Hamlet Is You

Last Saturday actor Christian Camargo and his wife, actor Juliet Rylance, starred in one extraordinary Meeting School Forum.

English teacher Burrett McBee commented that it was "an English teacher's dream" to have a professional Shakespearean actor in front of his students who could engage students, honor the text, and open up a larger world than existed before.

Christian deconstructed Hamlet's first soliloquy - it was much more than an analysis of the speech, and students got a sense of how hard one has to work to understand the depth Shakespeare.

One of the questions students had for Christian was "How to you keep a part alive?" Christian talked about the imperative to find oneself in each part - that if one is able to do this, the part will stay vibrant and true.

Please see the article below from The Monadnock Ledger Transcript.

And a postcript for all of the Twilight fans out there - Christian has been cast as Eleazar of the Denali Coven in upcoming "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Parts 1 and 2."


Sharing Shakespeare’s words

Actor Christian Camargo speaks to Meeting School students

BY ROBERT MICHAELSON

Monadnock Ledger-Transcript
Tuesday, October 5, 2010

RINDGE — Students at the Meeting School got a lesson on Shakespearean acting and a glimpse of the television/ film industry over the weekend.

Actor Christian Camargo, best known for his role as the Ice Truck Killer in the Showtime series “Dexter,” shared how he developed a love for Shakespeare with students Saturday morning.

“When I first read Shakespeare, I wasn’t interested at all. I really didn’t like Shakespeare, but then I became fascinated by it, then obsessed by it,” said Camargo.

The actor had been taught by Meeting School teacher Burrett McBee at the Harvey School in Westchester, N.Y. He said McBee introduced him to Shakespeare and even helped him with his audition for the Juilliard School of Drama.

“Its always wonderful; you never know where students will end up,” said McBee.

Most recently, Camargo has traveled worldwide to perform Shakespeare as part of The Bridge Project.

In Rindge, he performed a piece from “Hamlet,” showing the students how to appreciate and work with the, rhythm, expression and language in Shakespeare.

“You can’t be lazy about words you don’t know,” he said. “There is a texture to these words that we take completely for granted.”

He also spoke on developing as an actor in the entertainment industry, mentioning the dangers of being typecast.

“In Hollywood, when you play one part, that is all they see you as. You play a serial killer, you’re screwed,” he joked in reference to his role as a killer in Dexter.

His wife, Juliet Rylance, who is also an actor, was present and shared one of her favorite scenes of “Hamlet.”

Camargo told the students that acting was less about trying to be somebody else and more about finding the character within.

“Acting is about you, at the end of the day, Hamlet is you,” said Camargo.