Since 2018, Lincoln Center’s Big Umbrella Festival has brought programming to its 16-acre campus that’s been created especially with neurodivergent audiences of all ages in mind. This season’s edition runs through April 20, and includes Los Trompos, an outdoor installation that will be open in Damrosch Park each weekend. Rebecca Podsednik, the Director of Programming at Lincoln Center, describes Los Trompos as “beautiful, larger-than-life spinning tops that are available to spin or lie on them, including a version for individuals with mobility needs.�
The Big Umbrella Festival culminates with a truly original production that has its New York premiere at Alice Tully Hall on April 19: director and writer Chela De Ferrari’s reinterpretation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, starring a cast of eight actors with Down syndrome. Instead of dramatizing the story of the Danish prince who could not make up his mind about whether to avenge his father the king’s murder at the hands of his uncle and mother, De Ferrari recenters the play to focus on the entire cast, all of whom play Hamlet at various points of the performance.
So why Hamlet? De Ferrari—who is founder and director of the Peruvian theater company Teatro la Plaza—had already adapted several Shakespeare works. But she wanted to wait until she could find the right actor before she decided to take on Hamlet. De Ferrari says that she was inspired when she met one of the ushers at the Teatro La Plaza, a young man named Jaime Cruz. “He presented himself not as an usher but as an actor,� she explains. “Jaime told me about his dream of being onstage as an actor, and I thought of the new possibilities of what an actor (with Down syndrome) could bring to this play.�
De Ferrari understands that such an approach might be contentious. “I thought it would be a provocation, of course,� she says. “But it’s an approach that would give a new meaning to ‘to be or not to be’—I thought it was important to put a text of great value, like Hamlet, in the hands of a group to whom society doesn’t give value. In this cast’s hands, it’s an apparent contradiction that turns out is really not.�
In De Ferrari’s adaptation, the legacy of Hamlet being played by great actors is referenced, both humorously (in the case of an appearance by Ian McKellen) and poignantly (in the case of a clip from Laurence Olivier’s 1948 Oscar- winning film version). “We wanted to find ways to get the cast members to better know Hamlet without reading the entire play in either English or a Spanish translation,� De Ferrari said. “So we watched movies, starting with Olivier’s. And at one point, Jaime was nervous about reciting one of the famous monologues and wanted help—I thought about a Peruvian actor who played Hamlet but he was unavailable, so I thought of Ian McKellen!�
To create a play which foregrounds a group of performers that are usually shunted to the side, De Ferrari and her actors embarked on a long journey of several months of research that included extensive input from everyone, based on their own experiences. “I had long interviews with the actors to collect anecdotes that could relate to Hamlet as well as other characters and specific scenes in the play,� she notes. “I wrote (the adaptation) based on those ideas, and after awhile we found that we were very comfortable with one another—they even laughed at my jokes! We trusted each other, and it was very profound to see these performers become empowered and turn into real actors and actresses.�
The results are onstage for all to see, De Ferrari believes. “There’s a truth and beauty in how they deliver the text,� she says. “When we did the casting, we wanted to show the diversity in the performances, to show that professional actors aren’t the only way to connect to audiences. We’ve worked on this play for six years, we’ve traveled together and all of us are grateful for this experience."
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