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rogue, (rôg), n. [<16th-c. thieves' slang <L.rogare, to ask]


Recipient of the
2012 American Theatre Wing
National Theatre Company Award

 

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'Hamlet' by William Shakespeare and 'Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead' by Tom Stoppard in rotating repertory

Hamlet

by William Shakespeare

PRODUCTION SPONSORS:
PAT & JOHN HEMANN

and

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
Are Dead

by Tom Stoppard

PRODUCTION SPONSORS:
JOHN & JOYCE AMBRUSTER

Directed by Cynthia Meier
Music Direction by Jake Sorgen

in rotating repertory

October 15–November 22, 2015

Thursday–Saturday 7:30 P.M., Sunday 2:00 P.M.
plus Saturday 2:00 P.M. Matinees October 31
and November 7, 14 and 21

Discussion with the cast and director follows all performances

Performance Schedule

The Rogue Theatre at The Historic Y
300 East University Boulevard

Free Off-Street Parking
See Map and Parking Information

Hamlet is among the most powerful and influential tragedies in English literature,
with a story capable of endless retelling and adaptation by others.
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead
expands upon the exploits
of two of Hamlet’s minor characters “in the wings.”
Presenting these two plays in rotating repertory
is an exciting opportunity for Tucson audiences.
The same 14-member cast is on stage for both productions
and audiences can see the plays six weeks apart or on the same day.

 

Patty Gallagher as Rosencrantz and Ryan Parker Knox as Guildenstern

Patty Gallagher as Rosencrantz and Ryan Parker Knox as Guildenstern

 

Matt Bowdren as Hamlet

Matt Bowdren as Hamlet

 

David Greenwood as the Player King, Patty Gallagher as Rosencrantz, Ryan Parker Knox as Guildenstern, and Griffin Johnston, Evan Werner, Connor Foster, Christopher Johnson, Kainon Bachtel and Eric Du as the Players

David Greenwood as the Player King, Patty Gallagher as Rosencrantz, Ryan Parker Knox as Guildenstern,
and Griffin Johnston, Evan Werner, Connor Foster, Christopher Johnson, Kainon Bachtel and Eric Du as the Players

 

Matt Bowdren as Hamlet and Joseph McGrath as Claudius

Matt Bowdren as Hamlet and Joseph McGrath as Claudius

Photos by Tim Fuller

View production photos for Hamlet

View production photos for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

 

 

Podcast

Listen to our free open talk on
Hamlet: Parental Revenge Drama
that was presented by
Dr. David Sterling Brown on Saturday, October 10th.

View the handout that was used at that open talk.

This open talk was supported in part by a generous gift from Pat & John Danloe.

Poster

View the full-sized poster for the play

 

 

 


 

Press

A stage full of Hamlet, Rosencratz and Guildenstern

Review of Hamlet and Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead by Chuck Graham on October 22 in Let The Show Begin! at TucsonStage.com

To Be, Or Not
Invisible Theatre gets a bit convoluted, and Rogue give us some mighty Hamlet

Review of Hamlet by Sherilyn Forrester in the October 22 Tucson Weekly

Rosencrantz played with sense of joy, silliness

Review of Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead by Kathleen Allen in the October 22 Arizona Daily Star

Words, story rule Rogue’s Hamlet

Review of Hamlet by Kathleen Allen in the October 22 Arizona Daily Star

On stage: Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Stoppard comedy paired in repertory

Preview of Hamlet and Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead by Kathleen Allen in the October 15 Arizona Daily Star

Read others’ reviews of The Rogue Theatre, or write your own review on TripAdvisor!

 

Direction

Cynthia Meier (Director)

Cynthia Meier (Director) is Co-Founder and Managing and Associate Artistic Director for The Rogue Theatre where she has adapted and directed James Joyce’s The Dead and Kafka’s Metamorphosis, and directed The Merchant of Venice, Waiting for Godot, Jerusalem, Betrayal, Arcadia, Richard III, Journey to the West, The Winter’s Tale, Shipwrecked!, New-Found-Land, Old Times, The Tempest, Naga Mandala, The Four of Us, Othello, Animal Farm, Orlando, Happy Days, The Good Woman of Setzuan, The Fever and The Cherry Orchard. She holds a Ph.D. in Performance Studies from the University of Arizona. She is co-founder of Bloodhut Productions, a company performing original monologues and comedy improvisation, which toured throughout the western United States. She also directed The Seagull (featuring Ken Ruta) for Tucson Art Theatre, and she directed Talia Shire in Sister Mendelssohn and Edward Herrmann in Beloved Brahms for Chamber Music Plus Southwest. Cynthia received the Mac Award for Best Director, Drama for Richard III in 2013, and for Arcadia in 2014. She has been nominated for seven Mac Awards for Best Actress from the Arizona Daily Star, and in 2008, she received the Mac Award for Best Actress for her performance of Stevie in Edward Albee’s The Goat at The Rogue Theatre.
Cynthia Meier’s direction of Hamlet is supported in part by a generous gift from Andy & Cammie Watson, and direction of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is supported in part by a generous gift from John & Diane Wilson.

