Director’s Note
“You are not you anymore and I’m trying to understand how a human with feelings disappeared.” – Prageeta Sharma, Grief Sequence
“Honest listening is one of the best medicines we can offer the dying and the bereaved.” – Jeannie Cameron
“I try to keep my mind at noon, at least as long, as noon lasts… the full reverberation from the forest, the final couplet, spoken by the flicker, hammering for grubs in fallen hemlock.” – Erica Funkhouser, Grief
“Listen for the hesitant beat […] Sit at the edge of the woods.” – Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, The Accident of Being Lost
“There’s no such thing as prolonged grief disorder. Calling normal human emotion a pathology is a symptom of our “good vibes only” culture. There’s NOTHING wrong with you if you’re sad, lonely, or have a hard time finding joy or meaning after your person dies […] when you read about prolonged Grief Disorder and how “the whole world is at risk” remind yourself that grief is normal and healthy, and no one gets to tell you how to grieve.” – Megan Devine
“I think that the best way to try to understand death is to think about it a lot. Try to come to terms with it. Try to really understand it. Give it a chance!”
– Joe Bainard, Death
June 21st, 2024 Director Notes- Hamlet (No More) an amendment by JCarmichael What is the reason to get together with others and work on a play?
First there’s sometimes, luckily, an ask to consider. In my case, Artistic Director Brendan Healy of Canadian Stage invited me to come and direct a Shakespeare for their Dream in High Park. There were, at first, a few pieces on option, but, for various reasons, they just didn’t quite fit to helm. Consequently came (perhaps this sounds cheesy) a sudden realization, that turned into compulsion: that the piece was in front of me all the time, inevitable, and beckoning. So, I proposed Hamlet after turning to and back to it again. I knew I had come to a place in my life where I understood him, and the play world, the other humans in it, deeply. Or, rather what had deepened, from my own personal experience, was I understood them as grieving. Especially after googling on a hunch what was rolling around in my brain: “are Hamlet and Ophelia and others simply, profoundly grieving?” and found author Meghan O’Rourke’s article Hamlet’s Not Depressed. He’s Grieving. Accordingly, I dug into this line of examination as I read and worked to uncover some of the playwrights’ intentions and points of view on the play. To in fact delve into them… Shakespeare lost his 11-year-old son, Hamnet, a few years before writing this play, and, his father died the year it was written… Thus, in this way, comes the reason to do the work. To gather others around it. To hope you might find meaning together and its relevance today. To generate amity and a way to share that out to others. Especially, with a story that matters. I believe this community, this Hamlet, this small village of humans, their loss and pain and love, does. I feel seen when I read it. I hope you do too… and audience, I write to you as I am about to start rehearsals in a few days, so this is all hope before the great investigation with others! But what has kept it alive to-date is that I have turned to other people’s words on Grief for illumination. So much so, that this piece is an amended version. In fact, it’s hard to do a cut of a four hour play and not have it be its own modified entity. Many hunches I’ve played out in this script - excavating what I think most important: to make
space for grief. It hurts to lose the one(s) you love. When life shatters with loss how do we pick up the pieces? How can we even see? How do we continue as the world goes on, often cruelly, without us? A play doesn’t make it better. But it can companion. If, perhaps, we give grief and the bereaved a chance? This is for those who have felt lost and abandoned and misunderstood inside a monumental loss – cast away moan. Let’s no more throw away our mourning.
Remember…
For my sister, Tegan. And, for my father.
Please consider donating to Indigenous Wellness, Lumara Grief & Bereavement Care
– Jessica Carmichael
Works I’ve woven into the play: Poems
• Amirthanayagam, Indran. “Face” from Splintered Face: Tsunami Poems
• Bainard, Joe. Death
• Beck, Zeina Hashem, Poem Beginning & Ending with My Birth
• Botkin, Nancy. Grief
• Brock-Broido, Lucie. Father, in Drawer
• Chang, Tina. Love
• christensen, inger. it
• Funkhouser, Erica. Grief
• Hill, Geoffrey. Funeral Music
• Lorde, Audre. A Litany for Survival
• Kizer, Carolyn. What the Bones Know
• Shapiro, Harvey. Sister
• Sharma, Prageeta. Grief Sequence
• Spears Jones, Patricia. Fortune’s Wheel
• Whitman, Walt. Oh Captain! My Captain!
