HAMLET IN THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION Premieres In Hollywood

Lightning Rod Theater will soon present the world-premiere of Paul Hoan Zeidler's historical reimagining, Hamlet in the American Revolution. Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and the committee composing the Declaration of Independence wrote a nation into existence.  Our founders were inspired by writers such as Cicero, John Locke and David Hume.  But which writer inspired them most of all? Whose book of plays was on every shelf in the thirteen Colonies?  William Shakespeare!  Come see this fabulous production as our War for Independence is reinvented through the eyes of Shakespeare's most famous work! Hamlet in the American Revolution premieres October 24th and runs through November 22nd at the McCadden Place Theater in Hollywood.

About the Show

It's 1776.  A time of revolution in America and across the Atlantic, but the Enlightenment's bright rays haven't illuminated some of Denmark's darkest and most shameful secrets. Hamlet is tasked by his father's ghost to avenge his murder and to bring democracy to the country.  The escaped slave Fortinbras leads a rebellion against the monarchy. Angry young Ophelia joins the insurrection and dies on the barricades. Horatio is an Enlightenment woman of science. Claudius, Polonius and Gertrude believe Hamlet's passion for democracy has made him insane. The words of Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, Phillis Wheatley and Thomas Paine thunder through Elsinore. Who's America's Secret Founding Father? William Shakespeare!

“It's been a 17 year process of research, exploration and readings to get to Hamlet in the American Revolution”, notes playwright Paul Hoan Zeidler. “I had the first inkling how spectacularly this might work when we put the text from the Declaration of Independence ("life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness") into the scene where Polonius questions Hamlet, trying to figure out if he's gone mad. The rhythms of 18th century prose dovetailed so well with Shakespeare's blank verse that I knew we had to mount the show.”

Executive Producer Charles Pacello is a graduate of the United States Air Force Academy. Charlie studied at the Stella Adler Academy of Acting in Los Angeles and attended the Midsummer in Oxford program, a summer-long Shakespeare intensive workshop at Oxford, England. Los Angeles theatre acting credits include: We Got Your Six (Vols. 1&2); Glennie & Maple Break Up; Acts of Possession; and Time's Scream and Hurry (L.A. and New York Fringe), all with Lightning Rod Theater. Charlie performed in Waiting for Godot and Hamlet with the Stella Adler Lab; One Fell Swoop and In Arabia and We'd All Be Kings at the Elephant Theatre. He is the co-founder of Lightning Rod Theater. 

Paul Hoan Zeidler is the Director, Producer, and Script Adapter for this world-premiere production of Hamlet in the American Revolution. Other productions of his full length plays include Time's Scream and Hurry (2009 New York Fringe), WOOF-WOOF (2014 Hollywood Fringe, Winner Encore Producers Award, Spirit of the Fringe Award Nominee) and Nude/Naked (Stanley Drama Award Finalist, Eugene O'Neill National Playwrights Conference Semi-Finalist), which premiered in January 2019 on Hollywood's Theatre row in production that garnered Stage Raw nominations and made L.A. critics' ten best lists.  He adapted and co-directed LRT's US veteran outreach production We Got Your Six (Vol.1) in the spring of 2022.  Paul then adapted, wrote and helmed We Got Your Six (Vol. 2) in the 2023 Hollywood Fringe.  He is a graduate of the University of Southern California and co-founder of Lightning Rod Theater.

The production team also includes Matt Richter (Lighting Design), Matthew Mullen (Costume Design), Joyce Hutter (Scenic Design), Jaime Robledo (Sound Design), Jen Albert (Fight Choreography), and Judi Lewin (Wigs).

The cast includes Alec Anderson-Carrasco, Colin A Borden, Ted Dane, Brenan Dwyer, Bethany Koulias, Rachel Levy, Ashwath Ram, Jordyn Ryan, Brittany Taylor Visser, Terry Wayne Jr., Kyrsten V. Williams, and Peter Zizzo.

About Lightning Rod Theater

Lightning Rod Theater is a dynamic 501c3 nonprofit committed to finding and performing new theatrical work and boldly reinterpreting the classics. We tell stories no one has ever heard, dramatize cutting-edge characters and relationships, and explore challenging conflicts and themes. We carry the stories of the ignored and the forgotten from darkness into the light. We chart new routes through archetypal works and discover fresh ideas hidden within them. We seek the new every time we step on stage.