Notes from the Director

Both Hamlet and Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead explore our most intimate companion throughout life: Death.
After working on the plays for several months, my favorite passages include Hamlet’s thoughts about the inevitability of death and Guildenstern’s description of the reality of death. Both are worthy of contemplation (as are any number of speeches from either play).

In Act V, Hamlet says to Horatio, “There’s a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, ‘tis not to come. If it be not to come, it will be now. If it be not now, yet it will come. The readiness is all.” He is, of course, referring to death—it will come, now or later, and we must be ready for it. What comprises that “readiness” is, it seems to me, an essential question in our quest for meaning in life.

Near the end of Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead, Guildenstern tells the players that they cannot play at death. Real death is something else entirely. “It’s just a man failing to reappear, here one minute and gone the next and never coming back—a disappearance gathering weight as it goes on, until, finally, it is heavy with death.” For those of us who have experienced the death of a loved one, we know exactly what he means.

I like to imagine the young Tom Stoppard reading Hamlet and asking himself, “What happened to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern? Why is their death announced in the final moments of the play? What does it mean to be a minor character? Are we all minor characters?” From these seeds in Hamlet, Stoppard’s fertile imagination created the wonderfully clever characters of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern that have lived on much longer than Shakespeare might have imagined.

Both plays are deep meditations on the nature of life as seen through the lens of imminent death. I know our lives at The Rogue are richer for having explored these plays, and I hope you glean some meaningful moments from this feast of great English literature.

—Cynthia Meier, Director
director@theroguetheatre.org

The tapestries on stage in our production of Hamlet are based on the Kronborg tapestries from the Danish Kronborg Castle. The original tapestries were made in 1581–1586 by craftsmen from the Netherlands, directed by Hans Knieper, who did the artwork. They depict 101 Danish kings. Seven tapestries are still at Kronborg and eight are at the Danish National Museum in Copenhagen. Our scenic artist Amy Novelli, directed by Joseph McGrath, has recreated three of the tapestries with paint on muslin canvas.

 

 

Matt Bowdren as Hamlet and Holly Griffith as Ophelia

Matt Bowdren as Hamlet and Holly Griffith as Ophelia

 

The Players in 'Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead' -- Front: Kainon Bachtel and Griffin Johnston.  Back: Eric Du, Evan Werner, David Greenwood, Christopher Johnson and Connor Foster

The Players in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
Front: Kainon Bachtel and Griffin Johnston.
Back: Eric Du, Evan Werner, David Greenwood, Christopher Johnson and Connor Foster

 

Kathryn Kellner Brown as Gertrude and Matt Bowdren as Hamlet

Kathryn Kellner Brown as Gertrude and Matt Bowdren as Hamlet

Photos by Tim Fuller

 

Cast

Gravedigger, etc. Kainon Bachtel
Hamlet Matt Bowdren*
Fortinbras, etc. Eric Du
Horatio Connor Foster
Rosencrantz Patty Gallagher*
Player King, etc. David Greenwood*
Ophelia Holly Griffith
Laertes Christopher Johnson*
Alfred, etc. Griffin Johnston
Gertrude Kathryn Kellner Brown*
Guildenstern Ryan Parker Knox*
Claudius Joseph McGrath*
Polonius David Morden*
Osric, etc. Evan Werner

  *Member of Actors’ Equity Association,
the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States

 

Kainon Bachtel (Ensemble)

Kainon Bachtel (Ensemble) is thrilled to be making his first appearance with The Rogue Theatre. He is also a full time student at Pima, his most notable appearances so far being in The Mousetrap, Stuart Little and Spamalot. He aspires to transfer to either NAU or UMC to get his bachelor's in acting, with a devout interest in becoming a teacher.
Kainon Bachtel’s performance is supported in part by a generous gift from Norma Davenport.

