For one week in March 2022, HAMLET comes to the PALACE

Presented by Pidgin Palace Arts, FINE REVOLUTION is an electrifying remix of Hamlet as a modern, 4th Industrial Revolution tragedy. Set in a fictional Denmark dominated by artificial intelligence systems, the show immerses viewers in the action, in a mediated, light-and-sound-scaped theatre space. Social, political, and hyper theatrical, the project is an interrogation of our wired lives: connected or isolated, united or polarized. Augmented and expanded with prerecorded video elements, Fine Revolution is an interactive experience, audiences are immersed in the action as the story unfolds —a revenge tragedy, an epic illumination of existential despair, and a battle cry against corrupt authority.

Director, Kevin Black, Nikki Crawford and David MacDonald lead a professional cast in this modern retelling of Shakespeare’s best-known and most iconic play.

One week only:
five performances,
seating is extremely limited

DATES
Preview: Tuesday, March 15
Opening: Wednesday, March 16
Close: Saturday, March 19

TIME

7:30 pm

VENUE
Pidgin Palace Arts, 1110 S. 6th St., Tucson, AZ

Pidgin Palace Arts is a project of the Brink Foundation, a not for-profit dedicated to providing education about best internet practices and spreading awareness of its hidden impact on our lives.

Mandatory Safety Practices and Procedures
All visitors to Pidgin Palace Arts will need to show proof of full vaccination or a negative COVID test for all performances of Hamlet: Fine Revolution. Guests must provide at least one of the following:

Physical vaccination card (original or photocopy)
Digital vaccination record (a photo on your phone is permitted)
Negative COVID-19 test dated within 72 hours of your visit

Audience must remain masked throughout the performance.

Cast

Kevin Black fuses film, theatre and technology to deliver stories as visceral sensory experiences. In Fine Revolution, he re-envisions Shakespeare’s Hamlet to explore how our human-to-machine relationships affect our human-to-human relationships. A graduate of Carnegie Mellon University’s Drama program, Kevin has acted at The New York Shakespeare Festival, Primary Stages, Theatre for a New Audience, The Pearl Theatre Company, Laguna Playhouse, and Arizona Theatre Company, and appeared in films selected for the San Francisco International, Seattle International, Hamptons International, Mill Valley, Venice and Sundance Film Festivals. In addition to his work acting and directing, he serves as voice acting specialist for film and theatre, including directing all of the voice over for the Oscar shortlisted HBO Documentary Film Brillo Box (3¢ Off). A member of Actors Equity since 1987, he is a Professor of Practice in the University of Arizona’s School of Theatre, Film and Television.

Nikki Crawford is an award winning actor, singer and producer whose career spans film, television and live theatre, working with luminaries such as Leslie Uggams, Charles S. Dutton, Brian Cranston and Mike Nichols. Nikki has guest starred in numerous television series and limited series, including Malcolm in the Middle, Pretty Little Liars, Numb3rs, Switched at Birth, Criminal Minds and Netflix’s Selena:The Series.

Nikki will next star in Fat Ham at New York’s Public Theatre, and in Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre’s The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington. She is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon’s Drama program.

David Andrew MacDonald’s Broadway credits include performing on Broadway inSkylight, Rocky, Mamma Mia!, Coram Boy, and Two Shakespearean Actors. He has performed in the National Tours of An Inspector Calls (Jeff nom., Chicago). On Off-Broadway, Paradise Lost with FPA, and Night and Her Stars and The Green Heart with Manhattan Theatre Club. In regional theatre, he has performed at Arena Stage, GEVA, Studio Theatre DC, Old Globe, Arizona Theatre Company, The Alley, the Wilma, Hartford Stage, Yale Repertory, Manitoba Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre New Jersey, The McCarter Theatre and many others. His television credits include Elementary, Person of Interest, Blacklist, Law and Order: SVU,Sex and the City, and ten years as series regular Edmund Winslow on Guiding Light. For his role in the 2018 feature film Tommy Battles the Silver Sea Dragon, he received Winner, Best Performance at the Toronto International H&F Film Festival. He is a graduate of the Juilliard School.

Betsy Kruse Craig is an actor, director and educator, working as Associate Managing Artistic Director at the Invisible Theatre in Tucson after nine years in the Bay Area. Betsy was Artistic Director of the Pear Theatre in Mountain View, CA for two seasons, performing extensively in roles such as Hedda Gabler, Veronica in God of Carnage, Morticia Addams in The Addams Family, Barbara Weston in August: Osage County, Bev/Kathy in Clybourne Park and Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate. She recently played Tallulah Bankhead in Invisible Theatre’s production of Looped. A graduate of the University of Arizona School of Theatre Film and Television, Kruse Craig was an adjunct professor of Acting, Voice and Movement at the University of Arizona and at Pima College. She currently serves Program Director of the Arts for Stratford Schools in CA.

