Photos from our production of Shakespeare's Hamlet
Produced October 2003
Performed at the Peanut Gallery, Rock Island, IL

Our second season, 2003-2004, opened on Halloween night with Hamlet and in the spring of '04 with Cymbeline. Hamlet was our first performance at the Rock Island Housing Authority building. Basically a small, concrete floored room with windows on one wall and drywall on the other. It was just a half-block east of our first location and served us well for several shows.

Hamlet Click for Script or Reviews.

Hamlet was directed by Cait Woolley with fight choreography by Aaron Sullivan.

Here are all the Prenzie-cut scripts from every show we've done.

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...excerpted...

1. This top slot goes to the haunting, even stunning "Hamlet," a slick, intense show from The Prenzie Players, the scrappy upstart of a theater group that uses found space and non-"fourth wall" staging to fantastic advantage in its productions of classical works. With just two shows to show for their efforts so far, the Prenzie Players prove to be a group to watch.

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This ''Hamlet'' spooky, intense
Ruby Nancy | Wednesday, October 29, 2003

If your taste in Shakespearean drama runs to guys in robes and tights droning on and on you won't like the Prenzie Players' "Hamlet" at all.

Even if don't like Shakespeare, this energetic and excellent production might just be what you need to see. Opening Friday, this slick, intense production plays up the spooky aspects of the famous drama without losing the script's integrity.

J.C. Luxton's go-for-broke performance in the title role is at the heart of the show (though he is also supported by a great cast performers who work with him rather than just serving as props behind a lead who hogs the stage), and this is no pouty, pensive, pretty-boy prince. Instead, the troubled young man is visibly marked by grief, and as his life and mind unravel further he shows us new layers of intensity, introspection, passion, hate and tragic emotional disintegration. It's a different take on the role for sure, but it works incredibly well.