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DIRECTING AT SHAKESPEARE & COMPANY, BOSTON UNIVERSITY, ET AL

This page contains photos from some professional productions I directed, plus photos of productions I directed at Boston University, and of one production I directed at Brandeis University.  Because I had come to the theatre as an actor, my directing had always been actor-centric, but when I joined the faculty at Boston University’s School of Theatre in 2012, I was compelled to think long and hard about what kind of training and performance experience might best serve young actors.  My answer to that question was to give the actors more freedom than they were used to, and it paid off, both in the classroom and in performance.  I learned how to inspire young actors by trusting them, and in that regard I became a better director.  

Photographer Credits

A huge thanks to these photographers for the images I’ve borrowed for this page ---

  • Kevin Sprague for A Tanglewood Tale, The Vienna Project, Kerfol, and Antony and Cleopatra

  • Kalman “Kal” Zabarsky for Back Bog Beast Bait, The Whitmores, Uncle Vance, Downtown and Unmentionables

  • Mike Lovett for A View from the Bridge

  • Michelle Moriarty for Act of Faith (Part One)

2001 A Girl’s War - Boston Playwrights' Theatre

Reviews

“Every new playwright deserves a production as pitch perfect as this one…Michael Hammond keeps everything honest and intense with his smart, understated direction…”

Ed Siegel, The Boston Globe

2001 A Tanglewood Tale - Shakespeare & Company

Reviews

“Michael Hammond has directed the proceedings with a firm sense of pace.  And of place.  The Berkshires feel like an essential character here…”

Ed Siegel, The Boston Globe

2002 The Vienna Project - Shakespeare & Company

Reviews

“Hammond, who adapted two of these works, stars as Ludwig Wittgenstein in the third, and directed and designed all of them, does an excellent job of capturing a certain sadness in these plays.”

Ed Siegel, The Boston Globe

2006 Kerfol - Shakespeare & Company

2007 Antony and Cleopatra - Shakespeare & Company

Appearing in these photos ---

  • Tina Packer as Cleopatra

  • Nigel Gore as Marc Antony

  • Robert Biggs as Lepidus

  • Craig Baldwin as Octavius Caesar

  • Christianna Nelson as Charmian

  • Molly Wright Stuart as Iras

  • Walton Wilson as Enobarbus

  • Ryan Winkles as Pompey

  • Tony Molina as Soothsayer

  • Michael Solomon as Agrippa

  • Justin Gibbs as Diomedes

  • Kevin Rich as Scarus

Reviews

“a powerful, passionate staging…we finally realize how skillfully the production has built toward its tragic end.  Hammond has channeled a sprawling epic into a fluidly coherent story, aided by a uniformly excellent cast.”

Louise Kennedy, The Boston Globe

2012 Holiday Memories  - New Rep

2013 Back Bog Beast Bait - Boston University

Appearing in these photos ---

  • Ben Stanton as Slim

  • Chris Morris as Shadow

  • Leila Ghaemi as Maria

  • Ian Geers as Preacher

  • Ellen Tamaki as Gris Gris

  • Ben Ducoff as Beast

  • Ivy Elwell, Kelsie Hogue, Teresa Langford and Maureen O’Sullivan as Ghost Girls

2014 A View from the Bridge - Brandeis University

Appearing in these photos ---

  • Alex M. Jacobs as Alfieri

  • Jonathan Young as Eddie

  • Sarah Elizabeth Bedard as Catherine

  • Sara Shoch as Beatrice

  • Sam Gillam as Marco

  • Eddie Shields as Rodolpho

2014 The Whitmores, by Ben Ducoff - Boston University

Appearing in these photos ---

  • Lucy Farmer as Mary

  • Ben Salus as Tom

  • H. Grant Meacham as Dale

  • Rachel Donahue as Sue

  • Christian Santilli as Frank

2015 Uncle Vance, by Michael Hammond - BOSTON PLAYWRIGHTS’ THEATRE – BOSTON UNIVERSITY

Appearing in these photos ---

  • Madeleine Lambert as Elena

  • Will Lyman as Derek

  • John Kooi as Vance

  • Michael Kaye as Wolfe

  • Timothy Spears as Tug

  • Nancy E. Carroll as Clare

  • Maria DeCotis as Sonya

Reviews

“Ultimately, this production of ‘Uncle [Vance]’ represents one of those thrilling moments in the theater when script, direction, performances, and design all work together to create an evening of theater that is truly transforming. Chekhov would be proud.”

 Terry Byrne, The Boston Globe

2016 Act of Faith (Part One) - Boston University

Appearing in the ensemble photo and video

  • Jasmine Brooks

  • Emily Brown

  • Analise Cain

  • Kyle Tristan Chua

  • Kalei Devilly

  • Molly C. Eskew

  • Flynn Holman

  • Aidan Newell

  • Alex Schneps

  • Renelle Chorilette Wilson

2017 Downtown, by Kyle Chua - Boston Univerity

Appearing in these photos ---

  • Eddie Harris as Al

  • Kalei Devilly as Ben

  • Miles Jordan as Gil and KitKat

  • Kellan Rhude as George and Man-at-Bar

2018 Unmentionables, by Molly Greville - Boston University

Appearing in these photos ---

  • Carrie Quigley as Shannon

  • Gina Fonseca as Claudia

  • Curtis Chase as Tom

  • Zachary Zamsky as Dad

Interview with Charlotte Weinman (2021)

Charlotte Weinman, one of my students at Boston University, once asked me to do an interview with her for a class assignment. I would have been happy to oblige in any case, but was doubly keen because the assignment was for a class being taught by one of my favorite colleagues at Boston University, Christopher Ricks.

​

It was the spring of 2021, and Covid had forced us out of the classroom and into the Zoom room. But Charlotte and I agreed, along with our camera person Julian Shapiro-Barnum, that we wanted to do this interview in person, so we set up a safe distance from each other in the courtyard outside my apartment building. It was a cool, sun-drenched morning, and the blustery wind swept away the virus, so we could talk safely, and congenially.

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