HAMLET ON THE RUN Comes to The Tank Theater in August

FFP will present a one-hour version of William Shakespeare's tragic play Hamlet, Prince of Denmark re-titled Hamlet on the Run adapted by Frank Farrell, Mitch Webb and Thomas J. Donohoe II for four performances at 7pm, Thursday through Sunday, August 22 – 25, 2024 at the Tank Theater, 312 W 36th St, New York, NY 10018. (212) 563-6269. Tickets are $15 and available at https://thetanknyc.org.

“It's the play we all know but shorter,” said someone after seeing it back in 1982 in Chicago.

“I am enjoying it,” shared the play's director Thomas J. Donohoe II. “People see Shakespeare as very distant without having done a lot of research. I hope this version shows it can be fun and accessible for the audience. The acting and editing of the script bring clarity to the story. We are also doing it in the round and with very little rehearsal, which is hard on the one hand, but also exciting because that is what it must have been like when these plays were performed originally. This audience is part of the action in every scene.”

Directed by Thomas J. Donohoe II, Fight/Intimacy Director is Scarlet Yousif, Costumes and Props by Beatriz Estaban, Sound Design by Thomas J. Donohoe II and the production's Stage Manager is Kate Parker Lentz.  The cast includes Mei Melenovsky as Hamlet and Lucianus, Maxwell Bank as Claudius, Sophia Carlin as Gertrude, Bradley Nowacek as Horatio and Ophelia, Clarrissa Hernandez as Laertes, Rosencrantz and Player Queen, David Silberger as Polonius, Gravedigger and Osric and Michael Katz as Ghost, Guildenstern, Player King and other roles.

First produced in 1982 in Chicago by the Free Shakespeare Theatre Company, Chicago's first year-round Shakespeare company, this play was part of a production called Shakespeare on the Spot. Richard Christiansen from the Chicago Tribune wrote, “Hamlet of the Run, the best of the trio, has some choice comic moments.”

Biographies

THOMAS J. DONOHOE II (Director, Sound Designer and Adaptor) is a NJ/NYC-based stage manager and graduate of Ramapo College of New Jersey with a degree in Directing/Stage Management. Select credits include New Studio on Broadway: Bright Star (PSM) An Experiment. (PSM), Once More, an original musical (PSM), First Flight Theatre Co: Little Women (PSM/Sound Design), Frigid At Under St. Marks: Ladies at Tea & Shakespeare's Deaths (PSM/Light & Sound Design), Mina (Light/Sound Design & Operator), Wild Project: Walt Kelly's Songs of the Pogo (Lights/Sound), Columbia University: Broken Apreggio (PSM), The Tank NYC: 20th Anniversary Gala (PSM), 43 Stages of Grieving (PSM), Use Your Words! (PSM), Outlook: Not So Good (PSM/Lighting), Montclair Studio Players: Miracle on 34th Street (PSM/TD), Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Lights/Sound Design), Charles Seller Foundation: The Addams Family (PSM/Sound Design), Wolfsmouth Players: Effigy (ASM/Tech), A Very Great Mischief (Tech), Acting Under the Influence: Julius Caesar (Director), Twelfth Night (PSM), Ramapo College: Stop/Kiss (PSM), Baltimore (PSM), The Big Unknown 1.5° (PSM), A Midsummer Night's Dream (ASM), Antigone (ASM), The Sonic Life of a Giant Tortoise (ASM). Nutley Little Theatre: A Christmas Carol (Sound Design), Hand to God (TD), Tin Cat Shoes (PSM), [Title of Show] (Tech), The Musical of Musicals! (the musical) (Tech), Regrets Only (Tech). In 2020, he won the KCACTF Region 2 National Award for Stage Management Excellence. Contact at tdonohoe05@gmail.com. Thanks to Frank for the opportunity, Kate for being awesome, Meghan and Pete for their support, B for all the invaluable help, and certain others for just being here. You know who you are. 

William Shakespeare (Playwright) (April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "the Bard"). His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three long narrative poems and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Shakespeare remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted.  

