Photo Flash: HAMLETGHOSTS Heads to First Niagara Rochester Fringe Festival

The Brewing Dept. is proud to present HamletGhosts at the 2015 First Niagara Rochester Fringe Festival tonight, September 25th at 10:30pm and tomorrow, September 26th at 2pm and 9pm. Tickets for both runs are $15. Scroll down for a sneak peek at the cast in action!

In this new devised piece, the cast of HamletGhosts rips apart Hamlet and reconstructs it for a modern audience. Through a series of vignettes mixing Shakespeare with Lady Gaga, internet help sites, personal narratives, and more, the show invites audiences to witness the emotional guts of Hamlet without any of the messy plot. Experience Director Cody Holliday Haefner''s radical vision in a piece that forces the audience to question their own complicity in the acts of madness and violence played out in front of them.

The Brewing Dept. is a theater company devoted to incubating and developing theatrical productions by emerging artists over extended periods of time. HamletGhosts exemplifies this mission, having been in development for the past 18 months with two workshops leading up to this full production. The unusual opportunity for extended rehearsal work afforded by The Brewing Dept. has allowed the group to truly focus the piece. Haefner said, "With every month we''ve distilled the piece further away from the text but closer to the core themes of Hamlet."

This will be the first production to travel outside of the New York City, a milestone first for this young company. The Rochester Fringe Festival holds special meaning for Director Cody Holliday Haefner, a Rochester native. "It is exciting to bring a show that is so personal to me to the city where I grew up and where I directed my first show (bare: a pop opera at MuCCC in 2010). HamletGhosts explores a lot of similar themes as my first show in Rochester," he said, adding, "I have always been inspired by how much Rochester embraces its theater community." HamletGhosts will be performed at the TheatreROCS Stage.

HamletGhosts features Claudia Givings, Alex Hare, Julia Izumi, Emily Kaplan, Kaitlin Kaufman, Jake Lasser, Olivia Levine, Theo Maltz and Matthew McShane. Rebecca Clark assistant directs this production. Tech direction and sound by Jess Malcolm; costume design by Ilana Breitman. Graphic design by Jiin Choi.

TheatreROCS Stage at Xerox Auditorium is located at 287 E. Broad St. (Enter on E. Broad between Clinton and Chestnut). For tickets, go online at rochesterfringe.com (no extra booking fees), call 585-957-9837 (fees apply), or visit the Box Office: One Fringe Place (corner of Main & Gibbs Streets) or the venue door one hour before start of show. For more, go to thebrewingdept.org.