Harold Dixon recently created the role of Adolphe Sax, the inventor of the saxophone, in the world premiere of Sax Degrees of Separation at Chamber Music Northwest in Portland, Oregon. His credits include the National Tour of Ella in the starring role of Norman Granz. Regionally he has performed at The Guthrie, Long Wharf, Arena Stage, Pittsburgh Public, Cincinnati Playhouse, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Rep Theatre of St. Louis, Geva, Laguna Playhouse, Gloucester Stage, Kingsmen Shakespeare (The Tempest, Measure For Measure, Hamlet, Richard III), Southwest Shakespeare (The Tempest, Hamlet, King Lear, As You Like It), Shakespeare Sedona, Arizona Repertory Theatre (King Lear), Phoenix Theatre, Actors Theatre of Phoenix, Phoenix Symphony, and Invisible Theatre. Rogue Theatre: Much Ado About Nothing; ATC: Diary of Anne Frank, King Charles III, Ella, Streetcar Named Desire, Much Ado About Nothing, others. On Off-Broadway, he has appeared at the 92nd Street Y and the Kirk Theatre on Theatre Row.

Harold is Distinguished Professor Emeritus and founding artistic director of the Arizona Repertory Theatre at the University of Arizona School of Theatre, Film, & Television, where the Harold Dixon Directing Studio is named for him, and a proud member of Actors Equity since 1973.

ABOUT

PIDGIN PALACE ARTS presents HAMLET: FINE REVOLUTION

FINE REVOLUTION reboots Shakespeare’s iconic tragedy HAMLET to examine the role of technology and totalitarianism in our mental health and human relationships. The show features an array of notable film/tv/theatre actors among a national and regional cast who have converged in South Tucson at the new arts space PIDGIN PALACE ARTS. FINE REVOLUTION represents community partnership between the University of Arizona and local arts leaders and performers to explore the most pressing issues of our time.

Blending the genres of immersive, cinematic theatre and site-specific performance, FINE REVOLUTION will reimagine William Shakespeare’s revenge tragedy HAMLET as a cautionary tale for the 4^th Industrial Revolution (4IR). Set in a fictional Denmark dominated by artificial-intelligence technology, the play follows Prince Hamlet as he pursues his uncle, Claudius, who has murdered his father, seized his throne and married Hamlet’s mother Gertrude. But at every step, Hamlet must survive the lethal inner workings of a corrupt state — even Ophelia, his one hope of love and sanity, may betray him. Denmark is rotten, and Hamlet instinctively knows the cure will destroy all that’s dear to him. But how else to right the wrong?

Through bringing Shakespeare’s HAMLET into our present era, discovering Hamlet, Claudius, Ophelia, and Gertrude as they navigate a media-enthralled landscape, FINE REVOLUTION explores the internet’s dominance in our lives — social media, data harvesting, AI-driven surveillance, a world of bread and circuses and bots. Taking inspiration from international productions such as Punchdrunk’s SLEEP NO MORE (Glasgow), and National Theatre’s NETWORK (London) and companies such as Pina Bausch’s Tanztheater Wuppertal (Germany) and Arianne Mnouchkine’s Theâtre du Soleil (Paris), Fine Revolution will integrate video elements into an immersive, interactive live theatrical performance.

HAMLET: FINE REVOLUTION WAS MADE POSSIBLE by support from The University of Arizona College of Fine Arts, the School of Theatre, Film & Television and the University of Arizona, Office of Research, Innovation & Impact, Merry Lewis and the Brink Foundation.

THANK YOU to the University of Arizona Libraries for providing seating for this production, and to Jen Nichols and Rachel Castro at the Libraries’ Catatyst Studios for their collaborative support, and providing guidance, technology and studio space to film the footage used in the production.

WITH SPECIAL THANKS to Craig Huston, Victoria Lucas, Moniqua Lane, Ellen McMahon, Kerryn Negus, Will Pew, William Russo, Danny Vinik, Andrew Schulz and the Citizen Hotel.

CAST

Hamlet.……………………………….Kevin Black

Ophelia..………………….….……Nikki Crawford

Claudius.……………..David Andrew MacDonald

Gertrude…..……………………Betsy Kruse Craig

Player King/Gravedigger…..………..Harold Dixon

Laertes……………………..………..Kasey Caruso

Ensemble: Callie Huchinson, Sean Patrick, Claire Renée de la Vergne

CREATIVE TEAM

Director/Producer: Kevin Black

Theatrical Production
Sound Design: Matt Marcus
Lighting Design: Ron Creason
Technical Advisor: Ted Kraus
Fight Choreographer: Brent Gibbs
Costumes: Maryann Trombino
Music: Louise Le Hir
Production Stage Manager: Maddie ThatcherAssistant Stage Manager: Claire Renée de la Vergne
Carpenter: Max Baines

Media Production
Cinematography: Alex Leyton and Mason Day
Production Sound: Michael Mulcahy
Assistant Directors: Linda Varela, Sean David Ta
Assistant Camera: Elisa Gonzalez
Editing and Visual FX: Jason Willis
Website design: Kelly Leslie

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Contact

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