In addition to a complete score, two original songs were featured in this production. These were What is a Man by Jack Kingsley and And We All Will Meet Again by Jack Kingsley and Natalie Bell. What is a Man is used as the theme for the character of Hamlet. The play opens with a performance of And We All Will Meet Again as Hamlet mourns the death of his father, while it closes with a more lively performance of the same song to represent redemption on the tail-end of a tragedy.
The Music of The Nashville Shakespeare Festival, Vol. 1 includes songs from Nashville Shakespeare Festival’s As You Like It (2014), Twelfth Night (2015), The Comedy of Errors (2016), The Winter’s Tale (2017), and Hamlet (2018). It is available for sampling and purchase: HERE.
Natalie Bell (Co-Composer /Music Director / Keyboard) is thrilled to be partnering again with The Nashville Shakespeare Festival. Since graduating from Belmont in 2016, she has scored NSF’s Romeo And Juliet, Antony And Cleopatra, and The Winter’s Tale, as well MTSU’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and the Theater Bug’s Two Gentlemen of Verona and Another Story. She aspires to bring cinematic scoring techniques to live theater, inviting people into the world of the story and impacting them on a deep emotional level. In addition to theater, she writes for wind ensemble, marching band, choir, short films, and creates some pretty legit Disney mash-ups with her friends. She would like to thank the entire cast and crew, her friends, her family, and God for their love and inspiration. [Biography Courtesy of Denice Hicks, Executive Artistic Director of Nashville Shakespeare Festival]
Jack Kingsley (Co-Composer/Guitarist) Jack Kingsley is a lifelong singer, song writer and lead guitarist who played professionally in countless musical acts for over thirty years, primarily in the New England area from which he hails. Born in New Jersey but raised and educated in South America, Kingsley was given the opportunity of being exposed to cultures other than the one he was born into. This influence is reflected in his versatility as a musician. Kingsley moved to Nashville in 2011 to focus primarily on songwriting. In 2016 he was asked to contribute music to the Nashville Shakespeare Festival’s summer production of The Comedy of Errors for their annual Shakespeare in the Park, and has been writing music for the Festival ever since. [Biography Courtesy of Denice Hicks, Executive Artistic Director of Nashville Shakespeare Festival]
This audio clip, written by Natalie Bell and Jack Kingsley, can serve as a sample for the original compositions used in the production. It was used as the ghost theme, played when the Ghost appears to Hamlet and discloses the truth of his father’s murder.
Hoping to maintain the tone of the play throughout the theatergoer’s entire experience, Natalie Bell compiled a Spotify playlist to be used during intermission. Songs included both Hamlet must-haves like “Ophelia” by The Lumineers and lesser known songs like “Hamlet, Accidentally” by Eddie Berman. Browse the playlist for insight on connections between contemporary music and the prevalent tones and themes of the Nashville Shakespeare production of Hamlet.