Unfortunately, we have discovered several positive Covid cases in our Hamlet cast. For the health and safety of our artists and audiences, we have made the incredibly hard decision to cancel all remaining performances of Hamlet. We did look at the cast's availability for the rest of the summer, but unfortunately there isn't a viable time for everyone to return. If you have tickets for any of these performances, our staff will be contacting you with exchange and refund options. We are truly sorry for the inconvenience, but look forward to being able to welcome you back to the theater soon!
Following the death of his father, Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, returns home to find his uncle now occupies the throne and the queen's bed. Spurred by the ghost of his father and surrounded by spies, Hamlet must choose between moral integrity and vengeance.
PRODUCTION TEAM
DIRECTOR: Elizabeth Swain SCENIC DESIGNER: Stephen Gifford COSTUME DESIGNER: Dianne K. Graebner LIGHTING DESIGNER: Jared A. Sayeg SOUND DESIGNER: Cricket Myers PROPS DESIGNER: Shen Heckel VIOLENCE DESIGNER: Ned Mochel PRODUCTION STAGE MANAGER: Taylor Anne Cullen ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER: Jess Osorio ASSISTANT DIRECTOR: Kaite Brandt ARTWORK PHOTOGRAPHY: Frank Ishman
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At ANTAEUS: Measure for Measure, readings of The Rover; Mayor of the 85th Floor. Frequent participant of the Antaeus Playwrights Lab. Other Theater: My Children, My Africa! (Marin Theatre Company); A Christmas Carol (American Conservatory Theater); Exonerated (Lynx Performance Theatre); Good Breeding (Yerba Buena Center for the Arts); Hamlet Machine (Ion Theatre). TV/Film: 40; Easy Made Hard; The Institute. Training: B.A., San Diego State University; M.F.A., American Conservatory Theater. Member: AEA, SAG.
At ANTAEUS: Hamlet (Hamlet), Measure for Measure (Angelo/Claudio), Henry IV, Part One (Hal), The Curse of Oedipus (Oedipus), Macbeth (Banquo), The Malcontent (Mendoza), King Lear (Edgar), host of The Zip Code Plays Podcast ; Other Theater: Kirk Douglas, Playwrights Arena, NY Public, Kennedy Center, Signature, NJSF, Ojai, O’neil, Yale, South Coast Rep, La Jolla Playhouse, Ma-Yi among others. TV: Recurring roles on: 12 Monkeys, The West Wing, Dynasty, MacGyver, Notorious, Counterpart, Major Crimes, Medium, Killer Instinct, Sons of Anarchy. Recent Guest Star: 911, Magnum PI, Big Shot. BFA: Carnegie Mellon. Narrator of over 300 audiobooks, including the Diary of a Wimpy Kid Series. AWARDS: OBIE Award; 16 Earphones awards, Audie award, AudioFile “Golden Voice”- a lifetime achievement in the craft. This is for Lauren, my hero. And Wilder, my muse. IG/TWTR/FB @ramondeocampo
Gregg T. Daniel most recently directed, “End of the Line” by Peppur Chambers (Antaeus, Zip Code Plays, Season 2), The Road Theatre Co’s. season premiere of Harrison Davis Rivers,”This Bitter Earth”(recorded on multiple cameras). Other credits include August Wilson’s, “Gem of the Ocean” A Noise Within (2020 Ovation Nominee-Best Production of a Play), Lanie Robertson’s, “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill” & Katori Hall’s, “The Mountaintop” Garry Marshall Theatre. West Coast premieres of Mfoniso Udofia’s, “Her Portmanteau” Boston Court Theatre & Tearrance Arvelle Chisolm’s,”Br’er Cotton” Lower Depth Theatre. With Rogue Machine, Lorraine Hansberry’s,”Les Blancs” (Ovation-nominated, Best Director), the L.A. premiere of Greg Kalleres’, “Honky” (nominated Best Director, Comedy), Lorraine Hansberry’s, ”A Raisin in the Sun” at A Noise Within (Ovation nominated, Best Director) & a revival of Alice Childress', “Wedding Band: A Love/Hate Story in Black and White” Antaeus Company (Winner Stage Raw Award–Best Revival, Best Ensemble). Gregg is the Artistic Director/Founding member of Lower Depth Theatre (Lower-Depth.com). He is married to actress, Veralyn Jones.
