Fortinbras Digiturgy
Fortinbras Digiturgy
What is DRAMATURGY?
It's an in-depth look at the background and inner workings of a play
in order to give the audience context and a better lens
into the story played out on stage.
Put it online and you have DIGITURGY.
Fortinbras:
By: Lee Blessing
A Short Synopsis of Shakespeare's Hamlet, for those of you who haven't seen it recently.
Courtesy of the Royal Shakespeare Company:
Old Hamlet, King of Denmark, is dead and has been succeeded by his brother, Claudius. The new king has also married Gertrude, the widowed queen. Hamlet, Gertrude's son, is already distressed by his father's death and the hasty remarriage when his father's ghost appears to tell him that he was murdered by his own brother. Hamlet vows revenge. To cover his intentions, he feigns madness. Polonius, councillor to the court, whose daughter Ophelia is all but betrothed to Hamlet, believes that his madness is caused by love. Spied on by Polonius and the king, Hamlet encounters Ophelia and violently rejects her. A company of actors arrives and Hamlet asks them to perform a play, hoping that its similarity to the murder of his own father will force the king to reveal his guilt. Hamlet's suspicions are confirmed. He visits his mother, reviling her for the hasty marriage, and accidentally kills Polonius, who is hiding in the chamber. The King sends Hamlet to England, planning to have him murdered. Laertes, Polonius's son demands revenge for his father's death. His sister, Ophelia, maddened by grief, has drowned. Hamlet returns and confronts Laertes at her funeral. The King, meanwhile, has plotted with Laertes to kill Hamlet in a fencing match in which Laertes will have a poisoned sword. The plot miscarries and Laertes dies. Gertrude drinks from a poisoned cup intended for Hamlet, and also dies. Hamlet, wounded by the poisoned sword, kills Claudius before he too, dies, in the arms of his trusted friend, Horatio. Young Fortinbras of Norway arrives and lays claim to the throne of Denmark.
ABOUT THE ARTISTIC TEAM:
Dan Burke
- Fight Choreographer and Intimacy Coach
Dan Burke has spent many hours working with our cast to create the fights you will see in our production tonight. These fights include hand-to-hand combat, such as slaps, punches, chokes, throws, and other exciting moves, as well as fight choreography with rapiers and dancers. Dan taught us how to act the fight, working closely with the script and character motivation. He also ensured that actor-combatants feel in control and safe in their choreography. If an actor was having trouble with a certain move, Dan took the time to work with the individual to make sure she/he understood what to do and why the chancer was doing it. Furthermore, if a certain moment of choreography wasn't working, Dan would modify the choreography to make sure it was smooth and easy for each actor. Each moment of combat choreography was worked every day with our production's fight captain, Fallon Sullivan, to make sure that the actors could get the fights into their bones, as they would with any scene and blocking. The fights that were incorporated into the show were smooth and safe but are integrated nicely into the kookiness inherent to Fortinbras.
Julie Leavitt
- Costume Designer
Julie Leavitt has created costumes that fit into the world of both Hamlet
and Fortinbras. These costumes help the audience grasp a sense of the play's time and place, allowing insight into the characters. The costume for our production of Fortinbras
are just as colorful and crazy as the script, yet intricate and beautiful. Since the show is filled with anachronisms, the time period is indeterminate; Julie describes it as "wonky." This allowed her to have the liberty to mish-mash historical time periods in her design, setting them anywhere from fashions of the 1300's through 1550's.
To Julie, Hamlet
is the story of a changing world, Hamlet's father had one way of ruling and living, that Claudius and Polonius are trying to change. Hamlet has a hard time adapting to this. This theme of changing worlds, and being trapped in your own ways, follows through in Fortinbras.
Most of the characters you know and love from Hamlet
are trapped in their own way of life when Fortinbras comes in and tries to shake the rules up and remake the kingdom. While Osric wears what we think of as stereotypical Elizabethan garb, replete with pumpkin hose, bright puffy pants, and floppy hat, Fortinbras enters in a vibrant red cape with camouflage pants, which is very hip and very contemporary.
Also, in our production of Fortinbras
there are a few ladies who are playing men. Therefore, Julie's original design renderings--which were created for men--have been adapted to tum our lovely female actors into their male characters. On top of that, there are many actors who play multiple roles in our show, which means that they will change from one costume to another in a matter of seconds. Julie and her costume crew have worked their wardrobe magic into those costumes, to make the changes smooth and easy for the actors. As you can see, costumes are another piece of theatre magic that make a show come to life.
Lynne Chase
- Lighting Designer
Fortinbras
is a silly farce, which means that there is not a lot of serious mood lighting in our production. Using Lynne Porter's set design and paint elevations, plus Julie Leavitt's costume designs, Lynne Chase has created a light plot that plays off the costumes and the colors of the paint. Through spotlights, light colors, and light patterns (gobos), Lynne's lights reflect off the wackiness that the artistic team has worked into our production.
Lynne Porter - Set Designer
Lynne Porter has created an environment that lives in two worlds--- William Shakespeare's Hamlet
and the fun, wild world of Lee Blessing's Fortinbras.
Over the summer, Lynne, Mark and the artistic team met multiple times to create a set that was rooted in traditional historic castles but adapted to the kookiness of Fortinbras. A lot of Lynne's creation process involved conversations with Mark about what blocking the actors may do onstage: how they might enter or exit the set, how they might move around on stage, and how they would execute stage combat. The set design also had to incorporate the themes that Lee Blessing wove into his script, One idea was to create a set design that spelled "truth" across the stage, where actors would be able to move around and climb each of the letters. In the end, Mark and Lynne decided that the set should not be as blatant as that.
Instead, the set became a colorful, fun castle that allows for both the serious and the wonky moments of our comedy to be played onstage. While we don't see the specific locales of the castle, the open setting allows for the actors to really set the scene. For example, if the characters are in the basement, they walk from the top of the set down the stairs and use their
words and actions to set the scent. Lynne's design helps to make the actor's blocking smooth, but also helps us find the craziness of Blessing's script in our beautiful castle.
Press Release for FORTINBRAS
Written by Sam Millette ('20)