Plays:
• Shakespeare, William: Much Ado About Nothing, Richard the Second
Books
• The Bible: Genesis, Matthew. The Story of Cain and Able, Matthew 5:4, Matthew 7:3
• Cameron, Jeannie (Jenny). A time to live, a time to die
• Cohen, Matt. Elizabeth and After
• Ditlevsen, Tove. Childhood, Youth, Dependency
• marjerrison, lara margaret. grief&loss&love&sex
• Nunez, Sigrid. What are you going through?
• Oswald, Alice. Falling Awake
• Rilke, Rainer Maria. Letters to a Young Poet
• Saunders, George. Lincoln in the Bardo
• Twain, Mark. Which was the Dream?
Songs
• Reed, Lou. Magic and Loss
• Simpson, Leanne Betasamosake. Spacing
• Irish Epitaph
Additional Suggested Reading List:
• Adamson, Gil. The Outlander
• Crummey, Michael. The Adversary
• Devine, Megan. It’s Okay That You’re Not Okay: Meeting Grief and Loss in a Culture That Doesn’t Understand
• Ondaatje, Michael. In the Skin of a Lion and The English Patient
• O’Rourke, Meghan. “Hamlet’s Not Depressed. He’s Grieving.” in Life: Grieving Section for Slate Magazine
• Lahiri, Jhumpa. Unaccustomed Earth
• Lynch, Paul. Prophet Song
• Porter, Max. Grief is the thing with Feathers
• Steinbeck, John. A letter to Elaine Scott, 1949 in Steinbeck: a Life in Letters
• Shakespeare, William. Hamlet
The company wishes to thank:
Neve Carmichael, Kate Hewlett, Gordon S. Miller, Jackson Thompson, Madeline Savoie, Baird Duncan, Helen and Patrick Hewlett
Prince Amponsah – Barnardo/Player
Prince Amponsah is a Canadian actor based in Toronto and has appeared on the stage and screen throughout Canada and the United States. Some of his credits include the Shaw Festival, Lot and His God (Desiderata Theatre), SHEETS (Veritas Theatre) and Jonathan: A Seagull Parable (Surreal SoReal Theatre). And the critically acclaimed Station Eleven (HBO Max). Prince received a Canadian Screen Award nomination for best supporting performance in a series in 2023 for Avocado Toast (Border2Border Entertainment). Prince is excited to make his CanStage debut in Shakespeare in High Park’s Hamlet
Raquel Duffy – Gertrude
Raquel Duffy has worked at Soulpepper Theatre (resident artist), Stratford Festival, Tarragon Theatre, Neptune Theatre, Theatre Aquarius, Theatre New Brunswick, Eastern Front Theatre, Shakespeare by the Sea, the Charlottetown Festival. Recent credits: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (Neptune/Mirvish), Appropriate (Coal Mine Theatre), Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Mirvish). Select credits: The Father, The Goat, or Who is Sylvia, Spoon River, Wedding at Aulis, Rose, Animal Farm, Of Human Bondage, Alligator Pie, It’s a Wonderful Life, Noises Off, The 39 Steps, The Just, The Anger in Ernest and Ernestine, Idiot’s Delight, Tartuffe, Angels in America and Perestroika. Recipient of a Dora award, Merritt Award, 8 Dora nominations. Media: Reacher, Most Dangerous Game 2, Ginny & Georgia. Love to Finn and Ruari.