At ANTAEUS: Henry IV Part I, Top Girls. ClassicsFest: Henry IV Part I, The London Cuckolds, Beyond the Horizon. Other work includes collaborations with Huntington Theatre Company, The Actors Studio, Manhattan Shakespeare Project, Columbia University, LAMDA and more. TV: Criminal Minds, General Hospital, Conan. When not at Antaeus, Sally might be found hiking, tweaking a recipe to make it healthier or (let’s be real) to incorporate what she currently has in her fridge, or gazing out the window with her cat, King Henry IX. Yes, that’s his name and he lives up to it. She’s also pretty into photography. Sally is a proud Texan, graduate of Boston University’s BFA program.
At ANTAEUS: Wedding Band: A Love/Hate Story in Black and White, You Can't Take It With You; Classicsfests Readings: Metamorphoses, The Trojan Women, The Rover, Along the River, Almost Winter, The Life of Galileo, Caesar and Cleopatra, The African Women. Other Theater: A Noise Within Resident Artist: Gem of the Ocean (Ant Ester), Argonautika (Hera), Mad Woman of Chaillot (Mme. Josephine/Dr. Jardin). Regional: Mark Taper Forum, South Coast Repertory, Denver Center, The Old Globe, Kirk Douglas. Local: Theatre @ Boston Court, Odyssey Theatre Ensemble, LA Women's Shakespeare Company, Lower Depth Theatre. International: The Father (Stockholm, Sweden). Some TV/Film: Nana, S.W.A.T., The Unit, Parenthood, ER, Home Invasion, Southland, Threat Matrix, Brooklyn South, City of Angeles, The Young and the Restless. Artistic Associate Producer at Lower Depth Theatre.
Michael has been working with Antaeus since 2001 inA Tale of Charles Dickens, Chekhov x 4, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Henry IV. Other Theatre: Bent, What the Butler Saw, School of Night, The Goat (Mark Taper Forum), Dracula (LA Theatre Works), Tickled Pink (Laguna Playhouse) The American Plan, Romeo and Juliet, Merry Wives of Windsor, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Measure for Measure, Hamlet, Othello (Old Globe), Romeo and Juliet, Midsummer Night’s Dream (Kingsmen), The Glass Menagerie (Syracuse Stage), Leading Ladies (Barnstormers Theatre), Spite for Spite, Don Juan (Andak Stage Company) Off-Broadway: Othello, Richard III Film: Brown Paper Bag, Weekend at Jesus’, Hells Heart, Connected, Passing Normal, Chase The Slut, Benevolence. MFA Old Globe. For Heather, thanks for everything.
At ANTAEUS: Hamlet, Cloud 9, As You Like It, Henry IV, Part One, The Curse of Oedipus. Other Theater: Pasadena Playhouse, CTG - The Kirk Douglas and Mark Taper Forum, South Coast Rep, International City Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, Disney Concert Hall, 6th Act, Chalk Rep, The Blank, EST/LA, Boston Court, Ojai Playwrights Conference, The Road, Chautauqua Theater Company (NY), Center for New Performance/Huntington Gardens, numerous Off- and Off-Off-B’way. Film: Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon I & II, Taken 3, Bloody Bridget, Zombie Strippers, Deceit. TV: The Good Doctor, Jane the Virgin (recurring), Orville, Scandal, Castle, 90210, Medium, Without a Trace, Numb3rs, Victorious, Chemistry, As the World Turns (recurring), among others. Emmy Award Winner for When Things Get Small. VO work in video games, TV/online narration, ads, audio drama podcasts, dubbing, and educational programming. Faculty member at CalArts School of Theater. M.F.A.: UCSD/La Jolla Playhouse, B.A.: Duke (Magna cum laude).
At ANTAEUS: Henry IV, several ClassicsFests, many Workshops and Readings. In Los Angeles theatre: Antony, Antony and Cleopatra, (Theatricum Botanicum); Estragon, Waiting for Godot; Scrooge, A Christmas Carol; Malvolio, Twelfth Night; Vershinin, The Three Sisters; Arnolphe, The School For Wives; title roles in Cymbeline, Tartuffe, Merchant of Venice, among many others, at A Noise Within. Loads of NYC and regional theatre roles including leads in The Normal Heart, Talley’s Folly, and The Sound of Teeth. Directed The Cherry Orchard, As You Like It, Miss Witherspoon, The Learned Ladies, among bunches of other plays. Has recurred and guest starred on tons of TV shows, like Charmed, Burn Notice, and Alias, had leading roles in many films and TV movies (Alice in Wonderland, The Lord of Illusions), and been heard in reams of animated projects, such as The Lorax, and scads of commercials.