Matt Bowdren (Hamlet) is an Artistic Associate and Education Director for The Rogue Theatre. At the Rogue he has appeared in The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Merchant of Venice, Waiting for Godot, Awake and Sing, Betrayal, Arcadia, Measure for Measure, Mistake of the Goddess, after the quake (2013 Mac Award for Best Actor), Richard III, Metamorphosis, Mother Courage and Her Children, The Night Heron, Journey to the West, As I Lay Dying, Major Barbara, The Real Inspector Hound, New-Found-Land, The Four of Us, Six Characters in Search of an Author and The Goat. Other Arizona credits include The Pillowman with the Now Theatre and Romeo and Juliet with Southwest Shakespeare. Recently Matt was seen as a Faculty Fellow and teaching artist with The Arizona Repertory Theatre in Frankenstein and Othello. Regionally Matt has performed in Georgia and New York City with The Rose of Athens, Hudson Shakespeare Company, and Collaborative Stages. Matt holds an M.F.A in Performance from the University of Georgia.
Matt Bowdren’s performance is supported in part by a generous gift from Ward & Judy Wallingford.

Matt Bowdren (Hamlet)
Eric Du (Ensemble)

Eric Du (Ensemble) a native Ohioan, earned his minor in theatre at Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois. He has been an understudy at The Gaslight Theatre this past year, having performed in shows such as The Adventures of Robin Hood and Space Wars. This is his first show at The Rogue, and he's simply thrilled to be working with such a talented and dynamic cast working on one of Shakespeare's finest productions.
Eric Du’s performance is supported in part by a generous gift from Norma Davenport.

Connor Foster (Horatio) is performing in his sixth show with The Rogue Theatre. Connor first worked with The Rogue in 2008 when he appeared as The Boy in Six Characters in Search of an Author. In 2012 he worked as an ensemble character in Mother Courage, then in 2013 he played Claudio in William Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure. Last season he played Davey in Jerusalem, a member of the ensemble of The Lady in the Looking Glass and Salanio in The Merchant of Venice. He is currently attending the University of Arizona as a B.A. Theater major. Connor would like to thank his family and friends for the love and support they've shown him in pursuing his passion.
Connor Foster’s performance is supported in part by generous gifts from Charles Buchanan and Greg & Ariana Foster.

Connor Foster (Horatio)
Patty Gallagher (Rosencrantz)

Patty Gallagher (Rosencrantz) is an Artistic Associate of The Rogue Theatre and Professor of Theatre Arts at University of California Santa Cruz where she teaches movement, mask, Balinese dance, and clown traditions. With The Rogue, she was last seen as Portia in The Merchant of Venice, and has performed the roles of Mabel in The Lady in the Looking Glass, Madame Moiselle in Dante’s Purgatorio, Hannah Jarvis in Arcadia, Kali in Mistake of the Goddess (Hayavadana), Red Peter in Kafka’s Monkey, Mrs. Samsa in Metamorphosis, Monkey King in Journey to the West, Autolycus in The Winter’s Tale, Player 1 in Shipwrecked!, Alibech in The Decameron, Ariel in The Tempest, Rani in Naga Mandala, Emilia in Othello, the Player in Act Without Words, Orlando in Orlando, Sonnerie and Scarron in Red Noses, Winnie in Happy Days, Ranevskaya in The Cherry Orchard and Shen Te in The Good Woman of Setzuan. She has worked with Shakespeare Santa Cruz, The Folger Shakespeare Theatre, California Shakespeare Theater, The New Pickle Circus, Ripe Time Theatre, Two River Theatre, Teatro Cronopio and Grupo Malayerba. She has performed, choreographed and directed workshops in Asia, South America, Europe, and the U.S. In 2006 she was Fulbright Scholar in Quito, Ecuador. In 2014 she was awarded the Pavel Machotka Chair in Creative Studies at UCSC’s Porter College. She holds a doctorate in Theatre from University of Wisconsin–Madison. From 2002 to 2010, she was Director in Residence at the Clown Conservatory, San Francisco Circus Center.
Patty Gallagher’s performance is supported in part by generous gifts from Bill & Barbara Dantzler and Bill & Carol Mangold.

David Greenwood (Player King) has appeared at The Rogue in The Merchant of Venice, Waiting for Godot, Jerusalem, Awake and Sing, Purgatorio, Arcadia, Measure for Measure, Mistake of the Goddess, Richard III, Metamorphosis, Mother Courage, The Night Heron, Journey to the West, The Winter’s Tale, As I Lay Dying, Major Barbara, The Real Inspector Hound, The Decameron and The Rogue’s first production, The Balcony. David has appeared locally in Shining City and The Birthday Party at Beowulf Alley Theatre and The One-Armed Man, The Disposal and The Glass Menagerie at Tucson Art Theatre.
David Greenwood’s performance is supported in part by generous gifts from Maura Brackett and Ruth Kosakowsky.

