Merely Players

08/07/2016

Merely Players' 2016 production of Hamlet. Photos by Dagan Louis.

08/07/2016

Merely Players' 2016 production of Hamlet. Photos by Dagan Louis.

08/06/2016

"Time it was, oh what a time it was..."

07/30/2016

After such an intense week, a little levity is in order... (remember, an advantage of studying the classics is so we get the jokes... apparently, these writers did, too)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKMOClN9ITg

I still love this TV show. No copyright infringement intended.

07/24/2016

As near as we can tell from our research:

Miching appears in British and Irish regional dialects, and means skulking, slinking, hiding, evasive and suspect behavior.
Mallecho, though variant interpretations exist, is thought to be derived from Spanish malhecho: mal (bad) + hecho (a thing made/done, a deed), thus “misdeed” or “mischief.”
“ch” in both is pronounced as it is in “itch” and “etch."
Accent of each word falls on the first syllable.

07/20/2016

"You will have to read the play over many times. Only on the rarest occasions can an actor seize the essentials of a new part instantly and be so carried away by it that he can create its whole spirit in one burst of feeling. More often his mind first grasps the text in part, then his emotions are slightly touched and they stir vague desires." - Stanislavski

07/19/2016

But, look, the morn, in russet mantle clad, walks o'er the dew of yon high eastward hill. Break we our watch up, and by my advice... check your email for the script!

07/18/2016

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.

07/18/2016

Ya gotta see the show—
it's rock and roll...
tiny.cc/hamlet2016

(P.S. If you're actually going to SEE the show, rather than be in it, you actually might want to skip this because there are spoilers. But we'll see you on August 4, family and friends!)

07/16/2016

"When you reach the point of playing Hamlet, threading a way through his intricate psychology to the moment when he kills the King, will it be important to you to have a life-size sword in your hand? If you lack one, will you be unable to finish the performance? You can kill the King without a sword, and you can light the fire without a match. What needs to burn is your imagination." - Constantin Stanislavsky, An Actor Prepares

07/05/2016

I’m spending the week of our wedding anniversary and my birthday doing what I was doing last year, finishing up the scripts for the Merely Players, although thankfully not from a hospital bed this time.

Here’s what’s up, gang:

As you know, Sue Ellen and I have been working out ideas and imagery for the play for several months, some of which you’ve seen in bits and pieces—the themes of (acting) method and mental illness described in the official email, the visual style in the trailer, etc. We met a month ago to cast the thing, and for the most part figured out what we want to do with the character arcs and narrative structure of the adaptation.

We’re also in the middle of lining up guest lecturers, researching relevant texts and theories, and putting the last touches on the soundtrack (which will play a major role in the show this year). We’ve got some astounding original pen and ink graphics in the works from one of our company’s resident artists (whom you all know and love). You’ll be seeing his pieces before too long.

The script itself is going to take probably another week of work, and I wouldn’t get your heart set on receiving it any particular day.

For one thing, we’ve got a huge cast this year and there may be, as Claudius says, “a little shuffling” even after the script is finished, because we can’t always foresee how the adaptation is going to turn out in advance. Over the course of the day or so after the script is finished, Sue Ellen and I will finalize casting, and then we’ll send it out to everybody.

We know, of course, that you’ll want to get your lines well ahead of the first rehearsal, and we’re going to make sure that happens somehow. Most people’s line loads this year are pretty manageable, for reasons you’ll discover, but you’ll still want to clear some room in your schedule in the third week of July so you can get started on your parts.

IN THE MEANTIME, we recommend that you get started right away by reading the original uncut text. The better you know that version, the better prepared you’ll be for our restructuring of the play.

Ideally, if you get time, we’d love for you to plan one or more cast-only table reads of the play. Divide up the parts however you like and have fun with it.

See you in a couple weeks!

More anon,

-Ryan