Re-Introducing, Emily C. A. Snyder! Emily will be directing this Fall's Richard II, which she'll be the first to tell you is her favorite of Shakespeare's Histories. Lucky us! Emily's been with us since the beginning, as an actor, supporter, and loyal audience member. We are thrilled to have her with us in this new capacity, and will let her say a little bit about herself after this brief picture break.
 |
| The brevity really depends on how long you get lost in her eyes. |
Emily is thrilled to be returning to Hamlet Isn't Dead to direct Richard II, after performing in HID's inaugural production of Two Gentlemen of Verona as Lucetta. [Editor: And Outlaw #2, never forget]
Emily is the Artistic Director and Co-Founder of Turn to Flesh Productions, which specializes in new plays on modern themes written in classical styles. Valentine's Weekend 2014 premiered Emily's own Cupid and Psyche ~ A New Play in Blank Verse at the Barrow Group Theatre.
A professional director for the past fifteen years, favorite shows include: Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, The Taming of the Shrew, As You Like It, Much Ado About Nothing, A Midsummer Night's Dream (Gaudete Academy), The Tempest, Twelfth Night, Tartuffe, Our Town (Hudson Drama Society), and Macbeth (Theatre906).
The premiere scholar on writing new verse plays, she has also worked as a Verse Consultant for May Violets Spring: A New Story for a New Ophelia (Dare Lab), Twelfth Night (Manhattan Shakespeare Company), and It Would Take Armageddon (DreamCatcher Entertainment.) Emily had the pleasure of studying John Barton's approach to Shakespearean verse in London and Stratford-upon-Avon, England, where she also performed as Rosalind in As You Like It catty-corner to Shakespeare's birthplace. She holds her Masters Degree from Emerson College in Boston, MA, and her Bachelors from Franciscan University of Steubenville, OH. Learn more here: www.emilycasnyder.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Hooray for Emily! But, oof, our next director has some mighty scholarly shoes to fill. Plus, the show paired with Richard II is Romeo & Juliet, one of Shakespeare's most-famous and often-produced plays. This director had better have some lofty artistic ideas, some immense intellectual ability, and the theatrical capabilities of a--...oh, it's David.
 |
| More like Romeo & Who-liet David Direct Again? |
That's right! David Andrew Laws returns in his third stint as director for Hamlet Isn't Dead. He directed HID's maiden production, The Two Gentleman of Verona, and the bloody-fun Halloween adventure, Titus Andronicus. He has also appeared with Hamlet Isn't Dead as Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew, Buckingham in Richard III, and Costard in Love's Labour's Lost, as well as providing fight choreography for the Henry VI trilogy. He also had a bit part as Alarbus in Titus Andronicus, but we don't talk about that much.
For those of you new to the CommunHIDty, David is the Artistic Director and co-founder of Hamlet Isn't Dead. His training has taken him all over, including Louisville, Pittsburgh, Princeton, New York City, and Smolyan, Bulgaria, where he played the titular role in Romeo & Juliet (and we're not talking about the ampersand). He is a Carnegie Mellon graduate and is sitting here writing this entry as if he didn't just vaguely insult himself two paragraphs ago.
He is also an avid writer, having written over 154 sonnets, which he is hoping to compile into a book called Donations for the Wordless. His most recent work is Attack! of the Killer Man from the Sun!, a Sci-Fi B-Movie parody for the stage, which has received several staged readings in New York, and is anxiously awaiting its world premiere. But that really has little to do with his directorial abilities; you'll just have to come check out R&J to see those.
For more information on David and his doings, please visit davidandrewlaws.com.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We'll have a lot more information arriving soon, such as audition information and performance dates, but know for now that this is one set of shows you're not going to want to miss. The same troupe of eight actors, each playing multiple roles, will present this series that we're lovingly referring to as the "Vendetta Duology". Can they do it? How much hair will they lose in the process? Only time will tell.
Come see how love turns to death, and desire leads to the grave, as Hamlet Isn't Dead explores Shakespeare's best-known couple and one of his lesser-loved kings.
And remember, Hamlet Isn't Dead is theatre you'll love, whether you like it or not!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For more information, you can visit http://www.hamletisntdead.com, and be sure to subscribe to our Mailing List while you're there.
If you haven't Liked us already on Facebook, now is the time! All the cool kids are doing it.
https://www.facebook.com/HamletIsntDead
If Twitter's more your speed, we have that too. We just want to please you any way we can.https://twitter.com/hamletisntdead
Or to see us in action, you can check us out (and subscribe, hint, hint) at https://www.youtube.com/user/hamletisntdead
Basically, if you want to follow us, you just put hamletisntdead after something. And why wouldn't you want to follow us?? We're a lot of fun, we promise.