David Greenwood (Player King)
Holly Griffith (Ophelia)

Holly Griffith (Ophelia) has performed at The Rogue Theatre as Nerissa in The Merchant of Venice, in the ensemble of The Lady in the Looking Glass, as Pea in Jerusalem, in the ensemble of Purgatorio and as Chloë Coverly in Arcadia. Holly has also served at The Rogue as a box office assistant, Stage Manager for Waiting for Godot and as dramaturg for Awake and Sing, Measure for Measure and Mistake of the Goddess. Holly received her Master’s degree in English Literature at the University of Arizona in 2015. Holly has also served as the President of Emerson Dance Company in Boston, MA, and choreographed a Student Dance Showcase at The Miami Valley School in Dayton, OH. Holly also directed Marina Carr’s By the Bog of Cats, and co-directed Brian Friel’s Lovers for Rareworks Theatre Company in Boston, MA.
Holly Griffith’s performance is supported in part by generous gifts from Karen DeLay & Bill Sandel and Jan Linn & Richard Pincus.

Christopher Johnson (Laertes) is an Artistic Associate and ensemble member of The Rogue, where he has previously appeared in The Merchant of Venice, Jerusalem, Purgatorio, Richard III, Mother Courage and Her Children, The Night Heron, Journey to the West, The Winter’s Tale and As I Lay Dying. Other recent local credits include turns with Winding Road Theater Ensemble as Pale (Burn This), Doug (Gruesome Playground Injuries) and The Master of Ceremonies (Cabaret) for which he received the 2013 Arizona Daily Star Mac Award for Best Actor in a Musical.
Christopher Johnson’s performance is supported in part by generous gifts from Kristi Lewis and Cheryl Lockhart.

Christopher Johnson (Laertes)
Griffin Johnston (Ensemble)

Griffin Johnston (Ensemble) is honored and excited to be working for the first time at The Rogue Theatre. Griffin recently returned from Northwestern University’s Cherubs program where he was in The Secret in the Wings. He is a senior at Catalina Foothills High School where he has been studying theater for the last three years and has worked on multiple productions including Noises Off, One Man Two Guvnors, The Crucible, and The Boys Next Door. Griffin would like to thank his Mom, Dad, Stefanie and Terry Erbe along with all his friends who have supported him.
Griffin Johnston’s performance is supported in part by a generous gift from Norma Davenport.

Kathryn Kellner Brown (Gertrude) performed with The Rogue Theatre as Prince of Morocco in The Merchant of Venice, Mrs. Ivimey in The Lady in the Looking Glass, Dawn in Jerusalem, Lady Croom in Arcadia, Queen Margaret in Richard III, Paulina in A Winter’s Tale and Mrs. Baines in Major Barbara. She recently played Queen Eleanor in Southwest Shakespeare’s production of King John and participated in Phoenix Theatre’s 2014 24HR Theatre Project. Her early work also includes television and film. She has studied at ACT’s Summer Training Congress’ Classical Program in San Francisco, Royal National Theatre Studio in London and at Megaw Actors Studio in Phoenix. She holds a BFA, University of Arizona, and is also a member of SAG/AFTRA. 
Kathryn Kellner Brown’s performance is supported in part by generous gifts from John & Joyce Ambruster and Bill & Carol Mangold.

Kathryn Kellner Brown (Gertrude)
Ryan Parker Knox (Guildenstern)

Ryan Parker Knox (Guildenstern)   The Rogue’s 11th Anniversary Season marks Ryan’s fourth as a member of the Resident Acting Company. He has previously appeared in The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Merchant of Venice, The Lady in the Looking Glass, Jerusalem, Awake and Sing, Dante’s Purgatorio, Betrayal, Arcadia (2014 Mac Award for Best Actor), Measure for Measure, Mistake of the Goddess (Hayavadana), Richard III, Kafka’s Metamorphosis, Mother Courage and Her Children, The Night Heron, and Journey to the West."RPK" is a native South Dakotan, but spent nearly eleven years in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area working for various theatres, including Gremlin Theatre, Children’s Theatre Company, Park Square Theatre, and Paul Bunyan Playhouse to name a few. But Ryan is pleased to now call Tucson home thanks to the fiercely intelligent Rogue audiences and his superb fellow ensemble members, a loyal day job that works with his Rogue schedule, and his lovely lady Shayna. Finally, Ryan would like to dedicate this and every performance in the 2015–16 season to the memory of Lillian Fisher.
Ryan Parker Knox’s performance is supported in part by generous gifts from Karen DeLay & Bill Sandel in memory of Lillian Fisher, and from Pat & John Hemann.

