Veteran Shakespearean actor Geoffrey Barnes joins the Reduced Shakespeare Company to play Yorick and Ophelia's mother in the regional theatre premiere of The Comedy of Hamlet! (a prequel). The RSC's 11th stage show marks the company's seventh appearance at Merrimack Repertory Theatre, as well as MRT's 300th production, and Geoffrey discusses how his many years at Cincinnati Shakespeare Company and Oregon Shakespeare Festival – as well as his background in musical theatre and experience performing RSC scripts at CSC – serve him well in this comic prequel to Shakespeare's greatest tragedy. Geoffrey reveals the value of a comedian not thinking he’s funny; how he finds the rhythms and music of the language, whether it’s Shakespeare, vaudeville, or August Wilson; and the importance of letting the music and the jokes serve the characters and the story. (Length 21:05)