Adaptations
Below you can find more details about the script adaptations I've created. Contact me with any inquiries about potential collaborations or upcoming productions.
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One of my great passions is to cut apart and reshape classical text in order to give it new life. Each adaptation gives me a new challenge: cutting a four hour play down to 60 minutes; adapting a script with over 40 characters to accommodate a cast of four; giving a feminist lens and a satisfying end to Shakespeare's most misogynistic play; retelling Hamlet by borrowing text from all across Shakespeare's cannon....
Hamlet & Ophelia
This script tells a more fully developed story of Hamlet and Ophelia's relationship, while not being bound to all the plot points in the original story. Specifically I wanted to let the audience further into Ophelia's mind.
This script by and large follows the structure of the play Hamlet but with large sections taken out and text substituted in from Shakespeare's other plays & sonnets. Some whole scenes in this script are entirely patchworked together from all across the canon.
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Production History: upcoming, 2024
art by Maya Danks
Titus Andronicus
In 2023 I was commissioned to create an adaptation of Shakespeare's "Titus Andronicus" for a Halloween staged reading starring James Pickering. This 90 minute adaptation accommodates a cast of six, and is specifically framed to emphasize the dark spooky themes of murder, mutilation, and revenge. The goal was to create a script with a chilling Halloween atmosphere, while being mindful to not portray topics of sexual assault and racism in a gratuitous or insensitive manner.
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Production History: Sunstone Studios, Milwaukee,2023
The Tamer
"The Tamer" is an adaptation of a play called "The Tamer Tamed" by James Fletcher, which was written shortly after Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew." This adaptation peppers in scenes and dialogue from Shakespeare's original script, to combine the two stories into one.
In this adapted script we follow Petruchio on a journey of hard lessons and (hopefully) redemption. He is haunted by the memory of his first wife Kate as his new wife Maria turns the tables of power on him, and the tamer becomes the tamed.
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Production History: Sunstone Studios, Milwaukee, 2021
art by Maya Danks
Macbeth
Four actors. 60 minutes. This cut of Macbeth focuses heavily on the tricks our minds play on us when paranoia, fear, and the supernatural cloud our senses. My goal was to portray horror and suspense on stage as effectively as we are used to seeing on film. With shapeshifting witches, invisible ghosts, and unexplainable sounds in the night, this immersive production is crafted to make you question your perception of reality.
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Production History: Sunstone Studios, Milwaukee, 2021
art by Maya Danks
The Merchant of Venice
In my opinion "The Merchant of Venice" is a play that should be permanently retired from being produced in our modern world. Its antisemitic message is unavoidable, no matter how you cut and manipulate the text. So when I was hired to direct this play in 2019 I decided the script had to be reshaped as a tragedy rather than a comedy; one that highlights the hypocrisy of characters that preach mercy without practicing it. My adaptation of "Merchant" reframes our Christian protagonists as initially likeable but deeply prejudiced people, with Portia as our clear villain. It focuses on Shylock's humanity, taking him out of the role of a caricature. For our 2019 production we worked closely with the Jewish Community Center and Jewish members of the Milwaukee theatre community to approach this material as sensitively as possible.
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Production History: Mad Rogues, Milwaukee, 2019
graphic by Maya Danks