Seated just feet from the action, we watched Louisiana Shakespeare Company turn its first fully produced tragedy into an immediate, funny and fiercely physical night of theater.
We knew how Hamlet ends. We did not know how close we would be when it happened.
At the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge on opening night, September 11, 2026, the audience sat in two long sections facing one another, like the sidelines of a football field. The actors moved through the open space between us. There was no distant proscenium, no comfortable visual border separating the people watching from the people unraveling inside Denmark’s royal court.
Every confrontation happened only a few feet away. Every pause had weight. When the swords came out, the room seemed to shrink around them.
That staging decision changed everything.
We had come to opening night because our friend Chase Bernard was making his Louisiana Shakespeare Company debut as Laertes. Jeff Kelso of Lana Oliver Productions joined me and photographed the cast meet-and-greet after the show. What we expected was a chance to support a friend. What we found was an entire corner of Baton Rouge’s creative life that we somehow had not encountered before—and a production good enough to make us wonder how we had missed it.
Shakespeare without the glass case
I had not read Hamlet since high school. Like many people, I remembered the famous speeches, the skull, the poisoned sword and the broad route toward the ending. That familiarity could have made the evening feel like a dutiful encounter with a classic.
Instead, this Hamlet felt alive.
The production stays rooted in Shakespeare while giving the world a modern visual and emotional pulse. Contemporary costumes make the characters feel less like figures preserved in an old book and more like volatile people caught in grief, ambition, suspicion and revenge. The language remains Shakespeare’s, but the cast speaks and moves with enough clarity that the emotions arrive before an audience has time to translate them.
That accessibility is central to the Louisiana Shakespeare Company’s mission: to create inclusive, professional theater experiences and remind audiences that Shakespeare belongs to everyone. Founded in Baton Rouge in 2023, the nonprofit has built its work around performances, education and public programs that make the Bard less intimidating and more immediate.
This production may be its clearest proof yet.
Opening-night photographs by Jeff Kelso of Lana Oliver Productions.
A tragedy that remembers how funny people are
The emotional turns landed hard. The room could become completely still when grief or betrayal took over a scene. But one of the night’s best surprises was how often the audience laughed—and how naturally those laughs emerged.
This was not comedy pasted onto a tragedy to keep things moving. It came from sharp timing, confident character work and performers who trusted one another enough to let a moment breathe. The audience was attentive from the start, and when the humor arrived, the response moved through both rows together.
That balance matters. Darkness feels darker when the people inside it have also made us laugh.
Louis Mangiaracina, who plays Hamlet, carried that balance with remarkable control. His performance moved between humor, anger, uncertainty and raw grief without losing the thread of the character. His timing made the wit land; his emotional range made the familiar speeches feel like thoughts being discovered in the moment.
We learned afterward that Mangiaracina was only 20 years old at the time of the production. You would never guess it from the command and stamina of the performance. At the meet-and-greet, we hoped to tell him how good he was, but he was surrounded by audience members waiting to do exactly the same thing. We never got the chance. The crowd around him said plenty.
Watching a friend become Laertes
Our favorite part of the night was seeing Chase Bernard completely in his element.
His first scene was extremely funny, full of energy and physical specificity. Later, as Laertes is pulled deeper into grief and vengeance, Bernard shifted into something much more dramatic without losing the force that made his earlier work so engaging. His role demanded a great deal physically, especially as the play drove toward its final confrontation, and he met that demand with total commitment.
The climactic sword fight was not merely a flourish added to advertise an action scene. It felt like the release of pressure the entire ensemble had been building all night. The choreography was fast, convincing and thrilling at close range. Because we were seated along the action rather than safely removed from it, every advance and reversal felt immediate.
The fight also marks a milestone: according to director and Louisiana Shakespeare Company Executive and Artistic Director Jennifer Bouquet, Hamlet is the company’s first production to put swords onstage. That would be ambitious under any circumstances. For the company’s first fully produced tragedy, it was a statement—and they nailed it.
An ensemble that trusts one another
Mangiaracina and Bernard are surrounded by a cast whose chemistry makes the production work.
Julie Roundtree plays Queen Gertrude, Travis Daigle plays King Claudius, Antoni Amina Rogers plays Ophelia and Chris Dalton plays Polonius. Together with the actors around them, they create the sense of a court in which every relationship has history and every gesture can carry a second meaning.
