Salve’s Performing Arts Department to Present Production of ‘Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead’

By: Steven Bianco
Posted In: News

This fall, Salve Regina University’s Performing Arts Department will present a comedic and unorthodox view of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”, with Tom Stoppard’s “Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead.” Rehearsals for the show began over a month ago on Sept. 18, and a great deal of physical and emotional work has gone into its development; from the construction of a historically designed stage to the portrayal of a psychological experiment.

When asked of their opinions on being involved in this production, actresses Renee Berard, playing the Tragedian, and Nicole Dionne, playing Rosencrantz, were very enthusiastic. “I feel excited,” said Berard. “It’s so fun to be a part of Salve’s Theater Community.” Dionne then said, “I think it’s really great, considering that this is my first big role.” Berard is a freshman, and “Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead” will be her debut with Salve’s Performing Arts Department. Dionne is a junior and has been involved in a number of Salve theatrical productions, including “Eurydice,” “Impromptu,” and “The Net with a Hole in It.”

According to Patrick Grimes, Director of “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead,” the play is the story of” Hamlet” through the eyes of the trivial characters Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and how they randomly get caught up in the mix. From getting stuck in swamp of philosophical nonsense to encountering a troupe of perverted traveling tragedy actors, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern often find themselves in a maze of confusion as they are bestowed with the questionable task of finding the root of Hamlet’s “lunacy.” In the midst of these characters wandering and trying to find their place in the scheme of things, Grimes has utilized an old psychological concept to bring a sense of significance to this production. “It’s a thought experiment posed by a physicist in 1935:’Schr

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