Christo Graham – Guildenstern/Second Gravedigger/Osric
Christo Graham is an actor, musician and graphic designer from Bishop’s Mills, Ontario. He has performed across Canada, and created posters for over fifty theatrical productions. He composed and produced the music for Margaret Atwood’s Angel Catbird, and received a META nomination for his performance as Jerry Lee Lewis in Million Dollar Quartet at the Segal Centre. Theatre credits include Unsafe (Canadian Stage); Love’s Labour’s Lost, Richard III, Grand Magic (Stratford Festival); Isaac’s Eye (Unit 102); Jerusalem (Crow’s Theatre). His latest albums, Graham’s General Store and Turnin’ are available online and on vinyl through We Are Busy Bodies.
Stephen Jackman-Torkoff – Horatio
Stephen Jackman-Torkoff is a wandering poet, travelling painter and lover. Canadian Stage credits include: The Inheritance Part I and II and Botticelli in the Fire/Sunday in Sodom. Other theatre credits include: Richard II, Grand Magic, Every Little Nookie, Little Women (Stratford Festival); Fifteen Dogs (Crow’s Theatre); Trout Stanley (Factory Theatre); The Glass Menagerie (Grand Theatre); Angels in America (Arts Club); You Never Can Tell (Shaw Festival). Stephen creates Poetic-Dreamscape-Odysseys and performs them at the Fantasy Theatre (their apartment). Stephen loves you.
Sam Khalilieh – Polonius
*Sam Khalilieh is very happy to be involved with this wonderful production of a historically significant play written by William Shakespeare. He is a very able actor and has been for a while now. Thanks to the wonderful team at Canadian Stage. Thanks to my amazing cast. Thanks to Brooke, Rifka, Nabiha, Blanch and Mabel (and Jensen). Thank you for coming!
*Sam’s real name is Mahfuz Sami Khalilieh. He changed it to Sam in 1993 after he saw how the world felt about Palestinians.
Qasim Khan – Hamlet
Qasim is a four-time Dora nominee who has played major roles across Canada. He recently starred in The Inheritance. Also for Canadian Stage: Hamlet (2016 as Horatio), All’s Well..., and Das Ding. Other recent credits: The Playboy of the Western World (Shaw); Hedda Gabler (Coal Mine); The Miser, Paradise Lost, The Neverending Story, Comedy of Errors, The Changeling, and others (Stratford); Acha Bacha (TPM/Buddies); A Craigslist Cantata (Musical Stage); Alligator Pie, Dirt, Crucible, Royal Comedians (Soulpepper); Home Project (Howland); Anne of Green…, Alice Through…(Charlottetown); Shannon 10:40 (Videofag). Film/TV/ Voice: Sneakerella, Feedback, Stillwater School, Blue’s Clues, Riftworld, Nikita, Saving Hope, and others. Follow @theqasimkhan
Breton Lalama – Marcellus/Player
Theatre includes: The Inheritance (CanStage); Alice (Bad Hats/ Soulpepper), Queen Goneril, King Lear (Soulpepper); Pleasureville, Fully Committed, In Leiu of Flowers, The Rocky Horror Show (Neptune); Orlando (RMTC); Macbeth, Romeo + Juliet (CTP/Winter Garden Theatre); Hair (North American Tour; Broadway World Award: Best Featured Performer in a Touring Production). FILM/TV includes: The Madness (Netflix), Y: The Last Man (FX/Hulu), Slasher (Shudder), Pretty Hard Cases (CBC/NBC). Plays/screenplays: LAST SHOW ON EARTH TRADEMARK SYMBOL! (Neptune); QUID PRO QUO (Tarragon Residency); Really Happy Someday (Spindle Films). Other: Proud co-director of the Spindle Films Foundation to support transgender Canadian filmmakers. This one’s for JGB. @bretonlikethecrackers
Beck Lloyd – Ophelia
Beck Lloyd holds an MFA in Performance from York University and teaches acting, text and Shakespeare across Ontario. She is a graduate of the Birmingham Conservatory for Classical Theatre. Beck moderated the Stratford Festival’s much-watched YouTube panel, Black Like Me: Behind The Stratford Festival Curtain, and created, And Introducing… with Stratfest@Home. Other theatre credits include: A Wrinkle in Time, Grand Magic, Richard III, The Miser, r+j (Stratford); Controlled Damage, (The London Grand); Bluebeard’s Bride, The Madwoman of Chaillot (The Lunar Stratagem); The Merchant of Venice, Pericles, Hippolytus and The Yellow Wallpaper (York University); Portraits Patterns Possibilities (Culchahworks); The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (Lower Ossington Theatre).
