Living Dead in Denmark
Written by Qui Nguyen
Directed by Tlaloc Rivas
October 9-19, 2025
Nafe Katter Theatre
TICKET PRICING:
Adults: $42, $37, $32
Seniors: $35, $30, $25
Students: $15, $12
Children: $15, $12
When the dead walk … run! LIVING DEAD IN DENMARK is an action-adventure/horror sequel to William Shakespeare’s HAMLET. Set five years after the events of the original, the undead have risen to power and are trying to take over the world, led by the zombie lord and true king of Denmark. Fortinbras, assembling a formidable opposition, has resurrected the corpses of some of the greatest women that Shakespeare had to offer: Lady Macbeth, Juliet, and the very angry Ophelia. A clash of the undead titans ensues!
Using HAMLET as a jumping-off point, Nguyen throws in martial arts, horror movies, pop songs, puppetry, and comic books. Eat your heart out, Ed Wood …” – Backstage
Qui Nguyen
playwright
Qui Nguyen is a playwright, screenwriter, and co-founder of the Obie Award-winning Vampire Cowboys Theatre Company of NYC.
His plays include Vietgone (2016 Harold and Mimi Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award, 2016 LADCC Tim Schmitt Award, 2016 Edward M. Kennedy Prize finalist); War is F**king Awesome (Frederick Loewe Award); She Kills Monsters (2014 AATE Distinguished Play Award, 2012 GLAAD Media Award nom); Soul Samurai (2009 GLAAD Media Award nom); and the critically acclaimed Vampire Cowboys shows: The Inexplicable Redemption of Agent G, Alice in Slasherland, Fight Girl Battle World, Men of Steel, Six Rounds of Vengeance and Living Dead in Denmark.
Recent awards include a 2016 Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing in a Preschool Animated Program (Peg+Cat) and a 2015 New York Community Trust Helen Merrill Playwriting Award. He is proud member of the WGA, The Dramatists Guild, The Playwrights Center, Ensemble Studio Theatre, and The Ma-Yi Writers Lab. He’s an alumnus of New Dramatists and Youngblood. For television, he’s written for PBS’s Peg+Cat and SYFY’s Incorporated. Currently, he’s a screenwriter for Marvel Studios.
Tlaloc Rivas
director
Tlaloc Rivas (he/el) is a playwright, director, and educator based in Central Connecticut (unyielded lands of the Mohegan, Nipmuc, and Pequot nations).
He is currently Lecturer in Acting at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale, Associate Professor in Residence in Theatre Studies at the University of Connecticut, and on the faculty at the National Theatre Institute at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center.
Tlaloc was the inaugural Presidential Postdoctoral Presidential Fellow for Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Drama and currently serves on the boards for The New Harmony Project and the Latiné New Musical Theatre Lab.
Tlaloc is a member of Stage Directors and Choreographers, the Dramatists Guild, and co-founder of the Latinx Theatre Commons. He is the recipient of the Sir John Gielgud Fellowship in Classical Directing, the NEA/TCG Career Development Program for Directors, and a Usual Suspect for New York Theater Workshop.
Performances:
Thursday, October 9, 7:30pm, Preview
Friday, October 10, 8pm, Opening
Saturday, October 11, 8pm
Tuesday, October 14, 10am Student Matinee (call 860-486-2113 to book your class)
Wednesday, October 15, 7:30pm
Thursday, October 16, 7:30, $5 Students, Post-show Talkback
Friday, October 17, 8pm
Saturday, October 18, 2pm, Post-show Talkback
Saturday, October 18, 8pm
Sunday, October 19, 2pm, Mask required performance, Closing
Living Dead in Denmark Cast
Living Dead in Denmark Design & Production Team
Design & Production Team:
Scenic Design – Siyi Xiang
Lighting Design – Michael Chybowski
Costume Design – Emma Sowards
Sound Design – Jake Neighbors
Puppet Design – Ali Etesamifar
Fight Choreography – Brad Fraizer
Intimacy Coordinator – Lillian Ransijn
Voice & Dialect Coach – Michael Samuel Kaplan
Assistant Director – Annalise Otano
Dramaturgy – Harley Niger
Production Stage Manager – Alison Savino
Stage Manager – Anna Tenner
Assistant Stage Managers – Jack Regan, Cassidy Smith
Assistant Lighting Designer – Kimani Gordon
Production Electrician – Aiden Shea
Assistant Production Electricians – Tom Osmond, Kelly Berman
Assistant Costume Designers – Mia Carini, Davis Keaney
Technical Director – Hannah Trobaugh
Assistant Technical Director – Layla Montgomery
Cast:
Ophelia – Halli Gibson
Lady Macbeth – Sandy Borrero
Puck, Orderly, Taylor Swift, Ninja Zombie – Mariangelie Vélez
Juliet – Julia Smith
Titania, Orderly, Weird Sister – Lia Crosby
Fortinbras, Macduff, Oberon’s Minion, Ninja Zombie, Weird Sister – Bryan Anderson
Guildenstern, Caliban, Peaseblossom, Oberon’s Minion, Zombie – Jiahui Guo
Ghost/Hamlet, Weird Sister – Chris Martin
Rosencrantz, Tybalt, Oberon, Gravedigger, Ninja Zombie – Mark Sadowski
Horatio, Laertes, Orderly, Ninja Zombie – Dan Pawlyk
Puppeteer, zombie, orderly, pizza delivery person – Beau Brennon
Puppeteer, zombie, orderly, pizza delivery person – Marie Sawyer
Understudies – Jimena Rivera, Danny Reyes, Vidal Rivadeneyra Serna
Coming soon to CRT:
CRT BOX OFFICE | 860-486-2113 | crtboxoffice@uconn.edu