If you’re looking for a “tasty” bit of offbeat entertainment, the Arena Dinner Theatre’s production of I Hate Hamlet, opening tonight, offers a clever comedy of errors to Shakespeare lovers and haters alike.
Its lead actor, Kate Black, a legend on the local community theater scene, has maintained a lifelong passion for the Bard’s work, as well as quirky spoofs and spinoffs like this one.
WBOI’s Julia Meek discusses the play and its historic West Central Neighborhood venue with Black and director, Christopher Murphy. as well as their mutual passion for their craft and Kate’s 50-year theatrical legacy.
Event Information:
I Hate Hamlet
at the Arena Dinner Theatre,
719 Rockhill Street, Fort Wayne
Friday, March 14 through Sunday, March 29
Evenings: March 14= 15, 21-22, 28- 29
Doors open at 6:15 p.m
Dinner Service at 6:45 p.m
Performance at 7:30 p.m
Matinee:
March 23
Doors open at 12:15 p.m
Meal Service at 1:00 p.m
Performance at 2:00 p.m
Find more information and tickets at the Arena Dinner Theatre website.
Here is a transcript of our conversation:
Julia Meek: Christopher Murphy, Kate Black, welcome.
Kate Black: So good to be here.
Christopher Murphy: Thank you, Julia Meek.
Julia Meek: So, a wonderfully clever play based on a silly Shakespeare theme is throwing the two of you together again. There's a few fun facts about it and you two. Murphy, would you connect these dots for us?
Christopher Murphy: Sure. So, when I was a senior in high school in 1993 I had the privilege of being an audience member at the Civic Theatre's production of a very funny comedy called I Hate Hamlet that starred this really terrific cast of amazing Fort Wayne actors, most of whom have gone on to become my friends, one of whom was the amazing Kate Black, who until now, I have never had the privilege of working with.
And I am so thrilled and excited that she is back playing the exact same part that she played some 30 years ago in our production at Arena Dinner Theatre right now.
Julia Meek: So, Kate, how does that venue add to the fun of the original part that Murphy just described?
Kate Black: I'm so delighted to be doing this play again at Arena, because, like my own self, Arena has aged like a fine wine. It's a beautiful, wonderful, old... (all laugh)
Christopher Murphy: She's a great vintage! (more laughing)
Kate Black: ... wonderful venue. I really enjoy working in it and have had a chance to do several really wonderful productions there. And I'm just delighted to be working with this company, which is full of most playful and delightful humans. (all chuckle)
Christopher Murphy: We do have a good time every night.
Kate Black: Yes, we do.
Julia Meek: Okay, Murphy, then a quick setup for us on the storyline and your treatment of it.
Christopher Murphy: Yeah. So, the basic gist of the play is that Andrew Rally, a TV actor of some renown, has agreed to play Hamlet in a production of Hamlet in Shakespeare in the Park.
He moves to New York, and his real estate broker hooks him up with an apartment that used to belong to the great actor John Barrymore, who people might at least know his connection is Drew Barrymore, grandfather.
He was a great Hamlet in his day, and he comes back from the grave, so to speak, to visit Andrew and to help guide him through this process. And of course, when you've got a ghost of a famous, egotistical, drunken actor living in your apartment that only you can see, hilarity is going to ensue! (all laugh)
Julia Meek: And one more word on that wonderful institution, the Arena Dinner Theatre. What does it mean to seasoned veterans like yourselves to have this niche spot that is unique with the dinner and everything, and to perform a sweet little comedy like this?
Kate Black: It's always delightful to me to know that Arena has just an amazing following and supportive group that adores going to their productions.
I'm just so hopeful that they will be particularly delighted by this one, because it has been so dear to my heart ever since I did it in '93. I think it's so charming and so wittily written. I think it's some of the funniest dialogs.
Julia Meek: And to be able to present that to people who are "Eat, drink and be merry, down in that groove," already.
Kate Black: Ready to enjoy, yeah, ready to just let their cares go by the wayside and be delighted.