Diego Matamoros – Claudius
A founding member of the Soulpepper Theatre Company, Diego Matamoros has been acting in theatre, as well as in film and television, for more than forty years. For Soulpepper, he has acted in more than seventy productions since the company’s first season in 1998. In 2022, he played the role of Gloucester in King Lear at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London, England. In 2023, he played the role of Hugo Dorn in Chekhov’s The Seagull for Soulpepper. He played two roles in Bad Roads, an important new Ukranian play, produced by Crow’s Theatre in 2023. Most recently, he played the role of Walt Disney in a Lucas Hnath play entitled A Public Reading Of An Unproduced Screenplay About The Death Of Walt Disney, for Outside The March Theatre Co.
Dan Mousseau – Laertes
Dan Mousseau is a Dora Award winning actor and is thrilled to be making his Canadian Stage debut in Hamlet. Other theatre credits include: Wildwoman, The Seagull, Innocence Lost (Soulpepper); Three Sisters (Howland), Prodigal (Dora Award, Howland/Crow’s); A Christmas Carol (Soupcan Theatre); Perfect Wedding (Thousand Island’s). You can see Dan in season four of Amazon’s The Boys, and he would like to thank his family, friends and his beloved dog Merlin.
Amelia Sargisson – Rosencrantz/Gravedigger
Amelia Sargisson loves to tell stories and is grateful for the chance to do so in such fine company. Previously for Canadian Stage: Viola in Twelfth Night and Cordelia in King Lear (SIHP). Other favourite credits include: The Importance of Being Earnest (Citadel), Red Velvet (Crow’s - Dora nomination), Paradise Lost (Stratford), La Bête and Amadeus (TIFT), All I Want For Christmas and The 39 Steps (Centaur), The Watershed (Porte Parole/Crow’s). Amelia has narrated multiple titles for Penguin Random House audiobooks, works regularly as a mentoring artist at NTS, and plays a lead role in Don’t Nod’s first video game in the “Lost Records” universe. She co-wrote a play with nisha ahuja, 30 People Watching, which appears in ReView: An Anthology of Plays Committed to Social Justice
James Dallas Smith – Ghost/Player/Doctor
J.D. is an actor/writer/musician with Six Nations Mohawk of the Grand River (Turtle Clan) and Scottish heritage. He is thrilled to be making his debut with Canadian Stage. Favorite performing credits include: Almighty Voice & His Wife (Dora Nomination for Outstanding Performance), Where the Blood Mixes, King Lear, Our Town (Soulpepper), The Secret to Good Tea (Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre), This is How We Got Here, Ipperwash (Native Earth Performing Arts), The Donnelly’s Part I, Part II & Part III, Cottagers & Indians, The Berlin Blues, Ipperwash (Blyth), The Drawer Boy, Proof (Centaur), MacBeth (Great Southwest Shakespeare Company), and Hard Times for These Times (NAC). J.D. lives in Toronto with wife, his beloved kitten, and his small, barbarian child.
Creative
Jessica Carmichael – Director
Jessica Carmichael is an artist of mixed Abénaki/Euro heritage. Recent directing credits: The Clearing (Shaw Festival), Middletown (National Theatre School of Canada), Grief (Concordia University), The Rez Sisters (Stratford Festival), Embodying Power and Place - 4 short audio works (Native Earth, Nightwood Theatre, New Harlem Production). Jessica is a graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada (Acting), the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art/ Kings College London (MA Text & Performance Studies), the University of Alberta (MFA Directing) and studied with the Stratford Festival’s Michael Langham Workshop for Classical Direction (2014, 2016). Jessica is a tenured associate professor in the Theatre Department of Concordia University in Tiohtià:ke/Montréal where she lives with her daughter.
