We conclude our 2012 season with Shakespeare’s Hamlet, helmed by internationally-renowned director Liesl Tommy, from September 19 through October 14.

Pictured, left to right: Zainab Jah as Ophelia, Dan Hiatt as Polonius, LeRoy McClain as Hamlet, Julie Eccles as Gertrude, Adrian Roberts as Claudius, and Nick Gabriel as Horatio; photo by Kevin Berne. (Click photo for larger image.)

The production features LeRoy McClain (Cassio in Othello with Philip Seymour Hoffman; Boy Willie in The Piano Lesson at Yale Rep, directed by Liesl Tommy; Broadway productions of Cymbeline and The History Boys) in the title role, with Adrian Roberts (Ruined at Berkeley Rep; First Person Shooter at SF Playhouse) as Claudius and the Ghost, and Zainab Jah (Ruined at Berkeley Rep; Drama Desk Award winner for her performance as Helen of Troy in Trojan Women for Classical Theatre of Harlem) as Ophelia. Also featured are Cal Shakes Associate Artists Julie Eccles (title role in 2011’s Candida) as Gertrude, Dan Hiatt (title role in Uncle Vanya, Newman Noggs in Nicholas Nickleby) as Polonius and the Gravedigger, and Danny Scheie (Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing, Bottom in Midsummer Night’s Dream) as the Player King and Osric. Others in the cast include Nick Gabriel (A.C.T. core company member, last seen at Cal Shakes in Candida) as Horatio, Nicholas Pelczar (Ferdinand and Trinculo in the season-opener The Tempest) as Laertes and Luciano, Mia Tagano (last seen at Cal Shakes in Nicholas Nickleby) as the Player Queen and the Doctor, Jessica Kitchens (Elvira in Blithe Spirit) as Rosencrantz, Brian Rivera (Yellowjackets at Berkeley Rep, two seasons with SF Mime Troupe) as Guildenstern and Bernardo; and Joseph Salazar as Marcellus and others. Mr. McClain, Mr. Roberts, Ms. Jah, and Mr. Rivera are all making their Cal Shakes debuts with this production.

Widely hailed as one of the greatest plays ever written, Hamlet returns to the Cal Shakes stage for the first time in more than a decade. In discussing her vision of the production, director Tommy says, “I’m mainly interested in exploring feelings of loss and grief in my work; the idea of ancestors and their spirits are fascinating to me. In Hamlet, I’ll be able to do that by focusing on the family drama as the heart of the story. For me, this is a memory play, a haunting within a haunting; the story of this family is by turns poetic, absurd, romantic, violent, and sad. The world of the play becomes its own character; the room and the objects in it hold the secrets and memories of what took place there. In essence the structure has outlived its inhabitants and is now a haunted place.”

The design team responsible to create this haunted world are set and costume designer Clint Ramos, whose work has been seen in numerous productions throughout the U.S. including Ms. Tommy’s production of Ruined (Berkeley Rep), Party People and Measure for Measure (Oregon Shakespeare Festival), and Tony Kushner’s The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism (Public Theatre); lighting designer Peter West, whose lights have graced such Cal Shakes’ productions as 2009’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and 2003’s Much Ado About Nothing, plus several productions at Shakespeare Santa Cruz, the Juilliard School, and Tanglewood Opera, among others; and sound designer and Cal Shakes Associate Artist Jake Rodriguez, creator of soundscapes for numerous Bay Area productions including Cal Shakes’ Nicholas Nickleby, Magic Theatre’s Bruja, A.C.T.’s Rock and Roll, plus the world premieres of Passing Strange, The People’s Temple, and Fetes de la Nuit at Berkeley Rep.

