Spring 2026: Hamlet
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Read Shakespeare’s 1603 play Hamlet
and watch Gregory Doran’s 2009 film adaptation
Ophelia, played superbly by Mariah Gale, in the 2008/9 production of Hamlet starring David Tennant and directed by Greg Doran
OPHELIA
There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance.
Pray you, love, remember. And there is pansies,
that’s for thoughts.
LAERTES
A document in madness: thoughts and remembrance fitted.
OPHELIA
There’s fennel for you, and columbines.
There’s rue for you, and here’s some for me; we
may call it herb of grace o’ Sundays. You must wear
your rue with a difference. There’s a daisy. I would
give you some violets, but they withered all when
my father died. They say he made a good end.
Sings. For bonny sweet Robin is all my joy.
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
In this four-week course, students will engage in a deep reading of one of William Shakespeare’s most famous and complex plays, Hamlet.
Details & Meeting Dates
Meeting Time: 1pm to 2:30pm PST / 4pm to 5:30pm EST
Tuition: $349
Location: 🌀 Online via Zoom
Cohort I: Saturday—Grades 9 and 10
Saturday, March 14, 2026
Saturday, March 21, 2026
Saturday, March 28, 2026
Saturday, April 4, 2026
Cohort II: Sunday—Grades 11, 12, & Pre-College
Sunday, March 15, 2026
Sunday, March 22, 2026
Sunday, March 29, 2026
Sunday, April 5, 2026
Text and Film Editions
Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, Arden Shakespeare Edition, edited by Ann Thompson and Neil Taylor
This edition includes so many amazing footnotes and pieces of historical context! However, if students already have a copy that they would rather use, that is fine. Please just make sure it includes line numbers so that we can easily follow along with each other.
Hamlet, directed by Gregory Doran, 2009
For the film adaptation, students can rent or buy the film here on Apple TV (or elsewhere). This is an excellent, true-to-text modern adaptation that captures the energy of a stage performance while incorporating really amazing camera techniques, drawing on the theme of surveillance in Hamlet.
Exam Prep Relevancy
Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a standard text included on the AP®, SAT®, and ACT® exams and a core text in college English classes.
Office Hours
For Cohorts I-II: Hamlet, the Office Hours will be available at various times on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays for ongoing mentorship and support.
Course Description
Why does Hamlet delay revenge? Is Hamlet really “mad”? What exactly is Gertrude guilty of? Wait, who’s Fortinbras, and why is there a geopolitical side-plot? What role does Ophelia play?
Written at the turn of the 17th century during the Elizabethan Renaissance, Hamlet has become a timeless story—but it was written at a very specific time of great transition and upheaval, both personally and nationally for Shakespeare.
We know that William Shakespeare had a son who died in 1596 (a story fictionalized in the 2020 novel, Hamnet). His father died a few years later. Hamlet emerges as a play that begins with the death of a father and ends with the death of a son. At the same time, on the national scale, Queen Elizabeth I’s reign was coming to a close. When Prince Hamlet says, “Time is out of joint; O cursed spite that ever I was born to set it right,” we see an agony that contains both personal and political grief about the new, impending order of his known world.
This is just one historical and autobiographical interpretation, but there’s so much more to be said! When we read Hamlet together, what will you discover?
Cohort Learning Objectives
Read the entire play of Shakespeare’s Hamlet with close attention to the language, plot, and ethical questions within the text.
Learn and practice dialogue skills, navigating through the text collaboratively to express opinions, ask questions, develop interpretations, and give confident answers.
Gain a strong understanding of what makes Hamlet so enduringly fascinating, such as: its themes of grief, madness, and revenge; its speeches and soliloquies; its geopolitical side-plot; and its popular interpretations in performance.
Engage in a comparative reading and analysis by watching Gregory Doran’s 2009 film adaptation of Hamlet.
Deepen your reading practice and gain confidence in translating your solo study into a group setting, avoiding the assistance of external sources (except the footnotes and permitted external sources listed in our Program Policies).
Reading Assignments & Session Plan
Over the course of four sessions, we’ll peel back the layers of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, spreading out the reading over the first three weeks. We’ll conclude the cohort with a discussion on Gregory Doran’s 2009 version of Hamlet.
First Session: Read Hamlet, Act 1
Second Session: Read Hamlet, Acts 2 – 3
Third Session: Read Hamlet, Acts 4 – 5
Fourth/Final Session: Watch Gregory Doran’s 2009 Hamlet film adaptation
For more details on what will happen each day within this reading flow, please reference the Day-to-Day Session Flow in our Program Structure page.
Join a Hamlet Cohort!
Apply to Hamlet by the deadline: March 7, 2026
Apply Early! All students who apply by February 28, 2026 will receive a 15% discount!