Julia Meek: Immersed in theater? (all chuckle)
Kate Black: Yes, yes, exactly!
Christopher Murphy: That's, you know, what theater does best, really. And you know, for me as a director, there are two things I love working at Arena, because unlike some of the other wonderful community theaters in town, Arena has really no full-time staff.
Everyone that you are working with at Arena on a production is there purely for the love and the joy of their organization and for the show that you're doing. And so that, to me, is a really beautiful thing. And then as a director, when you're dealing with the audience, it's so intimate, it's so small.
It is like we are putting that audience in this living room with these six wonderful characters and letting them have a party with them all night.
Julia Meek: (chuckles) That's indeed how it feels from the other side of that table there in that theater. Now, on the subject of the Bard, Kate, you've confessed you fell in love with him and his verse back in high school. What is it about Shakespeare that still compels you?
Kate Black: I think it must be just the beautiful use of words. In Shakespeare, no words are wasted. and the punctuation is all there for a reason.
And as you are working through a monolog, you are working through it and making sure that you drive all the way to the end punctuation. So, you may have a line that goes on four or five lines long, but the conclusion of that line is in the fifth line.
It requires skill. It requires thought. It's almost like working out a puzzle to find where the beginning of it is, what is explaining all of the things in the middle and how it lands. And it's exciting.
Depending on how many syllables are in the words, it tells you how fast you should say it. How slow you should say it. There's so much richness in the words of Shakespeare. I think it's a thrill.
Julia Meek: How you describe it, then Kate, it's almost as if he himself is directing you.
Kate Black: I do feel that, you know, whether you believe that Shakespeare wrote the words or not, somebody, somebody wrote those words, and they knew what they were doing.
They were real clear about how to make it happen, and they were giving you all kinds of signals about how to create the mood, how to deliver that meaning to the audience.
Julia Meek: And where has this love for his work taken you in your career, theater wise?
Kate Black: I did fall in love with it in school and never really had an opportunity to do a fully staged, full role in a play that was Shakespeare, until I moved to San Francisco, and I was cast as the nurse in Romeo and Juliet with a very interesting company.
The upshot was that when I moved to San Francisco, I began to do a lot of Shakespeare, and I did Much Ado about Nothing and Measure for Measure. And that was all within, like a year or so, and I just was completely in love with the verse.
I focused on that and quit taking voice lessons, which wasn't a smart thing to do, but it is how it happened. And so, I have never stopped loving that verse. And when I moved back to Fort Wayne in 1990 and then Tom Hofrichter came on board at First Pres, I was invited onto the drama committee.
And I just sat down with him and said, Look, if you're serious about doing theater, you should be doing a Shakespeare every year. Shakespeare should be done every year. And I was so determined that would be the way it was. And for many years, he did every year. And then it got to be every other year.
And now it's not at all, unfortunately. I have been delighted by the opportunities to touch on Shakespeare in other plays, like I Hate Hamlet, like Into the Breeches, like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, years ago in San Francisco.
Julia Meek: Interesting that you can get your thrill and share your Shakespeare fix with the world theatrically that way, very, very clever. And Murphy, you have been on the audience side of the curtain with Kate in those roles. What are some of your favorite productions that you have seen her in?
Christopher Murphy: Oh my gosh, I am a huge Kate Black fan. I think she is truly, in a town filled with really, really gifted, wonderful actors who are the best of community theater, you know, people who are without a doubt talented enough to make it as actors and just made life choices that they wanted to be here in Fort Wayne, for their families, their jobs, whatever.
Among those, you know, she is right at the top of the list. She is just such a gifted actress, and also her reputation as just a lovely human being precedes her. I was lucky enough, I have a very dear friend who made her theatrical debut as Desdemona, opposite Kate when she played Othello in an all-female version of Othello at First Pres.
That's probably the first time I got to see her do something Shakespearean, and it's just such a meaty, huge role. But I love Kate, whether she's doing Shakespeare or, you know, whether she's being daffy Madame Arcati in Blithe Spirit, she's just a joy.
