Illinois Shakespeare Festival (ISF) Dramaturg Kee-Yoon Nahm spoke with Director Vanessa Stalling, M.F.A. ’14, about the Festival’s upcoming production of Hamlet. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Kee-Yoon Nahm (KYN): Before we talk about Hamlet, would you first tell me about your background as a director?

Vanessa Stalling (VS): This will be my first time working at ISF, which I am super-excited about. It is lovely for things to come full circle. It has been a little over 10 years since I was a graduate student in the M.F.A. in directing program at ISU. Before that, I was artistically shaped by the Chicago theatre community—specifically working at Redmoon Theater, which used imagery as the predominant storytelling element. Going to grad school was a great way for me to work on marrying text and imagery. And that has been the work I have been doing since: keeping all design elements on a horizontal plane so that every single element has the power to project the story in the way that the text does. From Chicago I moved to San Diego to run the M.F.A. in directing program at the University of California San Diego (UCSD).

KYN: I am excited to hear you talk about the relationship between text and image in theatre. Maybe because of Shakespeare’s literary reputation, I think that people often focus a lot on just the words. But Shakespeare was a theatre artist who knew how to use bodies in space and stage pictures effectively. There are many implied stage directions in the language that suggests that Shakespeare is also telling the story through imagery. Given your background in image-based theatre, I am curious about your approach to Shakespeare.

VS: The work at Redmoon Theater often used works of classical literature. It was really about evoking the sensations of a poetic text through imagery. Also, Shakespeare is a big part of our curriculum at UCSD. So, a lot of my work is in helping students cut and edit their scripts. We think about how to bring the text to a contemporary audience while still allowing the poetry to remain. There is such great flexibility and space in Shakespeare’s language for different points of view that I think his plays can be incredibly relevant to a contemporary audience. Those principles also shape my approach to this production of Hamlet.

KYN: Speaking of UCSD, would you talk about the workshop that you are currently running there as part of the process? It would be great to give our readers some insight into the script preparation work that goes into a Shakespeare production. Many other ISF directors with academic affiliations have done similar readings and workshops at their home institutions, including here at ISU. And as Shakespeare’s longest play, Hamlet needs a lot of prep work, since a production of the uncut text would take well over four hours.

VS: My process for script preparation begins with watching a bunch of other productions to see how the script has been cut in the past. We did an earlier workshop last fall after I had a first draft of the cut script so that I could hear it out loud. We talked about how meaning is shaped by what is kept or taken out of the play, which helped me move forward with the next iterations of the script. The current workshop is a kind of “test drive” to explore nuances in terms of the different characters’ points of view, as well as themes such as public justice and grief. I have a wonderful group of people across different generations of experience. Some have been doing Shakespeare for decades, like my fellow UCSD faculty member Marco Barricelli, who has directed and performed in Hamlet numerous times. We also have students for whom embodying Shakespeare’s language is a part of their current training. It is a great room to be in, with such a wide variety of experiences. It is especially exciting to see actors with decades of experience hearing a new idea from a young person who is encountering the play for the first time.

KYN: That is also the range of the ISF acting company, from professional actors who have worked at the Festival for many seasons to our undergraduate acting interns. I agree that everyone learns from the process, even if it is a play that you have done before. You just mentioned some central themes in the play that you also brought up at our first design meeting a few months ago. I remember you emphasizing the theme of public justice versus private revenge. I found that to be a useful frame to put around Hamlet’s journey in the play. Would you talk more about that idea?