SCARLET YOUSIF (Fight/Intimacy Director) (She/Her) is an Arab-American Intimacy and Violence designer, and holds the rank of Advanced Actor/Combatant with the Society of American Fight Directors; she acts as primary instructor for the Lionheart Academy of Theatrical Violence, where, inspired by her training with the Historical African Martial Arts Association, Scarlet works to decolonize theatrical standards in storytelling and stage combat, incorporating martial styles and movement disciplines from her cultural homeland of Southwest Asia & North Africa. She makes her home in Brooklyn with enough cats and swords to re-enact Deathtrap, and couldn't be more excited to help Hamlet start running through his feelings as he navigates a complicated situation at home. Stay up to date by following @Lionheart_Academy_NYC on Instagram, or reach out directly by emailing her at LionheartAcademmyCombat@Gmail.Com

BEATRIZ ESTEBAN-MESSINA (Props/Costumes) is happy to work with David and Thomas once again.  Since retiring in 2011, she has worked on over 100 shows both on and off stage. In 2018, she received an NJACT Perry Award for direction of an original play, Pets & Their Humans. She has also been nominated for “best featured actress” in Moon Over Buffalo & To Kill a Mockingbird, and for directing 'Night Mother.  Beatriz is president of Teaneck New Theatre, a board member with Nutley Little Theatre, and Hudson Theatre Works where she runs the Children's Stage Project.

MEI MELENOVSKY (Hamlet/Lucianus) is a Chinese-American multi-hyphenate artist based in New York City. They are currently earning a BFA in Drama at NYU Tisch School of the Arts where they trained at the Lee Strasberg Theater & Film Institute, the Experimental Theater Wing, and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Their most recent roles include Soothsayer/ Calpurnia in Julius Caesar (RADA, directed by Abigail Graham), and Alex in One More Weekend (an independent feature film directed by Jack Diaz). Mei is passionate about generating new work across different mediums, whether it be through acting, music, movement, or writing. They are energized by projects that aim to uplift marginalized stories, interrogate oppressive structures and represent multi-ethnic people in popular media. They are endlessly grateful to their friends, collaborators, instructors, and Jack for cheering them on and building the artist they are today. Contact information and more can be found at meimelenovsky.com.  

MAX BANK (Claudius) is a New York City born, raised, and based actor and writer and his wife has been trying to teach him ballet with limited success. Recent theater credits include: Juror Eight in Twelve Angry Men (City Gate Productions), Max in Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) (Hudson Classical Theater Company), Lysander and Oberon/Theseus in two different productions of A Midsummer Night's Dream (Parkside Players and Shakespeare After Dark). On camera, he played Chase in "Le Parrot," which premiered at this year's Tribeca Film Festival, and Brett in "the Biting Tree," which won Best Horror Short at the New York Short Film Festival. He co-hosts Cage Match, one of New York City's longest running improv shows, at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre every Thursday at 10pm. He was Time's Person of the Year 2006 but doesn't make a big deal out of it. Find him online at maxwellbank.net and @thatmaxperson on Instagram.  

SOPHIA CARLIN (Gertrude/Fight Captain) (she/they) is a theatre artist dedicated to highlighting unheard voices through new works and adaptations. She works as an actor, director, producer, deviser, puppeteer, teaching artist, and designer in both NYC and their native Chicago. She serves as the Creative Director for Hamlet Isn't Dead (HID), having directed multiple productions for them over the last 7 years. Upon graduating from Pace University's BA Acting program in 2020, Carlin has been fortunate enough to work with some incredible collaborators such as Bated Breath Theatre Co., The Secret Theatre, SOOP Theatre, One House Productions, Imaginarium Co., The Shadow Box Theatre Collective, along with others. They have been a longtime Host for the Drama Desk nominated entertainment experience, The Ride LLC. She made her film debut as "Shari" in Netflix's holiday movie, The Noel Diary. Follow their journey at sophiacarlin.com. Love always to Francis!  

