Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival Premieres HAMLET 50/50, August 17

The Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival has announced Hamlet 50/50, a new adaptation of Shakespeare's classic drama, performing August 17-27, 2023 in the beautiful Patricia George Decio Theatre at the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center, on the campus of the University of Notre Dame. 

Adapted as part of The 50/50 Shakespeare Project, Hamlet 50/50 is designed to bring a new level of balance and equity to the workplace of Shakespeare production. Where other productions have had female actors playing male roles, Hamlet 50/50 takes a different route, offering us a 50/50 balance of lines between male and female characters, creating a more engaging experience of Hamlet than was ever before possible.

Directed by Vanessa Morosco, who adapted the text along with Peter Simon Hilton, Hamlet 50/50 features Xavier King as Hamlet, Madeline Calais as Ophelia, TayLar as Gertrude, and co-adapter Hilton as Claudius. Additional cast members include Becca Ballinger (Horatio) and Joe Foust (Polonius), with George Azcarate, James Cullinane, Tommy Favorite, Meliza Gutierrez, Colleen McLinden, Timothy Merkle, Gabriel Ozaki, Christina Randazzo, Justine C. Ryan, and Liz Zimmerman filling out the ensemble. 

“I am thrilled that the Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival will be premiering this new version of Hamlet,” says Peter Holland, McMeel Family Chair in Shakespeare Studies at the University of Notre Dame. “It makes the play both familiar and sometimes unfamiliar but always exciting and powerful.”

“Hamlet 50/50 represents a giant leap toward realizing gender equity in the workplace of Shakespeare in performance,” says Scott Jackson, Mary Irene Ryan Family Executive Director of Shakespeare at Notre Dame. “This adaptation does not seek to replace Shakespeare's text, but rather to 'hold the mirror up to nature' and present the story through the lens of 21st century production.”

"This is the culmination of five years of soul-searching research and joyful innovation to unlock the inequity within Shakespeare's greatest play,” says director Vanessa Morosco. “And now with Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival's bold and immediate collaboration we can share it amongst us all. Thrilling!"

Click here to read more about Hamlet 50/50 and the 50/50 Shakespeare Project. 

Vanessa Morosco, who adapted the text alongside Peter Simon Hilton, is a director, actor, and ethicist based out of New York City, whose long list of credits include productions for the American Shakespeare Center, the Southwest Shakespeare Festival, and Palm Beach Dramaworks. She also has a parallel career in the corporate sector, as the creator of drama-based training to facilitate training for DEI, accessibility, sexual harassment, and cultural differences for huge multinational companies. 

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