An unconventional staging features five different actors playing the title role at Pioneer on Feb. 6, 7 & 8
Hamlet may be the most produced play of all time, but Pioneer High School students think their February production will be different than anything most audiences have experienced.
“I decided to cast five different performers for the role of Hamlet, partly for logistical reasons,” director Quinn Strassel explains. “It takes the pressure off one kid and gives more opportunities for others. But it’s been amazing to see how the five kids we cast each bring something so unique and add so many new meanings–I learn something new about Hamlet every day in rehearsal.”
“I”ll be for real, I didn’t think I’d ever do acting or Shakespeare,” says Pioneer junior Masimba Chikosi, who plays one of the Hamlets and delivers the famous “To be, or not to be” soliloquy. “When my teachers heard there was going to be poetry and hip hop in the show, which I love, they told me I had to audition.”
Chikosi joins Jack Corbett, Nika Lipin, Lalena Stevens, and Randy Vince in playing the tragically fated Prince of Denmark, who famously processes thoughts of murder, revenge, and existential despair in soliloquies (monologues featuring a character’s inner thoughts) after learning his father has been killed and that his mother has quickly married the murderer.
Each of the five students playing Hamlet weaves in and out of scenes throughout the show, creating a combined character they hope helps people of all backgrounds to see themselves in the protagonist.
“Being queer, I never felt like I fit in,” says Nika Lipin, a Pioneer sophomore also playing Hamlet. “I can relate to the idea of just wanting to escape. But theatre has helped me build confidence and find my community. In my portrayal, I want people not to be afraid to be themselves.”
In addition to the unconventional casting, Strassel has also decided to place the action in a modern setting, allowing the show’s famous “play-within-the-play” to feature original hip-hop lyrics written by students while a separate rock band (made of Hamlet’s friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern) opens the show with a live cover of a Radiohead song.
“The fact that we’re incorporating a modern context and even got some hip-hop in it, I just hope it opens up Shakespeare to people who would never go out of their way to see it or hear it,” says Chikosi. “It feels great because it feels like we’re bringing ourselves and modern culture to these words.”
Strassel says it’s important to him that the show feels accessible to all audience members.
“I think a lot of people think they hate Shakespeare because they’ve seen bad productions where they don’t know what’s going on. I’m working hard to remove any preciousness and even including occasional breaks for plot description so the audience can enjoy the poetry without getting distracted by confusion.”
Still, he hopes Shakespeare nerds love the show just as much.
“If you’re a Shakespeare enthusiast, my goal is that you love our production because we allow the words to speak for themselves even while we add all these new layers,” Strassel says.
“It’s like Hamlet says in Act Three – ’The Play’s the Thing,’ If we put together an entertaining show, people will love it no matter what.”
Performance dates:
Friday, February 6th, 7 p.m.
Saturday, February 7th, 2 p.m.
Saturday, February 7th, 7 p.m.
Sunday, February 8th, 2 p.m.
Performances are in Pioneer High School’s Little Theater, 601 W. Stadium Blvd, Ann Arbor.
Reserved seating tickets on sale now: www.cur8.com/projects/ptg
Tickets: $15 (Adults) and $10 (Students, 65+ Seniors)
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