Hamlet
Director / Direção: Chris Fritzges
Set Designer: André de Castro
Costume Design / Figurinos: Keagan Styes-Peña & Shauna Meador
Lighting Designer / Iluminador: Nita Mendoza
︎ All Photos by Pablo Mena & André de Castro
Concept:
The inspiration for this production grew from The Mousetrap, the play-within-the-play where Prince Hamlet enlists a troupe of traveling actors to expose the king’s guilt. This pivotal moment—one of the most iconic in Shakespeare’s work—became the foundation for our own meta-theatrical approach.
We imagined the stage as if a wandering troupe had arrived in Arkansas to perform Hamlet, creating a world where performance and reality constantly overlap. A false proscenium framed the action, and the entire space was dressed to evoke the improvisational charm of itinerant theatre.
Visually, the production blended elements of American vaudeville and commedia dell’arte with the exuberant, handcrafted aesthetic of Brazilian baroque street theatre. This fusion shaped the environment, the textures of the set, and the costumes, creating a vibrant, layered universe for one of Shakespeare’s most iconic tragedies.
The James M. Bridges Blackbox Theatre,
University of Central Arkansas, Conway – USA
Fall, 2025