Joseph McGrath (Claudius) is Co-Founder and Artistic Director for The Rogue Theatre and has appeared in The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Merchant of Venice, Waiting for Godot, Jerusalem, Awake and Sing, Arcadia, Measure for Measure, Richard III, The Night Heron, Journey to the West, The Winter’s Tale, The New Electric Ballroom, Shipwrecked!, Major Barbara, New-Found-Land, Old Times, The Tempest, Ghosts, Naga Mandala, Othello, Krapp’s Last Tape, A Delicate Balance (2009 Mac Award for Best Actor), Animal Farm, Orlando, Happy Days, Six Characters in Search of an Author, Red Noses, The Goat, The Cherry Orchard, The Good Woman of Setzuan, Endymion, The Dead, and The Fever. Joe is a graduate of the Juilliard School of Drama and has toured with John Houseman’s Acting Company. He has performed with the Utah Shakespearean Festival and has been a frequent performer with Ballet Tucson appearing in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and for seventeen years as Herr Drosselmeyer in The Nutcracker. He has also performed with Arizona Theatre Company, Arizona Opera, and Arizona Onstage. Joe owns, with his wife Regina Gagliano, Sonora Theatre Works, which produces theatrical scenery and draperies.
Joseph McGrath’s performance is supported in part by generous gifts from Katherine Smith and an anonymous donor.

Joseph McGrath (Claudius)
David Morden (Polonius)

David Morden (Polonius) has been a part of The Rogue Theatre for ten years, where his appearances onstage include Antonio in The Merchant of Venice, Pozzo in Waiting for Godot, Wesley in Jerusalem, Louis de Rougemont in Shipwrecked!, Jellaby and Captain Brice in Arcadia, Buckingham in Richard III, The Chaplain in Mother Courage and Her Children, Polixenes in The Winter’s Tale, Rinieri in The Decameron, Stephano in The Tempest, Editor Webb in Our Town, and in the ensembles of Purgatorio, Animal Farm and Orlando. He has acted locally with Arizona Opera (The Pirates of Penzance, The Threepenny Opera), Arizona Onstage Productions (Assassins), Actors Theatre (The Bible: The Complete Word of God (Abridged)) and Green Thursday Theatre Project (Anger Box, Rain), of which he was a co-founder. David also directed The Rogue’s productions of Measure for Measure, Major Barbara, Ghosts, A Delicate Balance, The Goat, Six Characters in Search of an Author and Krapp’s Last Tape, Not I & Act Without Words. David is an Assistant Professor of Voice and Movement in the University of Arizona School of Theatre, Film and Television where he has directed Lend Me a Tenor and Inspecting Carol for Arizona Repertory Theatre and directed three one-act adaptations of Medea for the Studio Series.
David Morden’s performance is supported in part by generous gifts from Meg & Peter Hovell and an anonymous donor.

Evan Werner (Ensemble) appeared previously with The Rogue this past summer as Basil Hallward in The Picture of Dorian Gray. He studied theatre at Depaul University and Pima Community College. In his fifteen years of theatre work, he served as Directing Producer for Purple Summer Productions in Bay City, MI, as well as spent three seasons in a variety of roles at The VanBuren Theatre and one season as a member of Winding Road Theater Ensemble. Notable acting credits include Jules in boom, (Mac Award Nomination, Best Actor) Ronald in The Altruists (AZ Daily Star Mac Award Nomination, Best Actor), Howie in Speech & Debate, The Man in Joan Is Burning, Haemon in Antigone, Christopher Belling in Curtains, Seductra in Head: The Musical, Sir Oakley in Anything Goes, Algernon in The Importance Of Being Earnest, Beane in Love Song, Jeff in I Love You Because, Clifford in Deathtrap, Amos in Chicago, Hal in Proof and multiple local appearances with Stories That Soar!
Evan Werner’s performance is supported in part by a generous gift from Norma Davenport.

