One of the most interesting things about this business is how small the world of performing really is. I don’t think I have been apart of a cast in which I haven’t known a friend of a friend or worked with a friend of a fellow actor. I was told early on to be careful what you say because it will get back to that person as you never know who knows whom.
With Hamlet, we have had a reuniting of old friends, which has been really exciting. Gregory Pember, who is playing the title role in Hamlet, and I worked together this past summer in Forever Plaid and then again in Into the Woods. We struck up a really close friendship, something that I had wanted for a long time. When you are constantly traveling, it is hard to keep some of those friendships alive. I came back to the Roxy this fall only to then be greeted by Kendall Anne Thompson, a close friend of Greg’s from the Boston Conservatory. In that respect it was like having Greg here. Kendall, Travis and I became extremely close, just as Greg and I had done months previous. Now, we are all back together and working together in a town we love and at a theatre we love even more. Some good things should just continue.
Added to the talented friends that have reunited, the Roxy is so lucky to have some other Roxy favorites returning for Hamlet as well as some new faces. Leslie Greene is back playing Gertrude, Ashton Crosby is back playing Polonius, Gili Getz has also returned playing The Player and the Gravedigger. It is always exciting to have people return and that is what we hope with our new faces gracing the Roxy stage. We hope they return as well!
Please join us at the theatre this weekend for the final performances of Hamlet, Friday night at 8pm and Saturday at 2pm and 8pm. The performances by our Roxy cast are stellar and you will begin to call these actors friends as well and look forward to their return to the Roxy stage as much as we do.
See you at the theatre! — Ryan
