Make Hamlet Your Own: A Rewriting Workshop

Why is Hamlet suspicious of the words of his father’s ghost? How do Gertrude and Ophelia survive in the court? Are both Hamlet and Ophelia mad? Is Denmark a prison, as Hamlet asserts? Folger Theatre’s A Room in the Castle rewrites the story from Gertrude’s and Ophelia’s perspectives as a meditation on women helping women. Claire McCarthy’s film Ophelia gives Ophelia more power.

Come explore the secrets that belie the spoken and unspoken words in one of the most widely adapted plays of Shakespeare. Led by Alexa Alice Joubin, English professor at George Washington University, this interactive workshop showcases several rewritings of Hamlet, such as Last Action Hero, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Shamlet, a Taiwanese rollicking parody, and offers participants a hands-on opportunity to rewrite key passages from their own cultural perspectives. Let’s make Hamlet our own!