LiveWrites & Modern Hamlet
- LiveWrites staged four short plays with a feedback panel on April 21, offering playwrights real-time responses. - The Acting Company also presented a modern-verse Hamlet reading with cast introductions in recent posts. - Those short-play and modern-verse experiments reflect active lab-style workshopping in live theatre this week. ( )
Two theater groups used this week to test new work in public: Live Theatre’s Live Writes ran four short plays with onstage feedback on April 21, and The Acting Company is preparing a 75-minute modern-verse *Hamlet* for schools and a New York run next month. (live.org.uk) (theactingcompany.org) Live Writes took place Tuesday, April 21, at 7:30 p.m. at Live Theatre in Newcastle. The program billed itself as “a Scratch Night, with a twist,” with rehearsals, technical work and performance all happening in one day, with no set and minimal props and tech. (live.org.uk) The four pieces were *The Second Tree* by Lois-Amber Toole, *Mam Me Mia* by Chess Tomlinson, *Fine Lines* supported by Connor Dorrian, and *Blended* supported by Christina Berriman Dawson. Live Theatre said writers, directors and actors were chosen through open calls limited to artists based in North East England. (live.org.uk 1) (live.org.uk 2) Live Theatre said the format is built for scripts that have had no previous performances or stagings. Writers can submit 10 minutes of work and ask an invited panel of theater professionals for “bespoke feedback” on the specific issues they want addressed. (live.org.uk) The Acting Company is using a different workshop model with a familiar text. Its 2026 spring Shakespeare school tour is *Hamlet* in a modern verse translation by Lisa Peterson, directed by Chika Ike, with school performances scheduled for April 27 through May 15 and public performances set for May 20 through May 24. (theactingcompany.org) (sheencenter.org) The company says the adaptation runs 75 minutes and is designed for middle and high school audiences, with post-show discussions and classroom programming attached. The Sheen Center listing says tickets for the public run range from $10 community tickets to $100 patron tickets, fees included. (theactingcompany.org) (sheencenter.org) The cast announced for *Hamlet* includes Marion Grey as Hamlet, Breezy Leigh as Gertrude, Erick Lindsey as Claudius, Caroline Campos as Horatio and Ophelia, Rob Kellogg as Laertes, and Marquis D. Gibson as Polonius. TheaterMania reported the production will visit schools including St. Catherine Academy, Edward R. Murrow High School and I.S. 73 before the Sheen Center engagement. (theatermania.com) The two projects point to the same part of the theater calendar: development work in front of audiences, not behind closed doors. One is testing brand-new 10-minute scripts in Newcastle; the other is testing how a modern-language *Hamlet* lands with New York students before a five-day public run. (live.org.uk) (theactingcompany.org) For now, the through line is process made visible. On April 21, that meant four short plays and a feedback panel in Newcastle; by April 27, it will mean *Hamlet* in classrooms before it reaches the Sheen Center stage in late May. (live.org.uk) (theactingcompany.org)
