Photo courtesy of Maya Danks
Maya Danks
Maya Danks
For many people, Shakespeare feels threatening; his language can be challenging, and he’s often been performed by actors who resemble fancy-dress mannequins rather than real people. Maya Danks is determined to change those perceptions.
After three summers bringing Shakespeare to Wisconsin state parks with Summit Players Theatre, the Milwaukee actor-playwright will present a reimagination of one of his most familiar plays. She calls it Hamlet & Ophelia, and her title is a clue to one of her intentions. “I want to give Ophelia more to do,” she explains. “I want to see into her relationship with Hamlet.”
In one of his sonnets, Shakespeare predicted his work would endure “So long as men can breath or eyes can see.” It proved no idle boast for the most widely known and circulated playwright in the world, translated into every language from Armenian to Welsh, providing archetypes and plotlines for countless screenwriters and novelists. The slings and arrows of critics accusing him of insensitivity toward one issue or another have left scarcely a scratch. Most of those critics have never read Shakespeare or have zero context for understanding his world.
“I fell in love with Shakespeare in high school—not in school, but as a member of First Stage’s Young Company where a teacher was passionate about Shakespeare,” Danks says. “Not only the beauty and poetry of his language—something clicked in me, resonating on a human level. I understood the humor. The characters felt alive and current.”
Good Story, New Life
Unlike those who try to open Shakespeare to the general public by changing his words into contemporary spoken English, Danks is more editor than translator. “In Shakespeare’s time, people wanted a four-hour King Lear,” she begins. “Our tastes are different now. People are used to a different pace. So why not adapt by cutting a speech in half or taking a line out of a soliloquy? It’s taking something beautiful and breathing new life into it with the hope that people will say, “Oh, now I get why that story is so good!”
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Photo courtesy of Maya Danks
Hamlet and Ophelia Cast
The cast of Hamlet and Ophelia (left to right, top to bottom): Rebekah Farr, Thomas Sebald, Grace Berendt, Joe Picchetti, Adam Qutaishat, Caroline Norton, Matthew Torkilsen, and Susie Duecker
Like many creative endeavors, Hamlet & Ophelia began during the 2020 pandemic that left artists isolated with time to spare. In reimagining Hamlet, Danks didn’t try to emulate Shakespeare’s language but sewed together dialogue and plot pieces from his other plays into an original quilt of words that make sense within the circumstances of Ophelia’s tragic relationship with Hamlet.
Danks will not be on stage for the debut of Hamlet & Ophelia. “I want to be able to see it from the outside, to get a distant perspective, to see how it plays out,” she says. It will be a staged reading by Theatre Nervosa with a cast of eight including Rebekah Farr as Hamlet and Grace Berendt as Ophelia. “It will be low tech,” Danks continues. “I want to hear it out loud and get the audience reaction—the response from Shakespeare nerds and from people who never go theater” with the hope of presenting a full-dress Hamlet & Ophelia in seasons to come.
Hamlet & Ophelia will be staged at 4:30 p.m. April 6 and 7 p.m. April 7 at Dandy, 5020 W. Vliet Street, the vintage shop where Milwaukee Opera Theatre staged Alcina earlier this season. For more information, visit https://linktr.ee/Hamlet.Ophelia
