After the success of Amplified Art's inaugural production on the Maxfield Parrish Stage Set at the Plainfield Old Townhall this past winter with Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, which was nominated for five New Hampshire Awards, which won one NH Theatre Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Community Production and a top three placement for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Community Production, Amplified Arts is back! 

This time, as part of their 9th season, "The Three," a study of femme rage through the lens of the maiden, mother, and crone archetype, AMP will be producing Henrik Ibsen's Hedda Gabler. The production will again be staged on the Maxfield Parrish Stage Set and will open in May 2024.

Ibsen's 133-year-old masterpiece tells the story of Hedda, daughter of the late General Gabler, who returns from her honeymoon with her husband, George Tesman, to confront the boredom and banality of married life. She has little more than amused contempt for her husband, but the reappearance of an old flame threatens both George's career prospects and her own sense of self-worth. 

As a small production company in a rural community, AMP provides a unique space for emerging artists in our area to create. In addition, AMP provides a portion of our ticket sales to support the restoration of the hall and stage set to benefit the Plainfield Historical Society. Our art benefits the community at large as well as provides access to high-quality, intimate theatre experiences in an underserved area of New Hampshire. 

Help us bring this show to life!

Amplified Arts is headed by its producing artistic director and founder Shelly Hudson, and co-founder Azalea Eve Hudson, with a company made up of wonderfully skilled and talented theatre makers, early career and emerging artists. 

Hedda Gabler will be directed by Shelly Hudson, an NH native and director with almost 150 credits and 20 NHTA award nominations, with several of her actors’ performances winning in their category. 

The show will also feature costume designs by Azalea Eve Hudson, a recent graduate of Bard College where she received her B.A in Theater & Performance, and Victorian Studies, and the Robert Rockman Prize for Excellence in Theatre and Literature. 

Our cast will be announced here soon!
 

Our funding goal is $3,600 and will entirely go towards mounting our production of Hedda Gabler. More specifically, this funding will go towards production costs such as venue fees, rights, costume and set materials, event insurance, and more. If you’d like a breakdown of our costs in percentages there is an infographic you are welcome to peruse at the bottom of the page. 
 

We hope to transport our audiences to the 1880s home of the Tesmans, so that they may further connect with the characters and the story they will be telling. With your support, you’ll help us bring the world of Hedda Gabler to life!

If you want to get a sense of our design direction, there is a costume design presentation in the media carousel above! 

Check out the design team's Pinterest board: https://www.pinterest.com/azaleaeveh/hedda/

We would love to give you a little something as a thanks for contributing! Based on the level at which you give, you’ll have different options for perks. 

Some of these perks include things like recognition in our program, free tickets, photo cards, video messages from our cast, signed copies of posters and scripts, and more! 

Just press the options on the sidebar for a more specific breakdown of each level's perks. 

As mentioned in our overview section, AMP works twofold as an artistic outlet and access point for our rural community and as a platform for a large array of early-career and emerging artists. We do this work in part to provide a safe space for artists to explore their interests in theatre and to find a supportive community of fellow creatives to continue on their journey of creation. 

Much of our work over our 9 year history has been focused on the various forms of Western classical theatre, with some exceptions. Our production Hedda Gabler continues this tradition. Classical theatre can seem daunting, but we, as a company, feel that it is important to bring those stories to our community.

As one of our founding company members, Azalea, put it,
 “Classical theatre is in a unique position to reach people using its inherent degree of distance. Much of the classical theatre we love tells universal stories whose themes transcend their initial time and place. If they didn’t, and we couldn’t connect with them, why would we continue to tell their stories and explore them to their smallest details? I feel that the distance we find in classical theatre, from their language to their form of dress, for example, creates the space for more objective observation of the pieces’ characters and worlds, subsequently making more room to connect, reflect, and learn from them. As we continually reexamine these stories, engaging in the content, with all of their faults, in new and different ways, we open up new avenues for perspective and insight. It’s often said that we can learn from history, so why not our cultural history as well?”

Any and every contribution helps us reach our goal, and we are greatly appreciative of anything you might be able to give. 

But, if you cannot contribute, we completely understand and would love it if you could share our campaign and make some noise! Any and all support goes a long way. 

Please feel free to share our campaign with those you know, fellow lovers of the arts, on your social media pages, and through the Indiegogo share tools!