Montana Shakespeare in the Parks serves up a Hamlet Sandwich

What could ham sandwiches and William Shakespeare possibly have to do with each other? Theatermaker Matt Foss is here to make the connection – and bring it to a venue near you.

His play “Hamlet Sandwich” is the latest in the temple of original children’s Shakespeare adapted by Foss for Montana Shakespeare in the Parks (MSIP). The annual Montana Shakes! tour, which kicked off its fourteenth season on Jan. 23, brings educational and digestible Shakespeare to sixty elementary schools around the region. Following the performance, the acting company presents students with engaging workshops designed by Shakes! Education Director Katherine Norman.

Originating as an offshoot of MSIP’s Shakespeare in the Schools program, Shakes! began in 2008 with a tour reaching 15 K-6 schools. The tour now reaches over sixty schools and runs for about 12 weeks every spring, performing and teaching at a new elementary school every weekday. An outreach program of MSU's College of Arts and Architecture, MSIP strives to bring free professional theater to underserved communities across the state and beyond.

Kevin Asselin, MSIP’s executive artistic director, described the mission of the organization as “making these stories, these characters and the idea of live performance accessible to all generations and all communities, regardless of geographical location or population density.”

MSIP offers Shakes! programming for free to particularly rural and underserved communities, including reservation schools, through the help of grants. Montana is one of, if not the most, Shakespeare-literate states in the country, owed in no small part to MSIP’s 50 years of summer tours, 30 years of Shakespeare in the Schools, and 15 years of Shakes! tours.

Matt Foss, Associate Professor of Film and Theater at the University of Toledo, and Shakespeare in the Parks alumnus has spearheaded new and original material for Shakes! for the past three seasons.

“I’m a pretty democratic theatermaker in that I try to be as specific as possible in the making, while hoping folks feel enfranchised to take what they want or need,” he said. “I [try to] erase all the dots I connect in the process of making in a belief the audience will in turn connect them in the way most impactful or meaningful to them. They’ll connect those dots in the way they most need in that moment.”

In 2020, Foss and the acting company presented “Faithful Friends,” an adaptation of “The Two Gentlemen of Verona.” The following year 2021 was dark for Shakes! because of COVID-19, but the program returned in full force in 2022 with “Bottom’s Dream.” In this adaptation of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” Helena whispers to The Lobster of Truth through the chink in the wall instead of the traditional Pyramus and Thisbe. Foss’ adaptations spin iconic scenes from Shakespeare’s works into programming that engages young people and impresses upon them that creativity is king and to never be afraid to be weird or different: being unapologetically yourself is the best thing you can do.

Actress Emily Hawkins describes that “It's not as cut and dry as ’love and friendship,’” said actress Emily Hawkins. “We ask students questions like ‘How do we deal with the voices in our own heads that make us doubt ourselves?’ or ‘How can we support our friends when they do something really brave?’”

“Hamlet Sandwich” focuses on a group of creativity scientists, Dr. Sam, Dr. Emily, and Dr. Josh, played by Sam Cheeseman, Emily Hawkins and Josh Pennington, respectively. They use their proprietary invention, The Imaginatron 3000, to feed them prompts for their experiments studying natural creative aptitude. The latest prompt directs them to perform Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” but “change it up” and “use it to talk about their feelings.”

Along the way we meet sentient ham sandwiches and dinosaurs, sing Taylor Swift songs and finally make it to Infinite Space. When creating the themes of his shows, Foss said he considers “what is the company interested in, what are the learning goals, and what feels like the most urgent need facing the young people from these schools?”

If presenting “Hamlet Sandwich” to a new school each weekday for 12 weeks wasn’t enough, the acting company also puts on its imaginary teacher hats to bring engaging workshops to the kids in their classrooms.

“This year we offer three educational workshop options to each school: one on imagination building through performance exercises, another on language and self expression, and a third on how creativity can be found in both art and science,” Hawkins said.

Through performing the show and giving workshops almost every weekday for three months, the show tends to grow and evolve far beyond the pages Foss and the acting company started with.

“When we build games and exercises for a workshop, it is always building in theory,” Cheesman said. “Because we don't have actual students to test out the workshop with.”

“I love this company and it’s great to come back and contribute to an innovative and truly unique piece of programming unlike anything really happening around the country, ” Foss said. In partnership with Thrive, Shakes! will be giving a special presentation of “Hamlet Sandwich” at the Black Box Theatre Monday, Feb. 20, at 1 p.m. Visit shakespeareintheparks.org for more information.