BRADLEY NOWACEK (Horatio/Ophelia) is originally from Milwaukee, WI, where he was a youth actor, cellist, and occasional mathlete. Favorite roles include Usher/Understanding (Everybody, Milwaukee Rep), Fester (The Addams Family, Yale), Touchstone (As You Like It, First Stage) and M (Lungs, The Grange Theatre). In 2023, he received a BA from Yale, and now lives in Manhattan with his two roommates and his cello, Roger. www.bradleynowacek.com   

CLARISSA HERNANDEZ (Laertes & Others) (she/they) is a Mexican-American actor, improviser and stage combatant. They've studied at the Upright Citizens Brigade, HB Studio, MN Acting Studio and New York Combat for Stage and Screen. Catch their content on Instagram at @explainsittall.

DAVID SILBERGER (Polonius & Others) has been a member of 4 Theater Companies, The Practical Theater in Chicago, Toon Theater and Manhattan Repertory Theater in NYC and The Hudson Theater Ensemble in Hoboken. He has been performing at Renaissance Festivals across the country, for way too many years, as Half Wit Henry in The Sturdy Beggars Mud Show. 

Michael Katz (Ghost & Others) is an actor, writer, and director originally from Pittsburgh.  He grew up in South Jersey where he worked as a police officer and detective.  Upon retiring from the force he got into acting after a chance encounter with William Shatner, who told him he should be an actor! Michael has appeared on television in the following: Most Terrifying Places (Travel Channel), Icons that Built America (History Channel) and several re-enactment shows on the ID network and Oxygen channel.  He just finished production on his first short film that he wrote, directed and starred in. Michael has been cast in numerous short films, and he has just completed a role in his first feature film. He has also recently filmed some commercials as well as being featured in a PSA for people with PTSD.  

Mitch Webb (Adaptor) was a member of the Free Shakespeare Theatre Company in Chicago played Claudius in their production of Hamlet on the Run in 1982. He was a co-adaptor for the company's production of There Was a Naughty Boy, a play about the poet John Keats. He appeared as Dog Hamma on Broadway in 1989 in Orpheus Descending with Vanessa Redgrave and Kevin Anderson. We lost Mitch to AIDS in 1991.

 

Frank Farrell (Producer and Adaptor) most recently produced and directed Walt Kelly's Songs of the Pogo in April as part of the New York City Fringe Festival at the Wild Project Theatre in NYC. Last summer he directed First Flight Theatre Company's production of Shakespeare's Ladies at Tea and Shakespeare's Deaths as part of the Little Shakespeare Festival at the Under St. Marks Theater in NYC. He was an actor in Chicago for 40 years receiving four Joseph Jefferson acting nominations and in 2016 returned to the city where he was born. While in Chicago he directed and produced plays for the Free Shakespeare Theatre Company, Temporary Theatre, Shakespeare's Herd, Steppenwolf Theater, Raven Theatre, Equity Library Theater Chicago, the North Lakeside Players and Theatre-Hikes. Frank has formed six theater companies along the way including the Free Shakespeare Theatre Company (Chicago's first year-round Shakespeare company) and Theatre-Hikes. In Grand Haven, Michigan, he formed the Pigeon Creek Shakespeare Company. In 2019 in NYC he wrote, directed and produced Forgotten Soldiers from Our Forgotten War for the First Flight Theatre Company, the seventh theatre group he formed. For First Flight he also coordinated several stage readings of Maxwell Anderson's plays in New York City, New Jersey and Chicago. In 2022 Frank directed and produced a production of Maxwell Anderson's play Valley Forge and in 2023 & 2024 he directed productions of Little Women for, both for First Flight at The Hermitage Mansion in Bergen County, New Jersey. His Zoom film In the Garden of Live Flowers won Best Biopic at the Green Academy Awards Film Festival in 2023. He has published three plays by Maxwell Anderson and Laurence Stallings, What Price Glory, First Flight and The Buccaneer and his stage adaptation of Little Women, all available at Amazon.com. 

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