Beginning in 2018, ImprovEd Shakespeare started a worldwide film and theatre production. For more than a year, we learned, shared experiences with, and recorded young people. In addition, we spoke to their educators, and discovered valuable techniques to approaching the Bard of Avon. Altogether, our journey took us across North America, to Europe, Africa, Asia, plus Australia. During a tour which spanned those continents, ImprovEd Shakespeare’s Andee Kinzy sought out and worked with youth in twelve different countries and sixteen separate cities.
Scene by scene and week by week, these youth performers from different cultures added to the ongoing, painful saga on our YouTube web series. Beyond cultural and language differences, each location featured a distinct crop of young players. Yet, all used the Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, as their common thread, to tell the story.
Afterward, we compiled the film Global Hamlet. Our production features students ranging in age between 8-21 years. Not only does the film meld ages, but it also merges levels of experience, as well as multiple languages. Moreover, it includes a vibrant cast of young people from the USA, Germany, South Africa, Israel, India, Australia, the Netherlands, Russia, and England.