Now in its sixth season, Salt Lake Shakespeare will employ two Equity actors for its production of "Hamlet" — one of them sharing the stage with his former University of Utah drama instructor.
"Hamlet" opens Thursday on the Babcock Stage of the Simmons Pioneer Memorial Theatre, where it continues through June 22. It's being directed by Craig Rich, the company's artistic director.
Jason Bowcutt, who studied in the U. Actor Training Program — and who is now a professional actor based in New York City — will play the title role. One of his former teachers, Anne Cullimore Decker, will play Hamlet's evil, adulterous mother, Gertrude.
Decker, who recently received the U. College of Fine Arts' 2003 "Outstanding Alumna Award," will be honored June 15 with this year's Madeleine Award for Distinguished Service to the Arts and Humanities.
Morgan Lund, who most recently played multiple roles in Salt Lake Acting Company's world premiere of "Wait," will play Claudius, Hamlet's uncle . . . and Gertrude's new husband.
Shakespeare himself, in the closing lines of the drama, describes the violent tale as one "of carnal, bloody and unnatural acts . . . of accidental judgments (and) casual slaughters."
"Hamlet" is one of Shakespeare's most popular — and most-produced — plays. There've been more than two dozen film versions.
It also contains such well-known lines as "To be or not to be, that is the question" . . . "To thine own self be true" . . . and "Get thee to a nunnery."
And, ironically, while "brevity is the soul of wit" also comes from the same text, "Hamlet" is Shakespeare's longest play (although it is generally whittled down to a more comfortable length).
While it's been analyzed endlessly for hundreds of years, with countless theories about the drama's psychological and political themes, basically it's a dark "whodunit" as Hamlet, the 30-year-old Prince of Denmark, sets out to avenge his father's murder.
Craig Rich, S.L. Shakespeare's artistic director, is also directing the production. His cast includes Emily Sandack as Ophelia, the young woman Hamlet eventually spurns; Joel Richards as Laertes, Jarvis Anderson as Polonius, Jan Knightley as Horatio; and Ron Frederickson as the Ghost of Hamlet's father.
After graduating from the U.'s Actor Training Program in 1994, Bowcutt — a Salt Lake native — moved on to roles in both New York City and some of the country's best-known regional theaters.
Local theatergoers saw him last year as Billy Bibbit in Pioneer Theatre Company's production of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest."
In New York, he received both Drama Desk and Helen Hayes Award nominations for best actor for his portrayal of Nathan Leopold Jr. in the off-Broadway production of "Never the Sinner."
He's also worked at the Guthrie Theatre, Cincinnati's Playhouse in the park, the St. Louis Rep Theatre and the Signature Theatre in Washington, D.C.
If you go . . .
What: "Hamlet"
Where: Babcock Stage, Simmons Pioneer Memorial Theatre, U.
When: 7:30 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, 2:30 p.m. Sundays, through June 22
How much: $10-$15
Phone: 581-7100 or 355-2787
Web site: www.arttix.org
E-mail: ivan@desnews.com