Julia Meek: Now I am curious, and especially mixing it all up like the female Othello role that Murphy just mentioned, how does that really quirky kind of Shakespeare satisfy you, Kate, that regular Shakespeare might not even?
Kate Black: The opportunity to play a role that is usually cast with a man is such a thrill for me, because as wonderful as the female roles are in Shakespeare, none of them are as fully fleshed out as the male roles are. And I have to say that I was thrilled to be cast as Othello.
The joy for me was having the magnitude of that role, to play that role with such a dedicated group of women who were so determined to bring these roles as fully fleshed out and strongly as they could. And working with Angie Craft as my Desdemona was just, it was a remarkable experience.
And then several years later, in 2018, I was able to play the role of Claudius in Hamlet, and I had played Gertrude in Hamlet at the Civic Theater in 1999. So, these words from Hamlet just live in my body. I love them so much. It's my favorite piece of theater ever on the planet.
And if it was possible, I would love to play the role of Hamlet. I know I'm too old, I know I don't have the right equipment, but I...
Christopher Murphy: But Ian McKellen just did it like last year. So, if he can do it, you can do it,
Julia Meek: And we will never put anything on the impossible list, as long as we have folks like you doing the local theater here. And speaking of that, looking at the present days of community theater here in Fort Wayne, we like to think the city is special for its dramaturgical presence. (chuckles) It's everywhere, seemingly. What's it been like to cultivate that movement, to make it grow?
Christopher Murphy: Sure, you know, I can certainly speak in my full time job as the artistic director of the Fort Wayne Youth Theater, where, you know, we are really dedicated to helping grow not just the next generation of theater artists, but the next generation of theater audiences, theater lovers, that it's a really, really wonderful, cool thing to live in a city like Fort Wayne and see it embrace theater.
And with all of the really neat things that Fort Wayne keeps adding to the list of neat things in town, the fact that theater continues to grow here and thrive here, instead of die out here, as it is in many communities in these economic times, it's just a really, really neat thing to be part of.
Julia Meek: And what about you, Kate, especially, as much of a stage presence, you've always been, you have always been there helping young actors, especially female actors, to claim their fair share, as it were, and to make their own presence. How do you feel that you have grown and pushed that forward in these decades?
Christopher Murphy: I'm not sure that I feel that I have done that much personally. I certainly am always thrilled to have the opportunity to work with new young women or people, you know, who are older and just beginning to get into the theater community.
It's always exciting to see that seed start to open and grow. It's always a thrill. And, you know, I just always hope that what I do, and the fact that I've got 50 plus years of experience, so I hope that that's useful to people, and I hope that my presence is, I don't know, encouraging, and that if I have something to share and offer, that they will learn from it.
See my work ethic or my focus. I think having focus, having a through line, making choices, really looking in people's eyes and being in the moment and finding all the ways to bring things to life is useful.
Julia Meek: Invaluable.
Christopher Murphy: Yeah, I think she's being modest. I think she may not think she's actively doing what you're asking, but I think the best company leaders in the theater simply lead by example and I think Kate does that every single day.
Julia Meek: So basically, as well as here locally, where do you think it can go? Where can theater hold its place in this busy 21st century?
Christopher Murphy: I certainly hope that there is always space for theater. I think that even as AI seems to take over the world, I would certainly hope that people will always hold a special place in their heart, for the human heart and the human brain, and for coming and having a live visceral experience that will be different than the people who come in and see it tomorrow night and the people who saw it the night before.
And you are getting something truly unique and connecting with the people on that stage in a way that is, you know, unlike anything else that you can go see, and I just certainly hope that there's always space for that in the world.
Julia Meek: So, Kate, what is it about Shakespeare and his contemporaries? Is there a cycle of his popularity, do you think? And if so, how hard is it to keep current and relevant in the 21st century, or is it just a full circle that we are on?
Kate Black: I think that there have been just some incredibly dynamic leaps made in the way Shakespeare is produced. I've been excited when I've gone, for instance, to Chicago and seen Shakespeare, Chicago Shakes.
