Interview: Meet the Cast and Crew of Southern Winds Theatre's WOMEN PLAYING HAMLET
By: Danielle Ashley Sep. 17, 2015
Last weekend, Southern Winds Theatre presented the Central Florida Premiere of WOMEN PLAYING HAMLET by William Missouri Downs, directed by David McElroy.
WOMEN PLAYING HAMLET has an all-female cast. In his day all Shakespeare's characters were played by men, in Mr. Downs play four women play 19 parts, including male characters.
This funny, thought provoking new work follows a quirky actress who struggles with being cast in the classic role of Hamlet. Many women have played Hamlet from Judi Dench to Dame Judith Anderson. The character of Jessica auditions for Ophelia but ends up playing the famous Danish Prince - Hamlet - and comedy ensues!
The play features Chloe McElroy as Jessica, a University of Central Florida (UCF) Theatre major, along with Danielle Miller as Actress 2 another UCF Theatre major. Marylin McGinnis is Actress 1 and rounding out the cast Courtney Bahr as Actress 3. Southern Winds Theatre's stage manager is Catherine Klemke, a senior at UCF, majoring in stage management.
Before opening night, I got a chance to sit down with the cast, stage manager, and director of WOMEN PLAYING HAMLET. Take a look!
Can you give me a brief summary of the play?
David McElroy: The play is basically about a young woman [Jessica] who is cast as Hamlet and the play parallels, to a degree, HAMLET. There's plotting: Gwen plots against [Jessica] to get her back on THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS, she meets a gravedigger, she is surrounded by people who are not always honest with her, Rosie and Gilda are manipulated to come to try to get [Jessica] back to THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS, basically paralleling HAMLET, but it's a contemporary comedy. It used a lot of HAMLET references; everybody in the play knows about HAMLET, and they all talk about HAMLET, which is kind of interesting. Anybody else want to fill in on that?
Chloe McElroy: Yeah, in addition to that, her mom marries her uncle basically two days after her dad dies, which I thought was kind of funny because that is exactly how it is in HAMLET. And it seems like almost every single person she runs into during the play has an MFA in Acting, and all of them keep telling her she's too young to play Hamlet.
Marylin McGinnis: And the playwright also has an MFA in Playwriting and Acting! And I have a feeling everyone he ran into had an MFA in that, which is possibly how he put that in there. I'm dying to ask him that!
What has the rehearsal process been like, especially for those of you who are still in college?
Catherine Bahr: I've had a lot of fun! It's been a challenge balancing this and school, but this isn't the first time I've worked on this and class as well. I've had a lot of experience being a one-woman stage management team and having to run multiple things at once, like working with projections and sound on top of taking care of blocking and tracking and costumes and props. So I feel like my previous experiences really helped me and made this show easier.
Danielle Miller: Same thing for me as well. But it's been nice because rehearsals started before school started so I got into this rhythm and then I had to take on school. So school was more of the challenge rather than this. I knew what I was going to be doing from 6:30-10 p.m. every night, but during the day I was like "Ooh, what am I doing with this?" So, it's been backwards since it's usually the other way around, but it was really good. I mean, being able to go on the first day of school and say, "Hey guys, come see my show!" when they hadn't even been cast yet in the school season was cool!
Chloe: I've been doing this, a full-time job that's 40 hours a week, and school! So, I've learned the art of cat napping. And you know, getting your homework done after you come home from rehearsal at 10 p.m. and waking up 7 a.m. to go to work from 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. and then I have one online class and then one dance class that you can pop into, so I'll go to that after the play is over. And then I have two classes on Mondays and Fridays. So on Mondays and Fridays I have rehearsal and school, and then the rest of the week working. I've been taking on a lot this semester! But, I want to have the opportunity to act, and work, and learn. I know it's going to be a nice breather when one of these things is done. But I am so excited for this show, for sure. This is one of my first leading roles!
How have your studies at UCF prepped you for this?
Danielle: I think they have a lot! When I did a show earlier in the spring, that was the first show I'd really done in the middle of the semester. And with that show I didn't leave the stage. It wasn't like I was a lead; I was just constantly watching everything that was going on. And that was very, very interesting. I actually found out that I learned a lot more from watching than doing. The whole process; I watched how directors interact with actors, the standard that comes with that. And I just kind of reflected that, especially coming to a show that was outside of UCF, because I got used to that structure. And there's not always that structure! But, then you're ready for that too.
Chloe: I think just constantly having rehearsals. I was in a thesis project last year for a grad student at UCF and we basically built the play from the ground up. The play started off as just an idea, and then we wrote the whole script together as a collaboration piece. There were only five actors, and the stage manager and the grad student. So we basically worked with everybody's schedule and we had rehearsals on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and as we got closer to the tech week we would have weekends and then tech run. And just having that process and knowing that process at UCF has led me to being able to juggle and manage everything, for sure. And taking acting classes on campus helps you with memorization, being in front of your peers makes you feel more comfortable going up on stage being in front of people you don't know, so I think in a way all of that has just prepared us to be a real actors.
