This is not only a solo Shakespeare performance, it also incorporates mental health education, mixed media, puppetry, and original music.
First performed and independently-produced by Kate Marie Smith in January 2020, One Woman Hamlet: Shake(speare) the Stigma Surrounding Mental Health dives into the mind of Kate, as she uniquely parallels the story of Shakespeare’s Hamlet with her own journey as an artist dealing with depression and anxiety. As Kate says, “This is not your average Hamlet” - meaning this is not only a solo Shakespeare performance, but also incorporates mental health education, mixed media, puppetry, and original music. Inspired by Kate’s own journey as well as the experiences of friends lost to suicide and depression, this original script was written over the span of four years and supervised by mental health professionals. One Woman Hamlet reminds us that “It’s OK not to be OK.”
Kate Marie Smith is an award-winning performer and producer in Chicago (credits include Chicago Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew and the acclaimed indie film, Jack and Anna, as well as a community outreach coordinator for One Year Chekhov and a trauma-sensitive trained yoga teacher. Through One Woman Hamlet, Kate hopes for audience members to better understand their own mental health and discover the same peace and freedom she has found.
This program is presented by The Connecting Routes Project (TCRP), America’s railway touring theater company, working to connect communities through shared storytelling. Based out of Chicago, they tour the works of Chicago artists by train to communities connected along the railways, sharing universal stories through free and accessible theater. This engagement is supported by the Arts Midwest Gig Fund, a program of Arts Midwest that is funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, with additional contributions from Illinois Arts Council Agency.
In order to protect the TCRP team from COVID-19 exposure, masks are required for this program regardless of vaccination status.
