Studio Theatre Celebrates "Shakespeare In Washington"

Director Kirk Jackson's production features two uniquely talented performers in the title roles- Raymond Bokhour (Rosencrantz) and Liam Craig (Guildenstern). Floyd King also stars as the Player. Director Kirk Jackson's last production at The Studio Theatre, Take Me Out, received the Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Resident Play. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead runs May 16 through June 24, 2007.

"Very funny! Very brilliant! Very chilling!" The New York Times

When Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead was produced at London's National Theatre in 1967, Stoppard was 29-the youngest playwright the National had ever produced. Forty years later, Stoppard has become one of the world's preeminent playwrights. His three-part epic, Coast of Utopia, has been running on Broadway since November 2006. His latest hit, Rock'n'Roll won an Olivier Award in London and will open in New York this fall. The Studio Theatre's production of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead celebrates the play's fortieth anniversary by taking a fresh look at this important play. Director Kirk Jackson has cast two consummate clowns in the title roles, in the style of Beckett's Waiting for Godot. In Jackson's production, Hamlet is still a young man in his twenties, but the years have passed Rosencrantz and Guildenstern by- as though they have been trapped in the world of Hamlet for twenty years, with the action of the play repeating itself over and over again.

The production is The Studio Theatre's contribution to the Shakespeare in Washington Festival. Only five years before Stoppard premiered Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Polish theatre scholar Jan Kott published his revolutionary work Shakespeare our Contemporary, which passionately argued for the relevance of Shakespeare's plays to the twentieth century and beyond. "Shakespeare is like the world, or life itself," wrote Kott. "Every historical period finds in him what it is looking for and what it wants to see." What Tom Stoppard found in Shakespeare's masterwork, Hamlet, were the seeds for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, a major work of contemporary drama that brilliantly reconceives the Shakespearean original.

By contributing Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead to the Shakespeare in Washington Festival, The Studio Theatre allows audiences not only to experience one of the great works of twentieth-century theatre, but also to explore the ways in which Shakespeare still influences both contemporary life and contemporary theatre. The production is also inspired by the collaborative spirit that lies at the heart of the Festival. The Studio Theatre's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead runs at the same time as Shakespeare Theatre Company's production of Hamlet, and the two productions will mirror each other in many ways. The two theatres will also join forces for a series of unprecedented joint events and discussions.

Stoppard has called Hamlet "the most famous play in any language"¦ part of a sort of common mythology." With Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead, Stoppard has truly made Hamlet our contemporary, re-imagining Shakespeare for our times and creating a landmark work of modern drama. -- www.studiotheatre.org