A Production Handbook by Joseph Papp, Assisted by Ted Cornell, on Papp's 1968 production (with Martin Sheen as the Prince), loaned to me quite some time ago by David Finkelstein; and, Richard L. Sterne's John Gielgud Directs Richard Burton in Hamlet: A Journal of Rehearsals, an edited transcript of the tape recordings made by Sterne (secretly) of the rehearsal process for the 1964 production - this book a gift from Christiaan Koop, Voltimand in my production. I probably would have hated each of these productions - well, I saw the video of the Gielgud/Burton and it was indeed laughable, but it was an inferior video of a live stage performance, and not fair to judge - but the books are quite valuable for insight, either in support of some of my thoughts, or as something to react against (as were books by Charles Marowitz and Steven Berkoff). I needed a bit of this today.


Pleasant interview today for The Brooklyn Rail about the Festival and the show. Went well, I think. Pretty low-key.


Today was mostly a day off, the only day for quite a few before and after where I did not have anything I absolutely HAD to do, so I didn't.

Back to it tomorrow.

When do the events of Hamlet occur in relation to each other? The play itself is often either self-contradictory or open to interpretation.

With cutting and deciding, you can come up with a timeline that works for your production. Maybe it's not necessary, but laying it all out makes you think about things that can seriously effect character and performance -- how long is Hamlet acting mad around Elsinore between the Ghost's visit and when he spooks Ophelia in her room? Has he seen Ophelia at all during that time? And so forth. What time of year is it? It seems to be really cold after midnight, but that's a good deal of the year in Scandinavia. Sunrise also appears to be happening about 10 minutes after midnight, so it must be Summer in Denmark (yes, I'm being facetious).

Because certain periods are open to interpretation -- Hamlet says his mother married Claudius less than two months after his father's death, but how long has it been since that marriage? -- you can choose what works for you and your production.

I decided, not entirely arbitrarily, to start the major events of the year the play takes place in (which, being a "20th-Century American" Hamlet, we have been calling "19XX") on the last day of Winter and end the play on the first day of Autumn. The play mostly takes place on four days during that period. Four very bad days, one in May, one in July, two in September. The first of which, I just realized, corresponds with today (I used 2007 as a model, datewise).


Berit and I hashed out this as the timeline for our production:


30 YEARS PRIOR TO THE YEAR OF THE PLAY (Y.O.P)

Prince Hamlet born to King Hamlet and Queen Gertrude

King Hamlet wins lands for Denmark in war with Old Fortinbras of Norway

New gravedigger and sexton appointed


23 YEARS PRIOR TO Y.O.P.

Yorick, the King's jester, dies


Tuesday, March 20, Y.O.P. (19XX)

King Hamlet dies suddenly in his garden, approximately 3.00 pm


Monday, March 26

Hamlet arrives in Elsinore from Wittenberg


Thursday, March 30

Horatio and Laertes (separately) arrive at Elsinore for Old Hamlet's funeral. Horatio is unable to see or speak with Hamlet for over 7 weeks as the Prince is secluded, mourning (or busy with "royal" business) - Horatio stays and keeps an ear to the ground, learning a bit of what is going on between Denmark/Norway (possibly he also does some visiting in his home country, sees his folks, whatever)


Friday, March 31

Funeral of Old Hamlet, followed by a week of mourning


Sunday, May 6

Queen Gertrude marries Claudius, who is also crowned King


Saturday, May 19

midnight - Ghost of Old Hamlet appears on battlements of Elsinore to Bernardo and Marcella for the first time


Monday, May 21 - THE PLAY BEGINS

midnight - Ghost of Old Hamlet appears on battlements to Bernardo, Marcella, and Horatio

11.00 am - public meeting, Claudius speaks to assembled, sends Voltimand to Norway, names Prince Hamlet his successor, "requests" that the Prince remain at Elsinore; Hamlet meets with Horatio, Bernardo, and Marcella, learns of Ghost, agrees to meet them that night

2.00 pm - Laertes leaves for France, Polonius tells Ophelia to stay away from Hamlet


Tuesday, May 22

midnight - King wakes and takes his rouse; Hamlet sees the Ghost of his father, is told his father was murdered by his uncle, has Horatio and Marcella swear not to tell anyone about the Ghost or say they know he's pretending to be mad


May 22 - July 15, 19XX (OFFSTAGE)

Hamlet acts increasingly odd around Elsinore, avoids seeing Ophelia, begins to worry everyone. At some point he tells Horatio what the Ghost said to him. The King and Queen send for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Hamlet's friends, to see if they can help.


Monday, July 16

10.00 am - Hamlet spooks Ophelia in her room

10.30 am - Polonius sends Reynaldo to spy on Laertes in France; Ophelia tells Polonius about Hamlet's visit

10.45 am - Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are welcomed by the King and Queen; Voltimand brings news from Norway; Polonius explains Hamlet's madness to Gertrude and Claudius, speaks to Hamlet alone; R&G meet with Hamlet, players arrive, Hamlet concocts plan re: play.


Tuesday, July 17

1.00 pm - Polonius and Claudius listen as Hamlet meets with Ophelia, abuses her - Claudius decides to send Hamlet to England, Polonius somewhat agrees, but wants to test Hamlet further.

7.45 pm - Hamlet lectures players about theatre, gets ready for the play, instructs Horatio to watch Claudius; King, Queen, et al. enter for play, Hamlet is unpleasant to Ophelia; play occurs, Hamlet as chorus, King insulted, leaves; R&G bring word that Gertrude wants to see Hamlet privately, then Polonius does the same, Hamlet leaves; Claudius dispatches R&G to take Hamlet to England as soon as possible, sends them away, is disturbed and prays, Hamlet watches, decides not to kill him, leaves.

8.30 pm - Hamlet visits Gertrude, abuses her, kills the hidden Polonius, sees his father's Ghost, drags off Polonius; Gertrude tells Claudius what has happened, he sends R&G to find Hamlet and the body.

9.00 pm - R&G catch up with Hamlet, bring him to Claudius, Claudius sends Hamlet to England.


Wednesday, July 18

just after dawn - Hamlet sees Fortinbras' troops crossing Denmark to Poland, speaks with Fortinbras' captain, leaves Denmark for England with R&G


sometime in late July to mid-September, 19XX (OFFSTAGE)

Laertes receives word of his father's death, goes on several day bender, begins to gather friends and other family allies for return to Elsinore

Hamlet's ship attacked by pirates, he is taken aboard their ship, makes his way, through them and other means, back to Denmark

Ophelia descends into madness

Denmark descends into chaos - Claudius and Voltimand unable to fully handle things with Polonius gone

Fortinbras conquers part of Poland and begins heading back towards Denmark


Tuesday, September 18

2.00 pm - Ophelia comes to the Queen, mad; Laertes arrives, is calmed down by Claudius; Horatio, Claudius and Gertrude receive letters from Hamlet saying he is nearby, Horatio leaves to join Hamlet; Claudius and Laertes concoct ridiculously and fatally (for them) complicated plan to kill Hamlet; Ophelia drowns herself.


Sunday, September 23

3.00 pm - Hamlet and Horatio come to Elsinore (via the graveyard), Hamlet disrupts Ophelia's funeral.

dusk - Horatio learns of Hamlet's sending R&G to their deaths; Osric tells them of the challenge from Laertes and the King's wager; the match occurs, death everywhere -- Gertrude, Laertes, Claudius, Hamlet all die (as well as others)

nightfall - Fortinbras enters Elsinore. The play ends.


I may go back and futz with this a bit, but I think this is how we'll be assuming it works. UPDATED 5/31/07 - There was an extra day in there we missed . . .