Joshua
Quinlan
– Costume & Set Designer
Selected: Casey And Diana, Every Little Nookie (Stratford Festival); Uncle Vanya, The Master Plan (Crow’s Theatre); Hedda Gabler, Yerma (Coal Mine); Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 (Crow’s/MSC); The Sound of Music, The Music Man (TIP); Little Shop of Horrors (CTPH); The Drawer Boy, Wrong For Each Other, My Hero (PSFT); An Enemy of the People, Don Giovanni, Stupid F*cking Bird, Spring Awakening (OSU); Beauty and the Beast, Love and Information (UWindsor). Training: MFA Theatre – Design, The Ohio State University; BA Honours Drama, University of Windsor; Off the Wall Theatre Production Arts Program. Awards: Siminovitch Protégé Designer, Dora Award Winner, Brian Jackson Award, Tom Patterson Award, Ian and Molly Lindsay Design Fellow. Online: joshuaquinlan.com
Logan Raju Cracknell – Lighting Designer
Logan Raju Cracknell is a Dora nominated Toronto based designer working in dance, theatre, opera, and live events. Their work has taken them across Canada and to Europe and the US. Select works include: Heroes of the Fourth Turning (Howland/Crow’s), Bremen Town (Next Stage), Fairview (Canadian Stage/Obsidian Theatre), Prodigal (Howland), The Extinction Therapist (Theatre Aquarius), Sweeney Todd (Theatre Sheridan), Alice in Wonderland (Bad Hats Theatre/Soulpepper), Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill (Theatre Calgary), Dixon Road (Musical Stage/Obsidian Theatre), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Canadian Stage), As You Like It: A Radical Retelling by Cliff Cardinal (Crow’s Theatre).
Chris Ross-Ewart – Sound Designer & Composer
CHRIS ROSS-EWART (he/him) is a sound designer, composer, and performer. Working across Canada, the US and the world, he works on theatre, musical theatre, podcasts and installations. Recent credits include Tale of Two Cities at Alliance Theatre Atlanta, The Clearing at Shaw, Hamlet 911 at Stratford, The Sound Inside at Coal Mine, The Cave at Luminato and Distant Early Warning at Buddies in Bad Times. He also works as a mental health worker at Insite, a safe consumption site, and would love to talk with you about supporting your local harm reduction organization. chrisross-ewart.com
Anita Nittoly – Fight Director
Selected Fight Director and Sexual Choreographer credits: Stratford Festival 2024 season; Bad Roads (Crow’s); Angels in America (Buddies); The Retreat (Imago); The Retreat (YPT); JCS (Here For Now); Wildwoman (Soulpepper), Hamlet (The Rose); Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes (TIP), Fall on Your Knees (CanStage/NAC); Counter Offence (Segal Centre); Fairview (CanStage); Prodigal (Crow’s Theatre); Trojan Girls & The Outhouse of Atreus (Outside The March/Factory Theatre); Our Place (Cahoots/TPM); The Last Wife, The 39 Steps, Successions (Centaur Theatre); Whole World (Carousel Players). Selected Stunt Performer/Stunt Actor credits: Law & Order Toronto, SEE, Star Trek: Discovery, Pretty Hard Cases, Titans, The Boys, Rabbit Hole, What We Do in the Shadows, various Ubisoft motion capture productions.
Anna R. Kaltenbach – Stage Manager
Canadian Stage: Lehman Trilogy, Topdog/Underdog, Maanomaa My Brother Other Toronto: Dana H (Crow’s), Truth (YPT), Anahita’s Republic (Bustle & Beast), King’s Playlist (Culchahworks), Bright Star (Garner Theatre Productions), CHEW (Project:Humanity). Broadway/NY: Motown, Broadway Advocacy Coalition, Broadway Inspirational Voices. Tours: Hamilton, Motown, Once, Memphis, Shrek, A Chorus Line, Mamma Mia!, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Joseph... (Tokyo). West End: Motown. Regional US: Marriott Lincolnshire, Chicago Shakespeare, Other Theatre Company, Western Stage, Cleo Parker Robinson Dance, Colorado Ballet, Opera Colorado.
