New World Shakespeare: Contemporary Theatre from a Classical Master

 For the 2026 season, New World Shakespeare Company is partnering with a new company in its inaugural season: The Edmund Kean Theatre. Edmund Kean is run by artistic director David Sessions, who came to New World's production of Hamlet directed by and starring Élise Hanson as Hamlet, and was so impressed by the talent that he called all the male members of the cast and asked them to be in his first production at The Edmund Kean Theatre: An Evening with Shakespeare .  Who is Edmund Kean ?  Mr. Edmund Kean was an actor who lived from 1787 to 1883. He made his first stage appearance at the age of four in Noverre's Cymon, in which he played Cupid. He soon became a draw and an audience favorite, and was sent to school by some benefactors.  He would go on to study pantomime and Shakespeare under actress Charlotte Tidswell, his interpretations completely different than the actors who came before him, people like Burbage and Kemble. By age 14, he was a contracted player, tak...

  Part of Hamlet’s tragedy is that he knows what play he’s in. An expert of theatrical convention and an avid student of the dramatic arts, Hamlet—the would-be playwright and actor—is keenly aware of how this is all going to end, particularly if he sets the plot in motion. But Hamlet is actually a lover of life, even in his current state of melancholy. He doesn’t want to die. If Hamlet were in Othello’s play and vice versa, things might have ended up differently for both of them. The delay Hamlet creates is part of his vast knowledge and brilliant mind, but he is also too cognizant to see his story ending any other way. Just as Hamlet suspected the plot against him set to be carried out by Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, he almost definitely suspects that Claudius will make an attempt again. He goes into the final act with calm, steady resolve, partially because of what he doesn’t know, but partially because he knows more than any of us. Hamlet’s mind is too great for this world and ...