Daigle and Dalton were especially unforgettable. Meeting them afterward, we found warm, generous people. Watching them play Claudius and Polonius, we felt genuine dislike for the men they had created. That contrast is a compliment: both actors committed so fully to their characters’ manipulation and self-interest that the response felt personal.
Roundtree, Rogers and the actor playing Horatio all contributed to the production’s strongest quality—the feeling that this ensemble truly meshed. Reactions did not appear to begin and end with spoken lines. The performers listened to one another, moved with confidence and trusted the physical space they shared.
Public production credits also name Devin Bureau, Ella Simon, Gray Armond, Aubrey Wesley, Buck Patton, Mary-Beth Blanchard-Loftin and Shauna Fahad as members of the cast. Patton plays the Ghost of Hamlet’s father. Jennifer Bouquet directs.
The discovery after the curtain
The meet-and-greet after the performance made the night feel even more personal. We spoke with actors who played Polonius, Gertrude, Claudius, Horatio and Laertes, and we met Bouquet, who told us this was the troupe’s first tragedy.
That was genuinely surprising. Nothing about the performance felt like a company cautiously trying a new form. The emotional pacing was assured. The comedy landed. The stage combat had purpose. The actors seemed connected to one another from one end of the room to the other.
The venue helped create that sense of connection. The Cary Saurage Community Arts Center, home of the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge, is a creative space in downtown Baton Rouge with galleries, studios and flexible performance areas. For opening night, its intimacy became an artistic advantage. A bar offered cocktails, beer, wine, seltzers and snacks at reasonable prices, making the evening feel welcoming before the first line was spoken and communal after the final bow.
We arrived knowing the story. We left newly aware of the people telling stories like this in our own city.
We did not realize Baton Rouge had this kind of theater scene waiting for us. Now that we do, this will not be the last play we attend.
Keep showing up for local theater
Opening night on September 11 played to a sold-out audience. The production’s scheduled September 11–19, 2026 run has concluded, but the discovery that brought us here stays with us.
If your last encounter with Hamlet was in a high-school classroom, a performance like this offers a different way into the play: spoken aloud, embodied by actors and shared with a room full of people. The language, unexpected laughs and physical performances made familiar scenes feel immediate.
Local arts do not thrive on applause alone. They thrive when people buy a ticket, fill a room and tell someone else what they found there. Louisiana Shakespeare Company gave Baton Rouge a bold, intimate Hamlet—and gave us a reason to keep paying attention to the people making theater here.
For current productions, programs and announcements, visit the company’s official website.
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Cast and production credits
Confirmed principal cast
- Louis Mangiaracina — Hamlet
- Julie Roundtree — Queen Gertrude
- Travis Daigle — King Claudius
- Antoni Amina Rogers — Ophelia
- Chase Bernard — Laertes
- Chris Dalton — Polonius
- Buck Patton — Ghost of Hamlet’s father
Additional publicly announced cast
- Devin Bureau
- Ella Simon
- Gray Armond
- Aubrey Wesley
- Mary-Beth Blanchard-Loftin
- Shauna Fahad
Creative leadership
- Jennifer Bouquet — Director; Executive and Artistic Director, Louisiana Shakespeare Company
- William Shakespeare — Playwright
Frequently asked questions
Where was Hamlet performed in Baton Rouge?
Louisiana Shakespeare Company’s Hamlet was performed at the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge inside the Cary Saurage Community Arts Center, 233 St. Ferdinand Street in downtown Baton Rouge.
Has this production’s run ended?
Yes. The production’s scheduled run was September 11–19, 2026. This article is a review of opening night on September 11, not a current performance listing.
What did tickets cost for the September 2026 run?
General-admission tickets for that run were listed at $30 before online fees. This is historical pricing, not a current ticket offer.
Who played Hamlet?
Louis Mangiaracina played Prince Hamlet. The principal cast also included Julie Roundtree as Gertrude, Travis Daigle as Claudius, Antoni Amina Rogers as Ophelia, Chase Bernard as Laertes and Chris Dalton as Polonius.
Was this production accessible to someone who had not read Hamlet recently?
Yes. The production used Shakespeare’s language but delivered the story through clear emotional performances, modern costumes, physical staging, humor and action. Familiarity with the play helped, but was not required.