VS: Sure. The idea came from asking what Hamlet’s intentions are throughout the play. What are his goals? What is he trying to do? I see him trying to achieve public justice—in other words, holding corrupt leaders accountable in a public and active way that can bring about change. If Hamlet’s revenge happens secretly or is personally motivated, then it might not have an impact on a societal level, which is his goal. I think that by going through his father’s death and his mother Gertrude’s hasty remarriage to his uncle Claudius, Hamlet is grappling with the betrayal of social ideals. In a sense, he is fighting for himself, but he is also dealing with the consequences of corrupt leadership. He is dealing with the heartbreak of seeing his ideals of noble leadership being corrupted. So, Hamlet’s trajectory becomes very active for me when I see him striving for public justice. That also entails him asking who he can trust and making sure he has enough evidence against Claudius that can convince the public. When some people ask why Hamlet hesitates so much from taking revenge, my answer is that it is not easy to hold powerful people accountable.

KYN: I think that is a smart approach to the play. Because Hamlet is sometimes imagined as a kind of philosopher, I think the play is sometimes seen as abstract and heady. But you make it clear that Hamlet has specific goals and needs concrete things in order to achieve them. I am also curious about the family drama aspect of the play. I agree that there are great political stakes in Hamlet’s quest for public justice. But it is mediated through his complex feelings towards his parents, as well as his uncle who becomes his stepfather. What is the relationship you see between these two levels of the drama?

VS: It has been fun talking in the workshop about Claudius and Gertrude’s relationship and what guides their choices. There is complexity on a human level, where it is not just about power but also about love. Perhaps that is why things are so hard to change in society—because people are motivated not only by power but also because they are in love or want to receive love.

KYN: Grief, the other major theme you identified, is also based in love. With that idea, we can also think about Hamlet’s love for his father and desire to see him again, which you could say takes the form of the Ghost.

VS: Yeah. I think the play has a deep understanding of what it feels like to grieve the loss of a loved one: the hurt and the sense of helplessness. It is also interesting to think that Shakespeare may have been processing the loss of his own son Hamnet while writing this play. I think it is important to think about the Ghost of Hamlet’s father’s vulnerability when it appears before Hamlet. I think that the Ghost’s account of the pain and suffering it experienced before death can evoke feelings of responsibility in Hamlet. For those of us who are fortunate enough to have them around until their old age, we experience a transition from being a child to a caretaker in relation to our parents. There is such a great responsibility in not wanting your parents to feel suffering and pain. It is a very complicated relationship. I am interested in exploring that through the Ghost’s appearance.

KYN: I have one final question that is inspired by being in rehearsals for the other two plays in the season: A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest. It is striking to see how theatrical these two comedies are in performance. A Midsummer Night’s Dream has an amateur theatre troupe rehearse their own play within the story. In addition, the world of the forest full of magic and fairies feels very much like a spectacular show. In The Importance of Being Earnest, all the characters become playwrights of their own lives and identities. Social interactions in that play also turn into highly artificial public performances. In comparison, we tend to treat tragedies as more serious and substantial. But Hamlet is obviously also very theatrical, starting with the play within the play that Hamlet uses to try to expose Claudius’ guilt. Hamlet as a character is constantly performing in front of others, putting on an “antic disposition” to gain the upper hand. I am curious how you are approaching that aspect of the play.

VS: With Hamlet, we are dealing with a main character who loves theatre. The only moment in the play where I think we see him feel pure joy is when he interacts with the traveling players who have arrived in Elsinore. Shakespeare has created a character who not only has a great appreciation for the power of crafted narrative but also the sharp wit to be a great performer himself. We watch Hamlet navigate his opponents theatrically, speaking in a coded language that lets the audience in on the hidden messages. So, yes, Hamlet is a tragedy. But I also think there are parts of the play that can charm audiences with its energy and imagination. I am especially excited to stage the play within the play. It is an opportunity to build a whole other cohesive world within the world of the play.

KYN: In other words, Hamlet is seeking justice as an artist. That makes me think about how many theatre artists that I know are asking what we can do when the world seems to be in constant crisis. And I think many have concluded that we can use our art to fight for what we believe in. In a way, Hamlet does that too.

VS: That’s right. It is exciting to see Hamlet use art to figure out his next steps. And in general, we are all shaped by stories. So, the storytellers have great power and responsibility.

KYN: I am excited to explore these ideas with you in the production!