Internationally-renowned director Liesl Tommy made her Bay Area debut in 2010 with Lynne Nottage’s Ruined at Berkeley Rep; the production was subsequently named one of the year’s Ten Best by the San Francisco Chronicle. Recent projects include Party People (Oregon Shakespeare Festival); The White Man – A Complex Declaration of Love (DanskDansk Theatre, Denmark); Peggy Picket Sees the Face of God (Luminato Festival/Canadian Stage. Toronto); Eclipsed (Yale Rep, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company); The Good Negro (The Public Theater, Dallas Theater Center), A History of Light (the Contemporary American Theatre Festival); Angela’s Mixtape (Synchronicity Performance Group, New Georges); A Stone’s Throw (Women’s Project); and Misterioso 119 (Berkshire Theatre Festival, Act French Festival). Ms. Tommy was awarded the NEA/TCG Directors Grant and the New York Theatre Workshop Casting/Directing Fellowship. She has taught master classes in acting, directing and new play development internationally and guest directed at Juilliard, Trinity Rep/Brown University’s MFA Directing Program, The Strasberg Institute, and NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Ms. Tommy is a native of Cape Town, South Africa.

Hamlet plays September 19 through October 14 at the stunning outdoor Bruns Amphitheater. Get your tickets today.

Stacy Ross

We are pleased to welcome the inimitable Stacy Ross to the ranks of our Associate Artist company. Ross, who made her Cal Shakes debut performing in all four shows of our 1992 season (as Nerissa in The Merchant of Venice, First Witch in Macbeth, Juno in The Tempest, and Julia in The Two Gentlemen of Verona), has been seen most recently on our stage as a series of brassy (and often bloodthirsty) babes in Titus Andronicus (2011), Mrs. Warren’s Profession (2010), Macbeth (2010), and An Ideal Husband (2008).

Hearty congrats also go to playwright Octavio Solis (John Steinbeck’s The Pastures of Heaven), who this month was awarded a prestigious United States Artists Fellowship. The USA Fellows—50 in all—each receive $50,000 toward project development and related expenses. Up next for Solis is his final South Coast Repertory workshop for Cloudlands, a musical collaboration with Adam Gwon, directed by Amanda Dehnert (The Verona Project); performances begin May 1. Solis is also working on commissions for the Magic Theatre and for Yale Rep.

L. Peter Callender and Joan Mankin are currently wowing audiences in The Soldier’s Tale at Aurora Theatre; if you’d like to catch it, you need to hurry, as it closes December 18. Callender goes straight into rehearsals for Frankie and Johnnie in the Clair de Lune (Jan 20–Feb 5) at Diablo Actors Ensemble, followed in the Spring by Xtigone (April 20–May 13) at African-American Shakespeare Company in San Francisco, where he is also Artistic Director. In February, Mankin will perform at the Ashby Stage in an original piece by Joan Holden called Counter-Attack, based on the interviews with diner waitresses found in the book Counter Culture.

Nancy Carlin’s production of Trevor Allen’s Working for the Mouse ends at EXIT Theatre Dec 17. Next she’ll direct Arms and the Man at Center Rep (Jan 27–Feb 25). James Carpenter is playing Scrooge in American Conservatory Theater’s  A Christmas Carol—for the sixth year in a row—through December 24, once again under the direction of fellow Associate Artist Domenique Lozano.

Susannah Schulman and Danny Scheie in the Berkeley Rep production of YOU, NERO; photo by Kevin Berne.

Speaking of A.C.T., Janet Foster has joined their Artistic Associate Company, as well, and is their new Casting Director, to boot. She’s currently casting Scorched, the West Coast premiere of Maple & Vine, and the award-winning Higher.

Dan Hiatt will be playing Jacob Marley and many others in a very musical adaptation of A Christmas Carol adapted and directed by Rick Lombardo and running through Christmas Eve at San Jose Rep.  Jan 17–Feb 12 he’ll play Harry Wilson in The Pitmen Painters by Lee Hall (Billy Elliot) at TheatreWorks, directed by Leslie Martinson and also featuring James Carpenter and Cal Shakes regular Nicholas Pelczar.

Danny Scheie and Susannah Schulman are performing together in Amy Freed’s You, Nero at Arena Stage through January 1, reprising the roles they originated at Berkeley Repertory Theatre in 2009.  And upcoming projects for lighting designer Scott Zielinski in 2012 are Cat On A Hot Tin Roof for the Guthrie Theater, Good Goods at Yale Repertory Theater, An Iliad at New York Theater Workshop, Miss Fortune at Royal Opera House (London) and Abigail’s Party for the National Theater of Norway (Oslo).