Evan Werner (Ensemble)

 

Music

Jake Sorgen (Music Direction and Original Composition)

Jake Sorgen (Music Direction and Original Composition) was music director for The Merchant of Venice, The Lady in the Looking Glass, Waiting for Godot, Jerusalem and Awake and Sing at The Rogue Theatre, and has performed as a musician at The Rogue in Purgatorio and Betrayal. Jake is a musician/composer originally from Woodstock, New York. Trained as both a guitarist and saxophonist, Jake has performed on mandolin, bass, Irish and Native American flutes and whistles, and other plucked and wind instruments in styles including Medieval, Baroque, Classical, American and European folk, jazz, and contemporary improvisation. As a solo artist Jake has released two albums, Sudden Myth in 2012 and In Transit in 2013 and performed extensively throughout the Northeast. In 2012 Jake composed the score for Rareworks Theatre’s production of Lovers and By The Bog of Cats in Boston. He is currently adapting Joseph Brodsky’s Watermark for guitar and voice.
Jake Sorgen’s music direction is supported in part by a generous gift from Robert & Rhonda Fleming.

 

Jake Sorgen, Music director and composer for Hamlet and Rosencratz and Guildenstern Are Dead

Jake Sorgen, Music director and composer for Hamlet and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

Photo by Tim Fuller

 

Music Director’s Notes

There are two moments I consider as beginning points for the music you’ll hear in both performances. On the first day of rehearsal for Hamlet, Cindy Meier commented on how intimate and familial the play is. For a play with such a famous title, universally known lines on nearly every page, and a production history that stretches over 400 years, it might be easy for a composer to give in to maximalist tendencies. Taking Cindy’s comments to heart, the first pieces of music I composed were Ophelia’s songs. While cloaked in well-known song lyrics of the time and a character shrouded in madness, Shakespeare used these songs to express Ophelia’s authentic and intimate feelings of being trapped and manipulated and confronted with death that mirror Hamlet’s early soliloquies. From there, the music for Hamlet unfolded and followed both characters’ descents.

Though there is less “music” in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, the work for this play opened up the musical score for both plays. The intimacy of Hamlet is present in R&G but Stoppard’s comments on Hamlet (and life itself) helped me find a musical relationship between the two plays centered on logos. So much of our wandering gentlemen’s time is spent trying to sort out the logic of what they’ve been told against the illogic of the situation in which they find themselves. The intimacy in Hamlet inserts a deeper emotional strain into R&G and likewise this sifting of the “logic at work” (as Guildenstern refers to it) in R&G amplifies the mystery of what is real and what is an act in Hamlet. Pulling both the logic of R&G and the emotion of Hamlet together, I reworked the scores so that both elements remain present. Hamlet and Ophelia’s themes invert, reverse, and rearrange their melodic and harmonic structures while still finding the same resolutions throughout. The mandolin and percussion in R&G are at times illustrating the world of the play, at times in the heads of the characters on stage, and still at other times aim to mirror the audiences’ understanding of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern’s fates before they themselves do.

The music for both pre-shows feature pieces of the themes heard throughout the productions as well as structured improvisations that expand on those themes.

—Jake Sorgen, Music Director and Composer

 

 

Patty Gallagher as Rosencrantz, Matt Bowdren as Hamlet, and Ryan Parker Knox as Guildenstern

Patty Gallagher as Rosencrantz, Matt Bowdren as Hamlet, and Ryan Parker Knox as Guildenstern

David Morden as Polonius and Griffin Johnston as Renaldo

David Morden as Polonius and Griffin Johnston as Renaldo

 

Patty Gallagher as Rosencrantz and Ryan Parker Knox as Guildenstern

Patty Gallagher as Rosencrantz and Ryan Parker Knox as Guildenstern

Photos by Tim Fuller

 

Designers

Costume Design Cynthia Meier

Costume design is supported in part by a generous gift from Ellen & Warren Bodow.

Scenic Design Joseph McGrath
Lighting Design Don Fox
 

Production Staff

Stage Manager Sam Severson
Assistant Director for R&G Bryan Rafael Falcòn
Fight Choreography for Hamlet Brent Gibbs*
Text Coach for Hamlet David Morden
Additional Choreography Patty Gallagher
Scenic Artist Amy Novelli
Set Construction Christopher Johnson & Joseph McGrath
Costume Construction Karen DeLay, Kathryn Kellner, Cynthia Meier, Zohreh Saunders & Barbara Seyda
Master Electrician Peter Bleasby
Lighting Assistant Domino Mannheim
Lighting Crew David Greenwood, Christopher Johnson & Jake Sorgen
House Manager Susan Collinet
Assistant House Manager Leigh Moyer
Box Office Manager Thomas Wentzel
Box Office Assistants Kara Clauser, Holly Griffith & Rebekah Thimlar
Program Advertising Paul Winick
Poster, Program & Website Thomas Wentzel

