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I Hate Hamlet comes to town |
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Thursday, 15 May 2008 |
Onstage with play's director Shira Dubrovner
By Stacey Powells
Mammoth Times Staff Writer
 With opening night looming, “I Hate Hamlet” director Shira Dubrovner helps actors David Kubicka and Shanda Duro be the best they can be.PHOTO COURTESY OF GREG YOUNG
“It’s a show I’ve wanted to direct for a very long time but because he’s a working writer, it's been on restriction,” Dubrovner said. “Sometimes working writers put their work on restriction in big cities, depending on what is happening with the project.” But Mammoth Lakes isn’t Los Angeles and Shira got her wish.
Even though the show was written in the contemporary vein, Dubrovner acquired a severe case of “flashback.” The version of I Hate Hamlet that will premier at the Mammoth Lakes Art Center will be rich in '70s attitudes and raiment. “It’s been a lot of fun bringing polyester back,” Dubrovner said.
The play is about a young actor, Andrew Rally (played by David Kubicka). His television show in Los Angeles gets canceled so in order to give himself validity as an actor, he moves to New York and tries to do Shakespeare. The apartment he rents was once occupied by the old-time actor John Barrymore. Andrew's friends and business associates want him to succeed so they decide to do a séance to bring John Barrymore back to teach him how to play Shakespeare. Mammoth local thespian Chuck Scatolini plays John Barrymore. “Chuck is doing an amazing job,” Dubrovner said. “He has taken this role and has sunk his teeth into it. It’s the best work he’s done up here so far,” Dubrovner said.
In addition to the roles previously mentioned, Shanda Duro plays Andrew's girlfriend Dierdre. Stacy Coreless is playing is Real Estate agent Felicia Dantine and Lisa Gill is playing Lillian, Andrew's German-born theatrical agent. And last but not least, Ted Carleton is Gary the sleazy Los Angeles producer.
“The set, built by Tim Casey, is almost a character in itself. “It really is amazing,” Dubrovner said. “It's supposed to be this huge, Jacobean medieval apartment in a Brownstone in New York. Hopefully we’ve achieved that.”
“I Hate Hamlet” is the fourth play Dubrovner has directed since the Mammoth Lakes Art Center started producing shows in June of 2007. Tickets: (760) 934-1900, mammothlakesartscenter.org.
SIDE BAR-- BOX
This production will kick off the Theater for Young Audiences Program. Dubrovner has contacted the high schools in Mono and Inyo counties, giving the students a special deal to see the play. She has also sent the schools the Educators Resource Guide (ERG), which follows the California Content Standards, set by the California Department of Education. The ERG is a pamphlet that has different educational tie-ins for the show they will be seeing. There are reading lists, information about the characters, historical tie-ins with Shakespeare’s world and a glossary that helps students to understand words they will hear in the show.
In November the Theater for Young Audiences Program will permanently be up and running in both Mono and Inyo counties. It will start with Priscilla’s Perfect Day, a play geared toward the elementary school crowd about an 11-year-old girl who is an artist. She and her family go to Maine on vacation and after a storm hits the state, she turns the negative into the positive with magic crayons she finds in the closet. She learns how optimism conquers all in the end. “We’ve taken an already existing program that has worked in other cities around the country,” Dubrovner said. “We are probably the first rural community to take this on and we are very excited about the program.”
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 22 May 2008 )
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