In Shakespeare\u2019s time, men performed all the roles in his plays, even those of women. Shaking things up with a new play by William Missouri Downs, Juneau-Douglas Little Theatre is producing \u201cWomen Playing Hamlet.\u201d As the name suggests, only women, \u2014 11 of them \u2014 will play the 19 roles called for in the play.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s getting a little revenge on Shakespeare for never casting women,\u201d director of the play and vice-president of Juneau-Douglas Little Theatre Heather LaVerne told the Capital City Weekly.<\/p>\n
The play, which only recently had its world premiere, is not Shakespeare\u2019s \u201cHamlet,\u201d but a comedy about an actress named Jessica trying to gain the confidence to play the title character.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe meets all these various people,\u201d LaVerne explained of Jessica\u2019s journey. \u201cShe meets a Shakespearean scholar, a gravedigger, her mom from Minnesota, a therapist who kind of has a Freudian approach to therapy \u2013 lots of different people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Grace Lee, a lawyer by day, is taking on the role of Jessica.<\/p>\n
All the characters with the exception of one are shown through the filter of her memories, so it\u2019s not linear.<\/p>\n
Before she attempted Hamlet, Jessica was the star of a soap opera. She wants, however, to be perceived as a serious actress, Lee said.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe kind of resents that fame and that character, and that\u2019s kind of why she took on the role of Hamlet so she could prove to everybody, in fact everybody in the play, that she could be a real actress,\u201d shesaid.<\/p>\n
This is the first time Lee has ever been in a play.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always been interested in theatre but I never really had \u2026 the confidence to go out and try out for anything,\u201d she said. She knew LaVerne and stage director Richard Carter through her boyfriend\u2019s involvement with Perseverance Theatre and they all encouraged her to try out for the show. Juneau-Douglas Little Theatre\u2019s goal is to offer people who haven\u2019t had the opportunity the chance to participate in theatre, LaVerne said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI identified very strongly with the main character who is an actress who is not confident that she can play Hamlet. And I was like \u2018that\u2019s pretty much me.\u2019 I\u2019m an actress, or person, who is not confident she can do this, and so it was really easy to put a lot of myself into this role,\u201d Lee said.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe read and she blew me away,\u201d LaVerne said. \u201cShe is really talented.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lee said she\u2019s nervous, but excited to work with the rest of the cast, many of whom were in Juneau-Douglas Little Theatre\u2019s last play \u201cFive Lesbians Eating a Quiche.\u201d<\/p>\n
LaVerne wanted to make it clear that this play is a comedy, not \u201cHamlet\u201d itself. People don\u2019t have to be a fan of Shakespeare or the time period to enjoy the play, she said.<\/p>\n
Those familiar with the tragedy will recognize the iconic pose featured in the play\u2019s posters: Lee holding a skull.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe play is hilarious, and as the straight man in the play, I have a really hard time keeping my face straight and not laughing at everybody else\u2019s characters,\u201d Lee said of rehearsals.<\/p>\n
The play is on Jan. 6, 7, 8, 12, 13, 14 and 15, always at 7 p.m. at McPhetres Hall inside the Church of the Holy Trinity. Tickets are $20.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Contact reporter Clara Miller at clara.miller@morris.com.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In Shakespeare\u2019s time, men performed all the roles in his plays, even those of women. Shaking things up with a new play by William Missouri Downs, Juneau-Douglas Little Theatre is producing \u201cWomen Playing Hamlet.\u201d As the name suggests, only women, \u2014 11 of them \u2014 will play the 19 roles called for in the play. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":429,"featured_media":13367,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":7,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[74],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-13366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life","tag-arts-and-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/429"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13366"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=13366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}