TORRINGTON – It’s not often the work of William Shakespeare, widely considered one of the most influential playwrights of all time, gets drug through the mud like it does in ‘I Hate Shakespeare,’ a one-act comedy debuting this weekend at Torrington High School.

It’s the school’s entry for the one-act play competition at the upcoming Wyoming Thespian Festival, which will be in Laramie in December. Local audiences will get a sneak peak at the romp through The Bard’s body of work when the acting troupe made up of students from all three area schools perform it tonight (Friday) and Saturday at 7 p.m. in the THS auditorium. 

The THS Fall Drama Showcase will feature other vocal, acting and technical events that students are entering in the festival, but the anchor piece is the one-act comedy. The play, according to sophomore Ruby Ringrose, actually pays tribute to Shakespeare – despite the title and opening scene, where an unhappy audience member (Holly Kiiskinen) heckles a scene from Hamlet. 

“Basically, it’s kind of like trashing on Shakespeare, but giving him a good name with all of the plays he produced and wrote,” Ringrose said. “It’s humorous and basically we’re showing the unhappy person, Holly, all the wonderful things Shakespeare has to offer.”

The play features reimagined scenes from Hamlet, Othello, Romeo and Juliet, and other Shakespeare plays to explain how modern audiences can relate to the classics. Ringrose portrays a modern-day Juliet, as well as Desdemona during the Othello sketch. She, and many of the other actors, change roles several times throughout the performance. 

“I’m going from one character, to a different character, to another,” she said. “Some people have happy, then very sad, and then happy again. That is kind of hard to process and get into the zone.”

Southeast High School sophomore Caleb Sauer said playing multiple characters is an enjoyable challenge. Throughout the course of the production, he plays Hamlet, Ted, and Antony in different sketches. 

“It’s definitely a challenge,” he said. “This year is my first comedy play, so it’s definitely a lot different dynamic than the drama plays that I’m used to. It has definitely been a difficult change, but I’m enjoying it.

“Just the different diversity of characters I get to play is really enjoyable, and I just love being on stage and being able to show a different side of myself.”

Kiiskinen, a sophomore at THS, starts the play by heckling Sauer’s Hamlet, then dons a mullet in a scene from Othello – which takes place on The Jerry Springer Show. She said the actors have been working on the show for three months, and have made a lot of progress in that time. 

“I love doing it, especially being in the audience and being able to heckle the actors and stuff,” she said. “It’s fun to be sassy. I get to wear a mullet – that’s an interesting part of it. I’ve really enjoyed it so far.

“We’ve only been rehearsing like three-ish months, but it has come along really well,” she said. “Compared to how we first started, there is a way-huge improvement.”

The comedy marks a dramatic change in material for the troupe. Last year’s one-act, which was part of a second-place effort at the festival, touched on heavy topics with very little humor. According to director Christine Quillen, this year’s group was ready to try something new. 

“The kids were very tired of doing the heavy-duty stuff that we have been doing the past few years and they wanted to do a comedy,” she said. “We read through a few and this was the one we liked the best. “These kids needed a comedy.”

The one act is just one of 20 entries the thespians will display at the WSTF in Laramie. Among those, Kiiskinen is performing a monologue and submitting an original script to be read and judged. 

“I’ve done many plays before, but monologue and a script? Never in my life,” she said. “It’s challenging to get it, but it’s also really exciting to be able to try that and have people critique my work.”

Sauer plans to compete in four events at the festival. He’ll try his hand at theater publicity, the technical Olympics, an ensemble piece and the one-act. 

“It’s a great opportunity,’ he said. “It’s a very new event. We were able to take home second place last year and we’re hoping to do even better this year.”

According to Ringrose, the festival – and this weekend’s showcase – gives the young thespians the chance to show off something they’re passionate about. 

“It’s kind of my artistic way of saying ‘hey guys, this is what I do. This is what I enjoy,’” Ringrose said.