On August 27th and 28th, Shakespeare & Company alumna Hilary Dennis performed the title role in Hamlet at La Mama in New York, N.Y She is independently producing the show, which will feature a cast of eight international actors rehearsing for just one week with no director. She is crowdfunding much of her budget. If you would like to contribute, you can donate at her Seed and Spark page. Interview by Mac MacDaniel.
Hilary has studied under Andrew Borthwick-Leslie and Kristen Moriarty from the Center for Actor Training at Shakespeare & Company.
S&Co: Tell us about how you first got interested in Shakespeare and the role of Hamlet.
Dennis: I fell in love with Shakespeare January 1st, 2018 when my conservatory class was assigned Hamlet’s “Advice to the Players” speech. Four days later, I stood in front of my class and the words flowed out of me. It made sense. I became Hamlet.
Over the next 18 months, I chipped away at the role. I brought each soliloquy to a new class; begged peers to play Horatio, Gertrude, Rosencrantz in scene study; enrolled in Shakespeare workshops outside of school; and studied the play at the high-top table before my serving shift began.
S&Co: How did you get involved with Shakespeare & Company’s training?
Dennis: In the summer of 2019 I took a Shakespeare & Company workshop in NYC. My mother is also an actor and she is actually the one who recommended I take a S&Co workshop because she had taken a class with ABL a few months prior. That workshop was a life-changing experience for a lot of reasons.
S&Co: What did you take away from your training with Shakespeare & Company?
Dennis: It was that workshop that set me on the path to producing Hamlet at La Mama. In addition to the performance techniques that I learned, I also felt like I’d been given permission to take ownership of the text and bring my whole self to the role. I also forged relationships in that workshop that have become long-term mentors and collaborators. My training with Shakespeare & Company not only gave me the technical skills to embody such a difficult role, it gave me the freedom to create my own path forward in my career, and it brought me together with a community of people who have become mentors, collaborators, and friends.
Hilary G. Dennis is an actor and producer based in New York, N.Y. To support her independent production of Hamlet at La Mama, check out @HilaryGDennis or @Hamlet_NYC on Instagram and visit her Seed & Spark fundraising campaign at https://seedandspark.com/fund/hamletnyc.