Meghan Speakman – Assistant Stage Manager
Meghan is delighted to be spending her first ever summer here in the park, and on one of her favourite shows. Though based in Toronto, she has worked as a stage manager on productions with theatre companies across Canada. Recent theatre credits include: Age is a Feeling, The Ex-Boyfriend Yardsale (Soulpepper), Cunning Little Vixen, Don Pasquale (COC), Monster, The Trojan Girls and the Outhouse of Atreus (Factory), Canoe (Unsettled Scores), Where You Are (Lighthouse), Behind the Moon (Tarragon), Making Spirits Bright (Globe), Sweeney Todd (Talk is Free), The Ministry of Grace (Belfry), Hand to God (Coal Mine). Meghan is a member of the CAEA Council’s Stage Management Committee.
Kayla Thomas – Apprentice Stage Manager
Kayla Thomas (she/her) is privileged to be originally from Vancouver, the unceded traditional territories of the Coast Salish Peoples, xʷməθkʷəyəm (Musqueam), Sḵwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. Her ambition centres around impactful entertainment that showcases diverse forms of storytelling, a commitment she aims to carry throughout her Toronto-based career. Kayla’s recent work includes stage management for MoonHorse Dance Theatre, as well as the 2023 Soulpepper Academy. Her previous apprenticeships have included The Waltz & Armadillos (Factory Theatre, 2023), as well as Behind the Moon & Three Women of Swatow (Tarragon Theatre, 2022 & 2023), respectively.
Nancy Benjamin – Vocal Coach
Nancy Benjamin, Voice Coach, was an associate voice, text, and dialect coach for the Stratford Festival of Canada for 22 seasons; co-head of voice, text, and dialects for the American Conservatory Theater (San Francisco); resident voice/text/dialects director for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Most recently, Nancy has taught Voice at the National Theatre School of Canada (Montreal), was a dialect coach for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Toronto), and a dialects coach for the Shaw Festival. Nancy has taught classes and workshops for Access Acting Academy in LA, Calgary Opera’s Emerging Artists Programme, and has coached productions for the National Art Centre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, California Shakespeare Festival, the Guthrie Theater, Kennedy Center.
Lisa Karen Cox – Movement Coach
Lisa Karen Cox relishes work that combines music, movement and heightened language to create rawfully honest performative experiences. A graduate of Concordia University’s Interdisciplinary Studies program, she has had the pleasure of working for a wide variety of theatre companies (large and not so large) including: Quote Unquote Collective, Why Not Theatre, Spur-of-the-Moment Shakespeare, Headstrong, Dauntless City Theatre, Shakespeare in the Rough, Theatre Smash, Nightwood Theatre, National Arts Centre, The Stratford Festival of Canada and the Royal Shakespeare Company. Often playing men and other mythical creatures, Lisa is also a teacher, actor and director in addition to being a movement and intimacy director, a mother and faculty at Toronto Metropolitan University.
Tim Welham – Text Coach
Tim is a text coach at the Stratford Festival, currently supporting Twelfth Night, Romeo and Juliet, Cymbeline and Something Rotten!. He is a contract faculty member at Toronto Metropolitan University, an instructor at the National Theatre School of Canada, and has taught classes for Western, Windsor, Guelph, Brock and Waterloo universities, and the NTS DramaFest. Favourite acting credits include: Twelfth Night (Rose Theatre UK), The Bowl (Young Vic Theatre UK), Around the World in 80 Days (Vienna’s English Theatre), Chariots of Fire (Grand Theatre) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare in the Ruff). He holds a MA from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, and a BFA from the former Ryerson Theatre School under Perry Schneiderman. Online: timwelham.com
