In the summer of 2014, I staged an experimental interpretation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet in collaboration with six performing artists–Tammy Brown, Amy Lee Connell, Meghan Rose Donnelly, Andrew Katzman, Sophie Kreyssig, and Max Mathews–and a stage manager, Miles Martin.

As an representation of the hero’s internal struggles, and as a reflection of the piece’s interest in identity-as-performance, all of the actors in the show (in addition to their unique roles) played Hamlet–sometimes taking turns, sometimes together. Well-worn soliloquies were re-envisioned as kinetic choral odes. The result was a performance which at once defamiliarized the play while clarifying its central conflicts.

As well as providing a wonderful directorial challenge, the work offered me the opportunity to experiment in other media as well. For logistical and thematic reasons, I staged the play-within-the-play (“The Murder of Gonzago,” below) as a video featuring a single actor. Glitch and artifact were a visual motif throughout, as demonstrated by the datamoshed poster art (above) and in the video used elsewhere as a background element (a corrupted fragment of which can be seen here).