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Theatre audiences usually rise to their feet only during breaks or when the curtain comes down. For a special production of Shakespeare's Hamlet, however, getting up and moving around is required if you want to catch all of the action.
The production is staged in the James J. Hill House in St. Paul, Minnesota. The action takes place in several rooms on several levels of the 36, 000squarefoot building.
This is not the first time that the Wayward Theatre Company has chosen a special place to stage a theatrical production. Cofounder and director Sarah Nargang said that the group prefers to perform (表演) in untraditional spaces. She noted, "It allows people to communicate with these spaces, as well as the text, in new and interesting ways."
Besides the James J. Hill House, the group has performed at the Minnesota Transportation Museum, in hotel rooms, and in the back of a brewery (酒厂).
"We usually choose a play and then find a place for it," Nargang said. "But we try to choose historic places as much as we can."
The James J. Hill House was built for a railroad businessman of the same name. The fivestory mansion (豪宅) sits on a large area of land overlooking the city of St. Paul and the Mississippi River. Completed in 1891, in what was known as the Gilded Age,itis now owned by the Minnesota Historical Society.
"The James J. Hill House allowed us to stage Hamlet during the Gilded Age and show much of rich people's lives of that time," Nargang said.
Performing Hamlet in a mansion affected the way the production was choreographed (为……编舞). "Entering and exiting are more difficult because you don't have many choices of where you can go," said Tim McVean, who plays the role of Hamlet.
"There's a lot more running around," added actor Tim Perfect, who plays Claudius, the ruler who marries Hamlet's mother. "But there's no way any stage could compete with this place for beauty."