By Chris Harding
Special to the Reporter

When a traveling troupe of players turns up on his doorstep, Hamlet has plenty of advice to share. Now another traveling troupe of players performing "Hamlet" in Dorchester wants to return the favor.

The Actors' Shakespeare Project, the company that roves Greater Boston from venue to venue creatively staging the works of the Bard, has come not only to make the most imaginative use ever of the Strand Theatre, but also to explore the playwright's work over the course of a year with the members of the Dorchester community.

ASP's Director of Education Lori Taylor leads selected actor-teachers from the company in a wide array of workshops, based on this classic play about justice, revenge, family and violence. She says the Hamlet Residency springs from "the company's belief that Shakespeare's words belong to everyone. The production at the Strand is part of our continuing exploration of how those words reverberate in a particular space, how people of all kinds respond to them, and how their response informs our work."

Taking his cue from the "changing places" motif that Shakespeare sounds even from the opening lines of the play, director Rick Lombardo seats the audience up on the stage and deploys the actors at times all over the high-vaulted house. Using the stage, the boxes and the three tiers of seats, Lombardo approximates Shakespeare's own multilevel Globe Theater and underscores the drama's theatrical motifs like the play-within-a-play and characters feigning madness and friendship.

As exciting as the turn-about staging are the extensive multiracial casting and fresh look at the characterizations in this modern-dress "Hamlet."

ASP founder and Artistic Director Benjamin Evett epitomizes the vitality of the production as the restless hero, clambering around scaffolding and finding new ways to deliver all-too-familiar lines. Modest as he is in sharing the focus, he is, nevertheless, "the observ'd of all observers."

Johnny Lee Davenport and Marya Lowry are the sybaritic King and Queen crazy in love leaving state affairs to a not so buffoonish Polonius (Robert Walsh). If Marianna Bassham (Ophelia) is affecting in the "Get-thee-to-a-nunnery" exchange, she's positively heartrending in her mad scene.

Many of the cast members have been or will be involved in ASP's varied workshops. On October 26, four male actors of color including Johnny Lee Davenport (Claudius) and Jason Bowen (Marcellus/Fortinbras), who grew up in the Dorchester/Roxbury area, conducted a "Boys of Color Workshop" for area high school males comparing contemporary speech with Shakespeare's language including his mouth-filling insults.

On November 6, sword play and stage combat take center stage as Ted Hewlett (Rosencrantz/Fight Director for "Hamlet") and Robert Walsh (Polonius/ nationally known Fight Director) will offer a free class to local young people on "Fight Night." Any member of the public who'd like to join them should contact Lori at 617 547-1983.

This past summer, Dorchester teachers received scholarships to ASP's Teacher Training Institute at Emerson College to bring "The Art of Teaching Hamlet (and Others)" to their classrooms. During the "Hamlet" run, ASP actors will visit Dot schools, and matinee post-performance talk-backs will provide school groups further chances to discuss the show.

Not only will the Strand Youth Theatre work closely with ASP during the run of "Hamlet", but their ASP mentors will prepare them for their own performance of "Romeo and Juliet" next summer.

"I Defy You Stars ( So I Can't Write the Rest)" was the title of another version of "Romeo and Juliet" that DYS girls in Dorchester presented just a few weeks ago in September. They'll continue doing voice, movement, improvisation and mixing Shakespeare's words with their own as they prepare to present their take on "Hamlet" some time in December.

In short, ASP's "Hamlet" with its increased minority casting, workshops, and spectacular staging is shaping up as a watershed event for both the company and contemporary Dorchester culture.

"Hamlet" by William Shakespeare, directed by Rick Lombardo at the Strand Theater through November 12.