Hamlet
by William Shakespeare
Illinois Shakespeare Festival
Normal, IL
July - August 2016

Deborah Staples. Photo by Pete Guither.

Chris Peltier and Eva Balistrieri. Photo by Pete Guither.

Deborah Staples, Paul Henry, and Robert Doyle. Photo by Pete Guither.

Deborah Staples and Eva Balistrieri. Photo by Pete Guither.

Chris Amos and cast. Photo by Pete Guither.

Eva Balistrieri. Photo by Pete Guither.

Hamlet Company. Photo by Pete Guither.

Mark Tyler Miller and company. Photo by Pete Guither.

REVIEWS
"true to nearly everything Hoffmann directs and so many of the characters we've seen Staples inhabit, this intensely physical Hamlet is driven by an insistent, idealistic and emotionally charged need to connect, reflecting an awareness of his place within and need for his community."

"The bonus here involves Hoffmann and Staples finding yet another way into a story we always think we know better than we actually do – until leaving the theater, dazed yet again by the multitudes contained within this great poem unlimited."
- Mike Fischer, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Click here for the full Journal Sentinel review.

"Director Leda Hoffmann seamlessly threads all of the visual elements together into a relentlessly tragic whole, the center of which is, of course, the sterling performances of the actors."
- Marcia Weiss, Bloomington-Normal Pantagraph
Click here for the full Pantagraph review.

Deborah Staples and Mark Corkins. Photo by Pete Guither.

Eliza Stoughton, Chris Amos, Paul Henry, and Laura Bouxsein. Photo by Pete Guither.

Hamlet Company. Photo by Pete Guither.

Deborah Staples. Photo by Pete Guither.

Lori Adams, Eva Balistrieri and Chris Peltier. Photo by Pete Guither.

Deborah Staples, Kevin Rich, and Rob Doyle. Photo by Pete Guither.

Deborah Staples, Chris Peltier, and company. Photo by Pete Guither.

CAST:
Gertrude - Lori Adams
Cornelius/Player King - Chris Amos*
Guildenstern - Nathaniel Andalis
Ophelia - Eva Balistrieri
Fourth Player - Laura Bouxsein
Gentlewoman - Olivia Candocia
Ghost/Claudius - Mark Corkins*
Polonius - Jon Daly*
Horatio - Robert R. Doyle
Barnardo/Third Player - Paul Henry
Voltemand - Isaac Hickox-Young
Reynaldo - Robert Hunter Bry
2nd Gravedigger - Alex Levy
Osric - Forrest Loeffler
Guard - Carlos Medina Maldonado
Priest / Fortinbras - Mark Tyler Miller
Rosencrantz - Ben Muller
Laertes - Christopher Peltier
Gravedigger - Kevin Rich*
Francisco - Thomas Russell
Hamlet - Deborah Staples*
Gentlewoman / Player Queen - Eliza Stoughton
Marcellus - Jonah D. Winston

*member of Actors' Equity Association

PRODUCTION TEAM: 
Director - Leda Hoffmann
Scenic Designer - John C. Stark
Lighting Designer - Marly Wooster
Costume Designer - Lauren T. Roark
Sound Designer - Kieran Pereira
Voice and Text Coach - Gale Childs Daly
Fight Director - Paul Dennhardt
Assistant Fight Director - John Tovar
Stage Manager - Jayson T. Waddell