Peter Van Norden has appeared in Antaeus productions of Hamlet (Drama Critics Circle, The Hothouse (2019 Ovation Award for Best Actor), Macbeth, The Liar, American Tales, The Man Who Had All The Luck, and The Zip Code Plays. Other recent appearances include: The Tempest, An Interactive Production at Shakespeare Center LA (where he also covered and performed for Tom Hanks as ‘Falstaff’ in Henry IV, Parts I and II); Red Ink at Playwrights Arena (2020 Ovation Award nomination); 1776 and Singin’ in the Rain at La Mirada Theater; and for three years as ‘Ebeneezer Scrooge’ in A Christmas Carol at the Rubicon Theatre Company. In his native NYC he appeared in Little Johnny Jones (with Donny Osmond), Hamlet (with both Kevin Kline and Sam Waterston), Jungle of Cities (with Al Pacino), Henry V (with Meryl Streep), and Saint Joan (with Lynn Redgrave). His many regional theater appearances include the lead roles in both George Bernard Shaw's Major Barbara (at San Jose Rep) and Misalliance (at Center Stage, Baltimore). Peter was the first American actor to appear in the title role of Mike Bartlett’s King Charles III at Arizona Theatre Company (where he also appeared in Neil Simon’s The Sunshine Boys). Film and TV roles include leads in The Accused (opposite Oscar winner, Jodie Foster), Police Academy (as Steve Guttenberg’s inept partner), The Naked Gun 2 ½, and the Stephen King mini-series, The Stand. Petervannorden.com
At ANTAEUS: Three Days in the Country, Top Girls, The Autumn Garden. Regional: King Charles III (Arizona Theatre Company), The Nether (Kirk Douglas Theatre), The Tall Girls (La Jolla Playhouse, DNA Series), The Jacksonian (Geffen Playhouse, U/S). Additional theater credits include: the one woman show All American Girl (InterACT Theatre Company), Jane Eyre (L.A. Theatre Works), The House Of Yes (Zephyr Theatre), Sidhe (The Road Theatre). TV/Film: Grey’s Anatomy, The Mentalist, Brothers & Sisters and Buddymoon.
Elizabeth Swain is an actor, director and teacher, and a member of Antaeus. Directing includes The Winter's Tale (Antaeus); Hamlet (Antaeus); Measure for Measure (co-directed with Armin Shimerman (Antaeus); Romeo and Juliet and Two Noble Kinsmen (Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival); An Evening of Betrayal (The 6th Act); 3 Hamlets; 2 Macbeths; A Midsummer Night’s Dream; The Malcontent (Antaeus); The Rover and The Lucky Chance; and several new plays, most recently The Gatekeepers by Dan Perry. She directed a zoom production of The Comedy of Errors for the Classical Theatre Lab, for whom she has directed many staged readings, including Tartuffe, Richard I & II. For Antaeus she has directed six ClassicsFest readings.
As an actor she has worked on Broadway, Off Broadway and in regional theaters, including The LA Women’s Shakespeare Company and 3 Antaeus productions. On TV she was a regular on Guiding Light and As the World Turns and made guest appearances on many other daytime shows including Dark Shadows.
She has taught at Cal Arts, CSULB, Barnard College, and is Professor Emerita at Marymount Manhattan College. She was awarded an NEH Fellowship to study at Shakespeare’s Globe in London and holds a PhD from the CUNY Graduate Center. Website: elizabethswain.net
William Shakespeare
Playwright
William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "the Bard"). His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays (including Hamlet, MacBeth, Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer's Night Dream, The Merchant of Venice, Othello, Much ado About Nothing, Richard III, King Lear, and numerous other seminal works), 154 sonnets, three long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. He remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted.
*member, Actor’s Equity Association, the union of professional Actors and Stage Managers in the U.S. This production is presented under the auspices of the Actors’ Equity Los Angeles Membership Company Rule
“A BADASS, NAIL-BITING EVENT akin to a Celebrity Death Match of iambic pentameter gone wild… hands down THE clearest, most accessible delivery of a Shakespeare text… a truly triumphant piece of work.”
“A GREAT SHOW!… LA THEATRE BITES RECOMMENDED… this production has found the comedy in the tragedy… lightens the mood but doesn’t take away from the stakes of the story.”
“WOW! Ramón de Ocampo’s bravura lead performance, Elizabeth Swain’s insightful direction, and a striking production design are just three reasons to celebrate Antaeus Theatre Company’s return to in-person productions.”
“A RESOUNDING SUCCESS… absolutely captivating… effortless and masterful direction… Whether or not you’re a fan of Shakespeare, I highly recommend checking out this production… knock[s] it out of the park.”
