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Fortinbras
by Lee Blessing
Directed by Phil Gonzales
September 13-28, 2002
Curtain Riser:
Hamlet Dumb Show
by Phil Gonzales
Assistant Director: Sarah Milhouse
Fight Choreographer: Jennifer Waldroup
Set Designer: Daniel McDermott
Sound Design: Bill Sather
Light Design: Andi Billig
Stagehand: Paul Danko
Cast:
Andi Billig, Fran Chester, Aaron Coker, Brad Donaldson, Joy Donaldson, Melissa Gaida, Nathan Gaida, Phil Gonzales, Mark Kreger, Carrie Kuehl, Tim Kuehl, Rick Raasch, James Rone, Bill Sather

"The sight is dismal." Nearly everyone is dead and the blood still warm when an adventuring Norwegian royal enters the grisly final scene of Shakespeare's Hamlet.

Good night, Sweet Prince... hello Fortinbras, the wrong man at the right time in one of the funniest stage comedies you will ever see.

Lee Blessing's Fortinbras picks up where Hamlet leaves off, as hilarious as Hamlet is tragic. Whose story will be left for the ages? Fortinbras' own, if he has anything to say about it. It's easy to invent a little history... unless you're up against the conscience of Horatio, two Polish maidens, one lustful succuba, and that weird talking box in the cellar.

No previous knowledge of Hamlet is required. Fortinbras would want it that way.

THE STORY:

Young Fortinbras, the son of Hamlet's father's oldest rival, enters during the last scene of Hamlet only to order the bodies of the royal family shuffled off while he devises the best possible media blitz to legitimize his ascension to the throne of Denmark.

Horatio, sworn to the dead Hamlet to convey the truth of his actions, is immediately cast by Fortinbras into the role of an unwilling public relations person. Meanwhile, Fortinbras is forced to balance a disastrous and mistaken invasion of Poland with a seductive and harrowing array of ghosts, ranging from a vampish Ophelia to a repentant Claudius and Gertrude, all of whom cast doubts in his mind as to what really makes up the character of a ruler.

In the afterworld, all of the characters reconvene, wiser now by their deaths and ready to make a new go of it in Elsinore.

Opening Weekend
Friday, Sept. 13 @ 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, Sept. 14 @ 7:30 p.m.
Second Weekend
Friday, Sept. 20 @ 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, Sept. 21 @ 7:30 p.m.
Closing Weekend
Thursday, Sept. 26 @ 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, Sept. 28 @ 7:30 p.m.

September 13-28, 2002

at Eagle Ridge Jr. High School in Savage.

All tickets $7 at the door.

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