HAMLET Comes To Galapagos Art Space In Brooklyn 10/22, 10/29, Grace Exhibit Space 11/13, 11/14
By: Gabrielle Sierra Oct. 21, 2009
Shakespeare's classic tale in a way you've never seen it presented.
Recently returned from assisting on the Rufus Wainwright project Prima Donna at the Manchester International Festival, Sanaz Ghajarrahimi brings audiences her inspired and twisted interpretation of this legendary Prince. Her fearless young cast is thrown into a rotten kingdom of vaudevillian spectacle featuring dance, acrobatics, bold design, and a heart-pounding score with original music by Adam Cochran and Jo Lampert while holding true to the Bard's pentameter.
Ghajarrahimi describes her adaptation as "a production that pushes the limits of what we call/consider performance in order to create a multi-sensory and multi-media communal celebration that attacks the senses physically, emotional, and intellectually." Ghajarrahimi aims to reach her aspirations for her adaptation through vibrant theatricality and visceral performance style, and carefully stripping away the text to its bare essentials. A significant portion of the story unfolds through innovative choreography, a heart-pumping original score, and aggressive physical spectacle.
Ghajarrahimi's daring adaptation will play a limited run of five performances throughout October and November in the alternative spaces of Brooklyn's Galapagos Art Space and the Grace Exhibition Space.
Performances are:
Galapagos Art Space:
16 Main Street-DUMBO-Brooklyn
October 22nd at 8pm
October 29th at 10pm
Grace Exhibition Space:
840 Broadway, 2nd floor, Brooklyn
November 13th at 8pm
November 14th at 2pm & 8pm
www.grace-exhibition-space.com
Tickets are available at www.SmartTix.coM. Prices are $15.00 and $10.00 for students with a valid Student ID.
The production's creative team boasts the talents of director Sanaz Ghajarrahimi (Romeo and Juliet, The Trip, Jet of Blood), lighting designer John Robichau, costume designer David Mendizabal (Broadway '09 revival of Hair, Broadway Bares 19.0: Click it!), projections designers Kate Freer and Dave Tennant, composers Jo Lampert and Adam Cochran and sound producer Ethan Heins.
The cast of triple threats is led by Vincent Santvoord as Hamlet, Ani Niemann as Ophelia and Jessica Almasy as Gertrude and supported by Adam Cochran, Fernando Contreras, Matthew Gehring, Ben Hobbs, Jo Lampert, Andrew Leibel, Ben Lifshitz, Mark Linberg and Soren Stockman.
Sanaz Ghajarrahimi (Director/Conceiver) is a New York based director, choreographer, and sound designer. Recent directing credits: Ears a new play by Daniel R. Wood, The Trip devised with Busted Muffin Productions for MediaLounge, Romeo and Juliet at the Access Theater, Melancholy Play by Sarah Ruhl, Sideshow by Miguel Pinero, and Jet of Blood by Antonin Artaud. Recent Assistant Credits: Prima Donna by Rufus Wainwright, directed by Daniel Kramer at the Manchester International Festival, Map of the World directed by Bob Moss at New York University, and Savage Love directed by Justin Ball at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2007. Her work has also been seen in the critically acclaimed Theatre Mitu production of Death of a Salesman and in the 2008 Fringe NYC hit Tune Up, Faulty Piston. Other credits include writing for and performing in Political Subversities by Liz Swados at the Culture Project. Sanaz is a graduate of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and Founder/Artistic Director of Busted Muffin Productions.
