Moby Dick - Rehearsed

An adaptation of the classic Melville story by Orson Welles

Produced and Directed by Blair Hundertmark

NH Theatre Project presented Moby Dick – Rehearsed, by Orson Welles, Oct. 15-24 as the season opener of NHTP's Professional Artist Series at their new space, the West End Studio Theatre (WEST) in Portsmouth, NH.

Orson Welles, master of the “theatre of the imagination,” weaves King Lear with Captain Ahab and Shakespeare with Melville in this compelling tale of the struggle of Man against Nature, Man against Man, and Man against God.   Welles' inventive play-within-a-play device incorporates creative use of rehearsal stage dressing, integrating movement, live music, and ensemble acting to recreate the world of Ahab's doomed 19th century whaler.

Although the WEST theater has been booked solid with a variety of programming from the moment the doors opened in the Fall of '03,   Moby Dick – Rehearsed represents the first professional production that NHTP has mounted in their new home.   Genevieve Aichele, Artistic Director of NHTP comments: ” After 20 years of producing theatre in venues all over the seacoast, NHTP artists are excited to have a creative space of our very own, and proud to present Welles' classic script as our premiere performance.”

The show was directed by NHTP Producing Director Blair Hundertmark, whose last maritime-theater directorial offering in the seacoast region was the original play   I Have Not Yet Begun To Fight – The Adventures of John Paul Jones , which premiered at The Music Hall in Portsmouth in May 0f 2002.   At the Palace Theatre, Hundertmark has directed the critically acclaimed Of Mice & Men , Twelve Angry Men , and The Diary of Anne Frank . The regionally selected professional cast included Steve Bornstein, Jim Burkholder, Ben Carling, Joseph Chase, Kevin Collins, M. Patrick McGowan, and Lisa Richardson. Live soundscapes were written and performed by Jose Duque.                

“ As you would expect from Welles, this is a very clever piece of writing”, says Hundertmark, “One that begs the audience to use its imagination and unite Melville's (and Welles) words with the suggested stagings, sea chanteys, musical underscoring and movement to create the fateful voyage across the open seas in search of the great white whale. This is truly an ensemble, many-layered production that integrates the audience into the ensemble.”