Advanced Theater performs Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet
Davis High’s Advanced Theater recently performed Shakespeare’s Hamlet. For those who are unaware the lead role of Hamlet is Hamlet himself, the twenty-something year old prince of Denmark. Junior Palmer Flood plays this melancholy, cynical, depressed prince, and does an amazing job. Junior Jake Anderson who saw the play said “He memorized tons of lines, it was really incredible. I don’t think I could ever memorize even half that.” Flood memorized over 1,000 lines, about 40% of the total lines in the play in this, the longest Shakespeare play ever written. “Some rough parts about being the lead for me was the memorizing. I spent countless hours memorizing, but once I got that down it was fun to just be myself in the character,” Flood said.
Each role in Hamlet was hand picked by Andra Thorne, theater teacher. From the lead to the ensemble she casted them all. The original play runs at about five hours, but was shortened to about three hours and fifteen minutes. “I, myself, like the pressure that comes with performing. It was fun to be on stage doing our own version of hamlet,” Flood said.
Hours upon hours of work go into putting on the play, and many have their own idea of how Hamlet ‘should’ be played. All of advanced theater practiced a lot to ensure the play went smoothly. “We spent four hours a day running the show, checking tech, and just having things run overall smoothly. And then one saturday spent nine hours in the auditorium working,” Flood said. “Hamlet was as successful as it was because of everyone else, not just myself. Everyone gave it their all and it made a really great play.”