  *Member of Actors’ Equity Association,
the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States

 

Don Fox (Lighting Design)

Don Fox (Lighting Design) has designed lights for The Rogue Theatre for Lady in the Looking Glass, The Merchant of VeniceAwake and Sing, Dante’s Purgatorio, Betrayal, Arcadia, Measure for Measure, and Mistake of the Goddess. Don is currently engaged as Assistant Professor of Lighting and Sound at Indiana University of Pennsylvania in Indiana, PA.  He earned his MFA in Lighting Design from the University of Arizona and holds a B.A. in Theatre Administration from St. Edward’s University in Austin, TX.  Don is the Lighting and Projections Designer and Production Manager for the Moscow Ballet's Great Russian Nutcracker and also toured nationally with Circus Electronica and internationally to China with Tucson’s Artifact Dance Project, for whom he is also a resident designer. Don serves as lighting and scenic designer for the Post Playhouse at Ft. Robinson State Park in northwest Nebraska where five full-length musicals run in rotation seasonally.  Prior to returning to grad school, Don was the Technical Director and Facilities manager for the Performing Arts Center of Wenatchee, in Washington’s Cascade Mountains where more recently he has produced The Rocky Horror Show, Bat Boy the Musical, and Cabaret. He has served as lighting and sound consultant for Silversea Cruises and twice designed Shakespeare in the Park for the San Antonio Botanical Gardens.  Favorite Tucson designs include Arizona Onstage’s production of Les Miserables and SAAF’s Moda Provacateur fashion show/fundraiser. His complete portfolio is at www.DonFoxDesigns.com.

Sam Severson (Stage Manager) is thrilled to be working on her first show at The Rogue. Previously, she stage managed at Invisible Theatre as well as Pima Community College. Credits include The Mandrake, Handle with Care, A Kid like Jake, The Mousetrap, Fiddler on the Roof, The Laramie Project, All Shook Up and Inherit the Wind. She has also worked around Tucson at The Comedy Playhouse & School and Tophat Theater. She plans to complete her Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration through ASU Online in the coming year.

Sam Severson, Stage Manager
Bryan Rafael Falcon, Assistant Director for Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead

Bryan Rafael Falcòn (Assistant Director for R&G) has directed Awake and SingThe Night Heron and The New Electric Ballroom (2012 Mac Award for Best Director) and Assistant Directed Arcadia, As I Lay Dying and The Tempest for The Rogue Theatre. Bryan is a graduate of the MFA in Directing program at the University of Western Illinois. In addition to working regionally in Chicago, the Twin Cities and Virginia, he is the former artistic director of two Indiana-based theater companies: The Backporch Theater Company (a Shakespeare traveling troupe) and New World Arts (an experimental black box theater company).

Brent Gibbs (Resident Fight Choreographer) teaches acting and stage combat at the University of Arizona’s School of Theatre Arts where he also serves as the Artistic Director for the Arizona Repertory Theatre. He is a member of Actors’ Equity Association and Screen Actors Guild/American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.  For nine years Brent served as the director, fight director and production stage manager for one of the nation’s largest Outdoor Dramas, Tecumseh. He has gained recognition as an Advanced Actor/Combatant by the Society of British Fight Directors, Fight Directors Canada and The Society of American Fight Directors where he also holds the rank of Certified Teacher and Fight Director.  He has taught combat master classes around the United States and Europe at various schools including The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.  For several summers he taught stage combat workshops at the International Theatreschool Festival in Amsterdam.

Brent Gibbs, Resident Fight Choreographer
Peter Bleasby, Master Electrician

Peter Bleasby (Master Electrician) lit his first show at 13, using near-lethal home-made equipment.  Professionally, he was with BBC-TV for several years, and then was an assistant to UK lighting designer Richard Pilbrow, including the inaugural production at the National Theatre in London (Hamlet, directed by Olivier). He later transferred to the general lighting industry, handling projects ranging from major sports stadia to cathedrals, but maintained his theatre interests by lighting innumerable shows on both sides of the Atlantic.  When the Rogue established itself at The Historic Y in 2009, he volunteered for the initial lighting “hang,” returning in 2013 to work with lighting designer Don Fox and later with Deanna Fitzgerald.  For the 2014-15 season, he planned and supervised the installation of an extensive permanent wiring system that enables the lighting crews to devote more time to the creative process.  In Tucson, he also directs the technical and logistical aspects of Southern Arizona AIDS Foundation fundraisers, including the fashion show Moda Provocateur.

