Shakespeare Festival opens season with <i>Hamlet</i>

Hamlet, the classic Shakespearean tragedy, will open the 19th season of the New Orleans Shakespeare Festival at Tulane. Director Clare Moncrief says Hamlet is a dark and powerful story, driven by human desire, violence and vengeance.

“The protagonist's greatest battle is within his own mind,” says Moncrief, Shakespeare Festival at Tulane managing director. “My love of Shakespeare's stories lies in the humanity of his characters. I find myself most moved by performances wherein his characters become real, flesh-and-blood human beings, struggling with the drama of real life.”

Hamlet follows a young man as he copes with the death of his father and the hasty marriage of his mother to his father's brother. The young prince struggles to devise and carry out a plan for vengeance. Dave Davis, a graduate of the Tulane Department of Theatre and Dance, is cast to play the conflicted and driven young prince.

“At only 22 I feel both flattered and privileged to have been selected by my wonderful teachers and friends at the Shakespeare Festival to craft a character with texture and vitality enough to do the Bard justice,” says Davis. He also appeared as Octavius Caesar in last summer's Julius Caesar.

In January 2013, Hamlet will be restaged for the Shakespeare Festival's Performance for the Schools series. Each year the festival welcomes more than 5,000 area middle and high school students to the Tulane campus to experience live, professional Shakespearean drama.

Preview performances are June 14 and 15 at 7:30 p.m. Opening night is June 16 at 7:30 p.m. and tickets include a post-performance reception with the cast. Performances are at 7:30 p.m. on June 28, July 5 and July 7, and at 1:30 p.m. on June 17, June 30 and July 8. To purchase tickets, contact the Lupin Theater Box Office at 504-865-5106 or buy them online.