They do some absolutely stunning work there, breathtaking. And it seems to me that it is completely relevant and incredibly inclusive and beautifully staged. Just dynamic, including music of all kinds and dance, and it becomes not a musical, but a total piece of art, an entirely immersive and involving thrill to witness.
Christopher Murphy: Yeah, and I think the reason we are still doing these plays today is because they do still tell us something in every year, in every generation, in every century. They truly are timeless tales of the human condition.
It doesn't matter if you're talking about a society powered by horses and buggies or cars or spaceships. The human condition remains the same. And Shakespeare, or whoever wrote those plays (chuckles) wrote about that.
Julia Meek: Okay, if each of you could do any bit of Shakespeare you haven't done or something you have done in a totally different way, what would it be?
Christopher Murphy: Well, I am not nearly the Shakespearean performer that Kate is. But if I had to pick one, my dream role would be to play Polonius in Hamlet, because you get to be a little bit of the buffoon in an otherwise very, very heavy piece. (all chuckle)
Kate Black: Very heavy. And that would be such a good role for you.
Christopher Murphy: It would be fun.
Kate Black: Well, I've already admitted that I want to play Hamlet, so, that is my...
Christopher Murphy: There you go! We've got two of the roles cast.
Kate Black: That's right! (all chuckle) Here we go. The other one that I would love to play sometime, and I have actually had two different directors talk to me about it, is King Lear.
So, I don't know if that will ever come to pass, but that is sort of on my radar somewhere or other.
Julia Meek: I wish you both luck on all of those things. And of course, keep us posted. Now, meanwhile, as our own city planners work toward economic development for all the arts. In your minds, how does theater figure into that equation, as a destination, as the big next step for Fort Wayne's cultural scene?
Christopher Murphy: Yeah, people are always looking for things to do. People are always looking to make that connection. And I think again, we see that in so many things in the world, just like we see people connecting again with real mail, as opposed to email and websites.
I think we are seeing a shift back to that in how we want to connect with entertainment in the world, too. And so, I certainly hope that as Fort Wayne continues to grow and expand, that the people in charge will always make theater a destination.
Kate Black: One of the things that has come into my orbit is that I've done several plays that were originally, or have been made into films, and my feeling about working on stage in the production is that generally there is more humor in it.
In a staged production, there is more heart, there is more connection. And as Murphy said earlier, the connection with the audience is palpable. They become a character sometimes. And the thrill of having that energy going back and forth between the audience and the actors on stage, there is absolutely nothing like it.
Julia Meek: Great point, Kate and last question, what is one thing that everyone should know about this city's amazing theatrical output that they don't, especially Arena Dinner Theatre and your own upcoming production of I Hate Hamlet.
Kate Black: It is not necessarily a predictable piece of theater, which I very much appreciate. I think this production may offer the audience some surprises, which will be really, really delightful.
And I've talked to so many people recently who don't even know where Arena Dinner Theatre is. Had never heard of it, and it is a beautiful gem in the midst of the West Central Neighborhood. I just encourage everybody to come and see it and experience an evening at Arena. It's remarkable and lovely.
Christopher Murphy: I think the most important thing people need to know is that I hate Hamlet opens on March 14 and runs through the end of March.
It stars an amazing cast of local comedians, not just Kate, but Olivia Rang and Amy Ross, who are mother and daughter off stage, the wonderful Sean Findley, the amazing Richard Hartman, and, of course, the brilliant Todd Frymier, my muse, my friend, as the ghost of John Barrymore.
It's a wonderful, raucous, but also poignant, touching, really fun evening out. So come see arena Dinner Theatre's production of I hate Hamlet. Have a good time.
Julia Meek: Christopher Murphy is director of Arena dinner Theatre's, I Hate Hamlet, and Kate Black, lead actor in the same. Thanks for the many stories you tell, especially this one, you two. Have a great show.
Kate Black: Thank you.
Christopher Murphy: Thank you so much. We hope to see you at the theater.
