Welcome!
This is a play in five acts that I will be releasing over the next week. Today the cover with a short prologue, tomorrow the cast, and Act I Scene 1 on the 21st(Happy Birthday Mom!). What started as Shakespeares longest play has been restructured to fit into a night at the theatre. Here is my part.
About the Playwright
Warren “Mitch” Brown was born in Las Vegas, but grew up on the western slopes of Colorado. A Navy Veteran of 10 years, Mitch spent his military career as an Explosive K-9 Handler, living in exotic locales like Bahrain, Dubai, and Italy. He deployed to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.
His interest in theatre started in high school, playing a character in Noises Off and realized a great passion for the process. He started his formal education in theatre at Portland State University (Vikings). He honed his skills off-stage and on-stage, performing in front of a live audience as an open mic stand-up comedian.
After two years, Mitch completed his passion project with a meaningful, common-tongue translation of Hamlet, meant to bring Shakespeare to the masses. While still holding true to its original time period and subtext, the modern-day Hamlet strives to introduce people to Shakespeare, and the world of theatre again.
Did you know Shakespeare was born into a plague? Not just any plague, THE plague. The “Black Death” ravaged Europe and changed the world as we knew it. You can see its effect in Shakespeare’s art and how his works shaped what we know as theatre to this day. Much like then as today, theatres were forced to leave the ghost light on, close their doors, and witness the world became a little less bright. Out of the ashes emerged, what is widely accepted to be, the greatest work of the greatest playwright of all time. Cue Shakespeare!
The Bard gave us The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark; a new perspective on life, and what it means to be, or not to be, human.
Converting old English and Shakespeare has been the efforts of many since its initial development. With in-depth reference and research, a common-tongue version of Hamlet came to be, while staying true to its original setting. Hamlet is an open-source play, but culturally it’s a different story..
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References:
Caryplaywrightforum.org. (2018). Play formatting.
http://www.caryplaywrightsforum.org/?page_id=4917
Folger SHAKESPEARE LIBRARY – Advancing knowledge & the arts
folger.edu
The Royal Shakespeare Company – HAMLET – William Shakespeare - Jonathan Bate and Eric Rasmussen
https://www.rsc.org.uk/hamlet/
SparkNotes Editors. “No Fear Hamlet.” SparkNotes.com, SparkNotes LLC, 2005,
https://www.sparknotes.com/nofear/shakespeare/hamlet/
Paula Vogel - BLINK - Indecent.
http://paulavogelplaywright.com
Thank you to The Metropolitan Museum of Art for making all the art pieces public domain.
https://www.metmuseum.org
Alas, thank you to Kendra Griffin and Phillip Kelman for their edits and parts played.
This play includes copyrighted material
“For purpose of criticism, education, news reporting”
In accordance with:
The Berne Convention - Articles 10 + 10bis
The Berne Convention Implementation Act of 1988
US Copyright Code - Title 17, Section 107 - Fair Use Clause
This play represents solely the views of the playwright.
Use of copyrighted material does not imply endorsement by its owners.
@oddmitchbrown