The Project

Hamlet: Prince of Denmark is an original adaptation of Shakespeare's Hamlet co-created by Cary Sasso and Ryan Dukes which reimagines the titular prince as a ftm transgender teenager. Picking up on strong affinity queer teens have for Hamlet - he's something of an icon for trans youth - this adaptation asks the question: what if Hamlet was not a prince at all, but a transgender teenager using Shakespeare's text to cope with his grief and isolation, framing the people in his life as queens, kings, and lords and himself as the heroic prince of Denmark as part of a desperate quest for meaning and dignity? As the story progresses and Hamlet begins to lose his grip on reality, the line between Hamlet's imposed Shakespearean narrative and the underlying reality begins to blur, leaving Hamlet alone with his hoodie, his taped-together paper crown which the other characters constantly try to destroy, and his faltering princely persona to navigate a hostile world of genuine royalty hell-bent on ripping away his sense of identity.

This adaptation blurs the original Shakespearean text with contemporary, newly written scenes and choreographic movement sequences. In terms of the Shakespearean text itself, the changes we made largely involved changing the pronouns of the text so that all of the characters - excluding the ever-loyal Horatio - misgender Hamlet constantly, making every line an individual act of violence, playing with the ways that language has the power to harm or heal. Examples include Claudius calling Hamlet "daughter" to belittle him, Horatio consistently referring to Hamlet as "my lord" to affirm him, and Ophelia beginning to misgender Hamlet when she is forced to return his love letters. The subtle tweaking of the original text draws on the parallels between Hamlet and the transgender experience already latent in the text instead of imposing a narrative on top of it, particularly pulling on Hamlet's eloquent voicing of the feeling of being at odds with society and the text's focus on self-harm and suicidal ideation (The Trevor Project's website states that nearly half of all transgender youth have considered attempting suicide in the past month). The choreographic movement sequences and original scenes give the audience a glimpse of Hamlet's reality under his theatrical facade, exposing the real tragedy of the play: the insecure, abandoned child obscured by the heroic persona Hamlet walls around himself.

Ultimately, the purpose of this project is to make space in classical theater for queer creatives, audience members, and youth. As a transgender man, I have always loved classical theater, particularly Shakespeare. In a theatrical world often adherent to traditional gender dynamics, Shakespeare was my respite. However, I was soon told that classical theater wasn’t for me, and that my queerness didn’t have a space in it. By employing queer creatives and making a piece deeply interconnected with the young transgender community, the goal of Hamlet: Prince of Denmark is to fight against that mentality, showing that the classics can be a home for theatrical misfits, a site for queer narratives, and a place for representation.

The pictures below are from the project's initial run at the NExT Experimental Theater in Palo Alto, California. We will be restaging this project at the 14Y August 29th and 30th.

Who are we?

We are a group of young, largely queer creatives starting our theatrical careers in NYC. Most of us are either still in college or freshly out of college. Through this project, we hope to build both a collective of creators and a network of audience members who want to bring queerness to the classics. The project is directed, produced, and co-created by myself, Cary Sasso. My bio is included below.

Cary Felix Sasso (he/him) is an NYC-based director, playwright, actor, and proud trans man. His work largely centers around two major focuses: shock, body horror, and obscenity as a site of advocacy and reimagining Shakespearean texts, particularly through queer and trans perspectives. He is the co-creator and director of Hamlet: Prince of Denmark (NExT 2025), the writer and director of The Shakespearean Crossdressers Support Group (NExT 2025 and American Theater of Actors 2024), and the creator and director of Titus Andronicus …and Zombies! (Stanford Shakespeare Company 2024). As an actor, his favorite roles include King Henry IV in Henry IV parts 1 and 2 (Stanford Shakespeare Company), Dr. Chebutykin in Three Sisters (Stanford TAPS), #00 in The Wolves (Stanford TAPS), and Rosalind in As You Like It (Stanford Shakespeare Company). He graduated from Stanford University in 2025 as a member of Phi Beta Kappa with an Honors BA with Distinction in Theater and Performance Studies and a BA with Distinction in English with an emphasis in Creative Writing. His honors thesis is titled “Blood, Guts, Gore, and Ethics: Titus Andronicus as the Model for a Safe Campy Horror Comedy.” You can learn more about his work at www.caryfelixsasso.com.

Our Schedule

Rehearsals and performances will take place in the month of August. They are scheduled as follows.

August 5th-25th: Rehearsals at A.R.T/New York Spaces@520
August 26th-28th: Tech at the 14Y Blackbox theater
August 29th and 30th: Performances at the 14Y Blackbox theater

The Ask

We have a total budget of $8000 for this project. We hope to raise around $5000 of this budget via crowdfunding. Our budget is broken down below:

Performance Space Rental - $2800

Rehearsal Space Rental - $1600

Performance Insurance - $300

Performer and Creative Compensation - $1800

Marketing and playbills - $750

Costumes - $750

We hope to use crowdfunding to cover $1400 of the rehearsal space rental as well as our performance insurance, performer and creative compensation, marketing and playbills, and costumes. Your money will go to both making Hamlet: Prince of Denmark feasible and making it feasible for the young, queer creatives we've hired to participate in this project. Help us make the classics a space for everybody!