Adam Cochran (Co-Composer/Horatio) is an actor/writer/musician and NYU graduate. He is a proud member of Theater Mitu (www.theatermitu.com) with whom he's appeared in DR.C (or How I Learned to Act in Eight Steps), The Apostle Project, Canticle, Hair and the upcoming production of Medea. Outside of Mitu, he's most recently appeared in The Prometheans (The Rotunda, Philidelphia), Romeo & Juliet (Access Theater), Pageant (Stoneham Theatre, Boston) and the web series Showbizzle.com. He is also a founding member of One Night Stand: An Improvised Musical, with whom he sold out two summers in a row at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Highlights at NYU include Peter, Flashlights & Knives, Polaroid Stories and serving as both the guitarist and music director of Hedwig & The Angry Inch. He is also an emerging songwriter/recording artist, currently in the throes of developing a rock-cabaret persona named Minq Vaadka and is wrapping up Minq's first album, The Plastic Masquerade. (www.minqvaadka.com)
Jo Lampert (Co-Composer/Ensemble) graduated from Tisch at NYU in 2007 as a director and sound designer. Since then, she is most commonly seen in The Public Theater administrative offices where she works as the Artist Relations Associate for Joe's Pub and on the Joe's Pub stage where she recently appeared as the goddess Aphrodite in an original musical entitled The Daughters and in The Last Goodbye, where she played the role of Mercutio set to the musical majesty of Jeff Buckley.
David Mendizabal (Costume Designer) is a graduate of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and Playwrights Horizons Theatre School. Costume design credits: Broadway Bares 19.0: Click It! "Google Me, Baby" (co-design), Broadway Bares 18: Wonderland "My Favorite Dish" (co-design), Man of La Mancha (Duo Theatre), Bonfire Night-A New Musical (NYU) Assistant costume design credits: Tony-winning HAIR revival (Asst. to Designer, and proud maker of Claude's beads), Taking Over (Public), Hunting and Gathering (Primary Stages), Ohio State Murders (TFANA), The Misanthrope (NYTW). Directing credits: The Gate, Polaroid Stories, Fur, Inside the Belly of the Beast. He is the Artistic Director of The Movement Theatre Company (TMTC), dedicated to creating and supporting diverse representations of artists of color in the arts and media. themovementtheatrecompany.org
Vincent Van Santvoord (Hamlet) began his training at Laguardia High School and continues to study theater/drama at NYU. He is also an actor/writer/cofounder of MicroShorts. See them on the web at https://www.youtube.com/user/TheMicroShortsTeam. They're short shorts, of the funny and strange variety. DVD release pending.
Jessica Almasy (Gertrude) is an actress, writer, teacher, and a Tisch alumna (BFA, '02).
Film credits include Unconscious with Peter Friedman and Noise with Tim Robbins, dir. Henry Bean. Television: Law and Order: SVU. NYC stage credits include: Ariel in Aquila's The Tempest at the Clark Theatre, Lincoln Center; Mankynde in Mankynde at the Soho Playhouse (2004 Fringe Festival). A founding member of the TEAM, she has devised numerous roles. At the 2005 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, for her work on Give Up! Start Over! and A Thousand Natural Shocks, she was nominated for the Jack Tinker Spirit of the Fringe Award. Jessica can be heard as the voice of precocious female protagonists in novels by Brett Easton Ellis and Jodi Picoult, the Marla Mason series and more. For her work on Clementine she received the Golden Earphones Award and an Audie Award [2008/Los Angeles]. She is an active alumna of Mount Saint Mary Academy, Watchung, NJ, where she served as Director of the Drama Department and is now a visiting artist. Jessica has taught literacy skills to readers of all ages throughout the tri-state area. She now joins the PHTS faculty teaching Acting: Second Year.
Ani Niemann (Ophelia) Credits include Dance Dance Revolution (Ohio Theatre); Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, Anything Goes (Williamstown); Hell House (St. Ann's Warehouse), underground (David Dorfman Dance - BAM); A Midsummer Night's Dream (Lake George Theater Lab); Peter Pan, Thoroughly Modern Millie (Merry-Go-Round Playhouse); NYU's Reality Show (dir. Liz Swados; MSG, Skirball Center); Hamlet, Pericles (NYU's Classical Studio). Ani is a recent graduate of NYU where she pursued her own choreography in addition to her theatre training. www.theglasscompany.org
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