It is so great to catch up with Actress Jennifer Van Dyck! I last interviewed Jennifer in 2016 when she was reprising her role in Charles Busch’s The Divine Sister at Bucks County Playhouse (in Bucks County, PA).

Now Jennifer is about to slay in The Provincetown Theater's production of Sarah Schulman’s The Lady Hamlet.

While in the midst of rehearsals for The Lady Hamlet, Jennifer took a few moments to speak with me about this show.

In this NEW interview, Jennifer once again answered my call, but this time around she shares:

• Why she has stayed with this show’s development for the past 13 years
• How The Lady Hamlet relates to today’s world
• Biggest mishap to happen during rehearsal
• Best advice she would impart onto someone else
• So much more

Connect with Jennifer: Website, Instagram

The Lady Hamlet is about two women artists, both trying to get their production of Hamlet on Broadway. With 1920s New York City as their sparring field, they engage in a war of wits that leaves their colleagues and lovers caught in the crossfire.

The Lady Hamlet will play at Provincetown Theater (238 Bradford Street, Provincetown, MA) from June 27, 2022 - July 21, 2022.

1. This summer you are co-starring in Provincetown Theater's production of Sarah Schulman’s The Lady Hamlet, which has been in development for 17 years. You have been involved with this show for 13 of the 17 years. How did you first get involved with this production? It’s been a long association! I first did a reading at ART in Boston in an evening co-produced with the Huntington (Diane Paulus hosted and Peter DuBois directed). I fell in love with the play. Sarah Schulman and I started dreaming about how we could get a full production off the ground. Little did we know how long it would take.

2. What made you want to stay with the show's development for so long? Sarah Schulman’s writing is perfection. The world she has created is thrilling and funny and deep and complicated and ahead of its time.

3. Now that the show is finally having its world premiere, what excites you about having the show on its feet? The Lady Hamlet is set backstage at the Margo Stayden Burns Repertory Company (Margo is the character I play). We are in the midst of a production of Hamlet. Two theatre divas in 1920 are battling for their production of Hamlet to be produced on Broadway. Backstage hi-jinks, a love triangle involving both Hamlets and Ophelia complicates matters. What could be more fun? There’s even a duel!

4. How do you feel this show relates to today's times we are living in? Sarah’s ideas about women’s representation onstage is at the forefront of The Lady Hamlet. “Two women can be together, in a play, only if they are related or rivals. But they cannot love nor change each other. That would make them too important.” We are trying to change that narrative in the play - and with this production.

5. What has been one big mishap to happen during the rehearsal process? As I said, there is a duel in the play. I walked into rehearsal one day to see the technical director unpacking one of the foils we will use in that duel. I asked where the second foil was and he said you can only buy one foil at a time. You have to wait 10 days between purchases of stage weapons.

What a world! People can buy AR-15s as easily as can be, but a stage prop that looks like a weapon is another story.

Left to Right: Kate Levy, Jennifer Van Dyck, Anne Stott
Photo Credit: David Chick

Let's switch gears to some general/fun questions: 

6. Go to take out food? My husband, Jonathan Walker, is a fabulous cook so we almost never do take out. Home cooking is too good!

7. Favorite piece of furniture? Our kitchen table.

8. If you could be any animal, which one would you be? There’s a bunny that hops by my back porch here in Provincetown, so I’ve been thinking a lot about bunnies.

9. Dream you still want to fulfill? Hiking in the Highlands of Scotland. We had a trip planned before the pandemic. It’s time to start re-planning that trip.

10. Best Advice you have received that you would impart on someone else? There is no logical path in this business. We have to leap from stepping stone to stepping stone, not knowing where the journey will take us. Take that leap!

More Jennifer Van Dyck Interviews:

2010 (Read Here): Jennifer Van Dyck and Jonathan Walker: 12 Things You Don’t Know About This Divine Theatre Couple

2016 (Read Here): Joint Interview with the Cast of Charles Busch’s The Divine Sister at Bucks County Playhouse

Jennifer Van Dyck, Photo Credit: David Chick

More on Jennifer Van Dyck:

Jennifer Van Dyck is an actor, narrator and voice-over artist based in New York City.

Upcoming and recent projects: Dracula at the Berkshire Theatre Group directed by David Auburn, playing the role of Van Helsing in August; Kay Oyegun's (This is Us) new pilot for ABC, Insight; world premiere of Sister Sorry by Alec Wilkinson, directed by Joe Calarco at Barrington Stage Company; Judge Sharone Lee on Law & Order: Organized Crime (ep. 104 & 108); short film The Little Drummer Boy directed by John Gray, Charles Busch's The Confession of Lily Dare at Primary Stages directed by Carl Andress (Outer Circle Critics Award); Amanda Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie at the Guthrie directed by Joseph Haj; audiobooks including Deadly Summer Nights, Deadly Director's Cut, Scarlet in Blue and multi-cast recording of Beezer and the Creeping Red, podcast Artist Inclusive.

A frequent collaborator with playwright/actor Charles Busch and director Carl Andress, she has originated many roles for them in multiple productions, including The Confession of Lily Dare, The Divine Sister, Cleopatra, Judith of Bethulia andThe Third Story.

Additionally, Jennifer has appeared on Broadway in Hedda Gabler, Dancing at Lughnasa, Two Shakespearean Actors and The Secret Rapture.

She has extensive off-Broadway and regional credits. Some of her favorite playwright collaborations include new plays by Topher Payne, Bathsheba Doran, Sarah Schulman, Austin Pendleton, Deborah Zoe Laufer, Karen Zacarias, Keith Bunin, Ellen McLaughlin, Catherine Filloux, Douglas Post, Ken Weitzman and A.R. Gurney.

Her television and film roles include many episodes of all versions of Law & Order, Blindspot, Madam Secretary, Bull, The Good Wife, The Blacklist, Elementary, Person of Interest, Royal Pains, Too Big to Fail, Fringe, New Amsterdam, Michael Clayton and Across the Universe.

Jennifer’s narration work encompasses hundreds of audiobooks in a wide range of genres, as well as a large variety of voiceover spots.

She was born in St. Andrews, Scotland and raised in Princeton, NJ, with a sojourn to Melbourne, Australia for a year at the age of 11. She graduated from Brown University and began her career at Trinity Rep under the leadership of Adrian Hall. She is a long time New Yorker where she lives with her husband, actor Jonathan Walker.