“Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead” opens on March 5 in the Harper Joy Theatre. The two leading roles will be played by seniors Emily Krause and Tory Davidson. Krause will be playing Rosencrantz and Davidson will be playing Guildenstern. As part of the theatre major senior project, they each have researched their characters and spent a lot of time together.
“To prepare for the play, I became familiar with Tom Stoppard’s work and Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet,’ researched the play’s original and recent production history, and looked at examples of clowning in other contexts. Emily and I watched a lot of Marx Brothers and vaudeville. And flipped a lot of coins,” said Davidson.
As they have practiced their roles and rehearsed the play, putting many hours into preparing for the opening night, they have become better actors and have helped each other grow and improve. In fact, they have worked so closely that they have almost become indistinct on stage.
“We balance each other out and we challenge each other,” said Krause. “We were definitely cast as a pair and definitely function as a pair.”
Their collaboration has sparked most of their improvement. During rehearsal, they provoke each other to become better at playing their parts.
“Inspiration comes from my sense of my character and everything that I got from Tory … A lot of the discoveries I made were in connection to her and not just by myself,” said Krause.
Inspiration, however, does not just stem from the pair’s collaboration. They also looked at other performers and actors who played these roles in a similar style.
“I looked a lot at Harpo Marx, who’s the silent one … His energy and his face is so expressive and so bright all the time that I really wanted to try and capture that,” said Krause.
There can always be the slight chance that studying too much and watching too much of a certain play on repeat will lead to the actor’s inability to create a meaningful character that is created with his or her understanding. Krause restricted herself from looking at other performances of “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead” to preserve meaning in the play.
“I tried not to look too much into other performances of this role because I wanted to keep a clear head,” said Krause.
While there has been a lot of improvement throughout their rehearsals, they have also experienced some difficulties.
“The world of this play is ever-disorienting, but it is important that we find ways to keep driving the action forward, which has been hard. That is something we’ve been wrestling with throughout the process,” said Davidson
In the play, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern experience uncertainty and, by connecting with these characters, Davidson and Krause were able to experience a similar disorienting feeling.
“As Guildenstern gets incapacitated by her own thoughts at times, I’ve really had to piece through her text and find the driving forces behind all of the metaphors,” said Davidson. “It’s a difficult play — one that we’ve really had to live inside of in order to understand. Emily and I often joke that the two of us in this process have felt a sense of uncertainty similar to how our characters feel throughout the whole play.”
Krause feels that the fact that they are both women adds to the play but also preserves the essence, the main ideas encompassed within the script.
“I think the fact that Guildenstern and I are both women is really cool. I think it does and doesn’t change the play. I think it colors certain interactions and it makes certain moments have a different weight,” said Krause. “But really in the end it’s just about two people who don’t understand the weight of what’s going on around them.”
After much preparation for the show, they each shared a similar confidence and readiness to perform in front of an audience, and an audience is just what they need to finalize their performance.
“The wonderful thing about the process of a play is that you’re never quite sure what a piece is until you have an audience. I think we’re ready for that,” said Davidson.
“I think we can work on this play for a really long time, but it’s a comedy and we need an audience,” said Krause.
The play is directed by the chair of the Department of Theatre, Associate Professor Christopher Petit, and runs until March 8. Tickets are available in Harper Joy and are free with student identification.