My one-woman show, My Brooklyn Hamlet at the Leeds International Jewish Theatre Festival
Okay, so it’s less than 5 months away. I’ll be opening the festival on June 6th.
And I’m in talks to perform my show in London for a three week run at The New End Theatre directly following the festival.
I titled my show, My Brooklyn Hamlet, because of the parallels that the character of Hamlet and I share. In Shakespeare’s tragic play his main character’s father was killed by his uncle and then his uncle married his mother!
In 1995 my father shot and killed my mother and then soon after married my aunt.
However, my show and my story don’t end like Hamlet’s. I don’t die in bitter rage and blame. Instead I find peace through forgiveness.
Who knew when my mother was reading me Shakespeare as a little girl that it would have such a healing impact for me and that it would lead to me incorporating some of Shakespeare’s greatest lines into my show.
I remember seeing Lynn Redgrave on Broadway in her one-woman show, Shakespeare for My Father. Who knew her magical creation would spark me to write a one-woman show one day. Great theatre lives with you–like great music does.
I studied Shakespeare in London when I was in my twenties. Who knew my summer at The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art would be pivotal in me learning the technique and tools of Shakespeare so that I could one day apply my skills to Shakespeare’s words by presenting them in England.
I weave Shakespeare’s most wondrous soliloquies into my modern day script to bring it to life in 2010.
The countdown is beginning.
In love and awe,
Brenda