Catherine: I worked on a couple of independent studies with some students who have done full-fledge productions in studio spaces, which is very similar to how [WOMEN PLAYING HAMLET] has been, where we've rehearsed in other places and then in the last week jumped into the performance space. My classwork has definitely prepared me as well. I've been fortunate because even though I'm a stage management major, I'm required to take design classes and drafting classes, and work in the scene shop. So I feel learning about all the different types of production elements on a show has helped me become a better stage manager, better at communicating the needs of the director, and I'm better at troubleshooting issues.
Marylin and Courtney, what has it been like working with these students on a professional level?
Marylin: It's been great! I love working with young people. In fact, we did five or six seasons at Seminole Stage College, and that's where I got to work with Chloe quite a few times. And we worked with the students, and I realized then how much I loved working with college-age students. When I looked at this script, I saw that there were some opportunities for younger people, so it's actually been a goal of mine to maybe sneak in a little mentoring on the side!
Courtney: I'm just really so impressed with these young women! I mean, they're just so mature, easy to work with, and professional. And I just can't really imagine myself being that way at their age! It's like working with anyone. You don't think of them being less experienced or needing any kind of help. They've brought so much to their roles and it's amazing. I'm really impressed with them and the program at UCF. I was telling them that I'm not from here but the more I see and hear about it the more I'm impressed by it and this city. And UCF is getting them up and ready to be professionals before they even leave college. Plus they're a lot of fun to be with!
David, Marylin and Chloe! Since you're family, what has working together on this particular show been like?
Marylin: This has been great! And it's funny because [Chloe and I] say that we don't see each other on stage really. Which is a very interesting thing I find. She's so talented, and I see the performer.
Chloe: I think I like how in almost every show we've done together; she's played my mom or a character that's related to me. And in this show, she's not related to me in anyway. And that has been a cool and different way performing with her because it's a different way of looking at her. It's easier to have her play my mom; she is my mom! But having her play this random mentor I've found off of Wikipedia or my professor that tried to feel me up in class is different than having her play my mother. And when you hit the stage, a different mentality hits you. She's Gwen, she's the professor I distaste, she's the ghost of my father, she's not my mom anymore.
David: It's just refreshing to see them work together. I don't see spouse or my daughter, I see the characters. So it's very interesting. They've gotten mad at me a few times since I've been a little hard on both of them!
This is such a small cast, yet most of you play multiple roles! After working on this, do you prefer working with smaller or larger casts? Why?
Catherine: From a stage management aspect, smaller casts are easier for props tracking, but not a show like this. In theory, it is a smaller cast, but there are characters and lots more costume changes involved. So I prefer smaller casts; I feel like it creates more of an ensemble environment because you're working with the same people closer.
Courtney: I would agree with that. As an actor, it's kind of nice when you're not siting backstage for long periods of time. When you're doing stuff constantly as all of us are in this show, we're on and off stage changing for the next scene and it's kind of nice. It's nice to get that exercise.
So, this is the Central Florida premiere of WOMEN PLAYING HAMLET! What do you hope for audiences to take away from this production?
Marylin: I think what is so fascinating about this play is that you actually learn a lot about Shakespeare and about HAMLET, but in a very unusual way. I love the gravedigger scene where she keeps pulling out skulls of all the famous actors in history who have played Hamlet. So you learn so much, but in a contemporary adaptation. And then so many of us say lines from HAMLET in our myriad of different characters. And in Chloe's final soliloquy you hear so many, if not all, of the quotes we all had in that famous "To Be or Not to Be" soliloquy.
Courtney: I think that this play also speaks a lot about women playing men, and sort of the psychology behind that. But it also teaches a lot about acting; what it is to chose your roles and how that defines you. And I have learned a whole lot from the scene between the acting coach and the actress about acting in general and be more proactive. There are so many levels to this play; it is silly and funny in so many ways, but there's a lot to it. It's incredibly thoughtful.
Marylin: There's a lot of meat to it and some really zany comedy.
Chloe: I would just want them to take away how back in Shakespeare's day, all men were playing women, and just kind of the idea of what it would have been like for a woman of the time. This time the men in the audience can think, "Oh, this is what I must've been like for me to watch other people play my gender." I guess that's what Mr. Downs was playing off of the most. And that's exactly why this is called WOMEN PLAYING HAMLET because I think this is what I think Mr. Downs would want the audience to take from it.
WOMEN PLAYING HAMLET will continue at The Venue - 511 Virginia Drive, Orlando FL 32803 - on Saturday, September 19 at 7 PM and Sunday, September 20 at 2:30 PM and 7 PM. Monday, September 21 at 7 PM. Tickets $20.00. Students $16.00. Call 407-341-3495 for more information. Go to southern-winds-theatre.ticketleap.com/women-playing-hamlet.
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