Susan Collinet (House Manager) earned her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Creative Writing and English Literature from the University of Arizona in 2008. Decades before returning to college as a non-traditional student, Susan spent twenty years in amateur theater, mostly on the East coast, as well as in Brussels, Belgium in the American Theater of Brussels, and the Theatre de Chenois in Waterloo. She has worked in such positions as a volunteer bi-lingual guide in the Children’s Museum of Brussels, the Bursar of a Naturopathic Medical school in Tempe, Arizona, an entrepreneur with two “Susan’s of Scottsdale” hotel gift shops in Scottsdale, Arizona, and as the volunteer assistant Director of Development of the Arizona Aids Project in Phoenix. Susan continues to work on collections of poetry and non-fiction. Her writing has won awards from Sandscript Magazine, the John Hearst Poetry Contest, the Salem College for Women’s Center for Writing, and was published in a Norton Anthology of Student’s Writing. In addition to being House Manager, Susan serves on the Board of Directors and acts as Volunteer Coordinator for the Rogue.

Susan Collinet, House Manager

 

Christopher Johnson as Laertes and Holly Griffith as Ophelia

Christopher Johnson as Laertes and Holly Griffith as Ophelia

 

Eric Du and Griffin Johnston as the Players, with Ryan Parker Knox as Guildenstern, David Greenwood as the Player King and Patty Gallagher as Rosencrantz

Eric Du and Griffin Johnston as the Players, with Ryan Parker Knox as Guildenstern,
David Greenwood as the Player King and Patty Gallagher as Rosencrantz

Matt Bowdren as Hamlet

Matt Bowdren as Hamlet

Photos by Tim Fuller

 

Our Thanks

        Tim Fuller       
      Tucson Weekly      
Chuck Graham
Jesse Greenberg
Arizona Daily Star
Shawn Burke
Brent Gibbs
David Moser
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Performance Schedule for Hamlet and Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (R&G)

Location: The Rogue Theatre at The Historic Y, 300 East University Boulevard
Click here for information on free off-street parking

Performance run time of Hamlet is two hours and forty minutes, including one ten-minute intermission, and not including music preshow or post-show discussion.
Performance run time of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is two hours, including one ten-minute intermission, and not including music preshow or post-show discussion.

Hamlet  Thursday, October 15, 2015, 7:30 pm DISCOUNT PREVIEW
R&G     Friday, October 16, 2015, 7:30 pm DISCOUNT PREVIEW
Hamlet  Saturday, October 17, 2015, 7:30 pm DISCOUNT PREVIEW
R&G     Sunday, October 18, 2015, 2:00 pm matinee DISCOUNT PREVIEW

R&G     Thursday, October 22, 2015, 7:30 pm OPENING NIGHT
Hamlet  Friday, October 23, 2015, 7:30 pm OPENING NIGHT
R&G     Saturday, October 24, 2015, 7:30 pm
Hamlet  Sunday, October 25, 2015, 2:00 pm matinee

Hamlet  Thursday, October 29, 2015, 7:30 pm
R&G     Friday, October 30, 2015, 7:30 pm
R&G     Saturday, October 31, 2015, 2:00 pm matinee
Hamlet  Saturday, October 31, 2015, 7:30 pm
R&G     Sunday, November 1, 2015, 2:00 pm matinee

R&G     Thursday, November 5, 2015, 7:30 pm
Hamlet  Friday, November 6, 2015, 7:30 pm
Hamlet  Saturday, November 7, 2015, 2:00 pm matinee
R&G     Saturday, November 7, 2015, 7:30 pm
Hamlet  Sunday, November 8, 2015, 2:00 pm matine6

Hamlet  Thursday, November 12, 2015, 7:30 pm
R&G     Friday, November 13, 2015, 7:30 pm SOLD OUT
R&G     Saturday, November 14, 2015, 2:00 pm matinee
Hamlet  Saturday, November 14, 2015, 7:30 pm
R&G     Sunday, November 15, 2015, 2:00 pm matinee

R&G     Thursday, November 19, 2015, 7:30 pm
Hamlet  Friday, November 20, 2015, 7:30 pm
Hamlet  Saturday, November 21, 2015, 2:00 pm matinee
R&G     Saturday, November 21, 2015, 7:30 pm SOLD OUT
Hamlet  Sunday, November 22, 2015, 2:00 pm matinee SOLD OUT

Holly Griffith, Ryan Parker Knox, Cynthia Meier, Connor Foster, Kathryn Kellner Brown and Patty Gallagher

Click here to download a pdf of the above calendar.

 

 

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Updated on November 15, 2015

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