Huntington Beach Academy for the Performing Arts stages ‘stripped-down version’ of ‘Hamlet’

Jenny McClintock first hit the stage at the age of 3, performing a “When You Wish Upon A Star” number for the Southland Ballet Academy.

Four decades later, McClintock said she has her dream job, as an acting instructor at Huntington Beach High and for the Huntington Beach Academy for the Performing Arts.

Her first big main stage production as director has arrived.

The academy’s acting department is putting on a performance of “Hamlet” this weekend in the historic auditorium at Huntington Beach High, with four shows running Friday night through Sunday afternoon.

McClintock, her cast of nearly 80 overstudies and understudies and the students behind the scenes have been working for about 10 weeks on the William Shakespeare play. It is another step toward normalcy for the performers, as this will be their first show where they aren’t required to wear masks.

After dealing with both the retirement of longtime acting teacher Robert Rotenberry in 2020 and the coronavirus pandemic, the student actors are more than thrilled to be back on the big stage, McClintock said.

The energetic McClintock, a Fountain Valley High graduate who lives in Seal Beach, was hired last July by HBAPA. On Wednesday evening, she watched a dress rehearsal of the play wearing a shirt with a picture of Shakespeare and the words “Will Power.”

Jenny McClintock, the HBAPA acting instructor, is director for the organization’s production of “Hamlet.”

(Matt Szabo)

“I talk about ‘Hamlet,’ the way I’ve directed it, as a very stripped-down version,” she said. “I feel like that’s how I’ve approached this year as well; I’ve gotten down to the fundamentals. A lot of these kids have not had real acting technique, because they’re either freshmen or they had COVID for the first two years of their high school experience.”

The production has been not only stripped down but halved to a two-hour showtime. McClintock and her student dramaturge, Huntington Beach High senior Katherine Meschuk, took on the considerable task.

Students are involved in all phases of the production. HBHS senior Danielle Edwards, who plays Guildenstern, is one of two assistant directors.

“Each actor has empathy for their character. I think the audience will see that,” Edwards said.

HBHS senior Ella Acciacca was cast in the lead role of Hamlet. McClintock said she did not consider gender much when casting, adding she chose whoever was right for the roles.

HBAPA student actors during a rehearsal for “Hamlet” on Wednesday night.

(Matt Szabo)

“I know Golden West College also had a female Hamlet this year,” Acciacca said. “I think that gender conversations are moving more to a fluid space. For me, for this role, I definitely was people-watching a lot to see different mannerisms. I’ve been using ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ as different buzz words for myself on how to act, but I think it’s mostly just assuming a powerful stance. That’s been a journey for me to go through.

“These boots, they were my key to keeping my stance and my walk the same. I’m fully grounded and sort of working from the bottom to the top with this character, with these boots on.”

Acciacca, one of the leads of HBAPA’s production of “She Kills Monsters” last fall, brings Hamlet’s mood swings and lunacy into full view.

McClintock hopes that audience members see current-day parallels within the adjusted script.

“We wanted to showcase these very dysfunctional relationships, these toxic relationships where people really think they’re right and are unwilling to listen to any other side of the story that doesn’t serve their own narrative,” she said. “It unfolds in this wake of destruction … and I feel like that resonates. Hopefully not the tragedy, but we are so caught up and focused on our side of the story and what we think is right that we’re unwilling to listen. We’re hoping that’s the lesson that [audience members] hear, that it’s only through empathy and listening to others and working together that you can find some kind of solution, or peace, or harmony.”

Tickets for “Hamlet” range from $15 to 25. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit hbapa.org/see.

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