Babcock Season presents Aquila Theatre Company in William Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’

Aquila Theatre’s touring production of William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.” Photo by Richard Termine


Sweet Briar College’s Babcock Season continues with the Aquila Theatre Company in William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2017, in Murchison Lane Auditorium in the Babcock Fine Arts Center on Sweet Briar’s campus.

Tickets go on sale Wednesday, Nov. 1, and are $10 for adults, $7 for senior, $5 for non-SBC students and free for the Sweet Briar community and for children younger than 12. Tickets are available online at SBC.tix.com or through the box office at 434-381-6120 or 434-381-6350.

While on campus, members of the national touring company will also host a “physical theater” workshop for students, faculty and staff from 1:30-2:45 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 15, in the theater rehearsal room in Babcock. Space in the workshop is limited and can be reserved by emailing Natalie Szabo at nszabo@sbc.edu by Friday, Nov. 3.



Leading the cast is Lewis Brown, a London-born actor playing the role of Hamlet. Brown is joined by Gys de Villiers as Claudius, Lauren Drennan as Ophelia, and Rebecca Reany as Gertrude. Other members of the company include Harriet Barrow, Tyler LaMarr, James Lavender and Michael Rivers. Desiree Sanchez is directing the performance.

The Aquila Theatre Company is one of the foremost producers of touring classical theater in the United States, visiting more than 50 U.S. cities each year. Regularly funded by the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, the company is committed to bringing the greatest number of classical works to the greatest number of people. According to the company, “A play becomes ‘classical’ because we recognize after a time it transcends the original culture it was created for. It retains the power to provoke the central question of what it means to be human.”

Aquila was founded in London in 1991 by Peter Meineck and is currently based in New York City, where it is a significant part of the city’s theatrical landscape. They regularly perform the plays of William Shakespeare, including “Romeo and Juliet,” “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “As You Like It.” Their repertoire isn’t limited to Shakespeare, however. They’ve also performed “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes,” “Six Characters in Search of an Author,” “The Importance of Being Ernest” and many more.

Aquila is also dedicated to theater arts education and produces three major initiatives: Workshop America, a nationwide program that provides an opportunity for people to share in the art of Aquila; Theatre Breakthrough, which brings America’s schools to the stage; and Shakespeare Leaders, an after-school program that enables inner-city students to perform the classics at Frederick Douglas Academy in Harlem.

For more information, email Szabo at nszabo@sbc.edu, call the box office at 434-381-6120 or 434-381-6350, or visit sbc.edu/arts/box-office.