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By Cheryl Klein

Daily Bruin Senior Staff

The Pressed Ham Theater Company's answering machine invites callers to listen to a scene from their current production, "Oh, Hamlet!" Rather than the "To be or not to be" cliche, listeners get an earful of clanking swords, followed by a game show announcer-style voice asking, "Who will win? Who was fighting? Were they really fighting or just tapping? And if they were just tapping, who will win?"

This is the prevailing tone for the folks at Pressed Ham - an ability to laugh at themselves and, through Oct. 12, at good old Bill Shakespeare. "Oh, Hamlet!," now playing at Glaxa Studios in Silverlake, is a small but feisty musical, put on by a group of college students who decided it was time to let the public in on their cleverness.

"It started when a lot of us were in the same high school English class up in Humboldt," says Matt Kresling, the show's director and principle writer. "We would sit in the back and learn all this stuff about Hamlet and Shakespeare. There are lots of opportunities for gags, you know, iambic pentameter gags and stuff," he explains.

"I realized that my friends are really talented people. They're comical, artists, musicians. So we decided to exploit whatever talents we had and write a musical."

It wasn't quite that simple, however. Pressed Ham ran smoothly when its members were up north during vacations and resources were at their fingertips in a familiar community. Now, though the company has grown to include students from UCLA, USC and several other local colleges, Kresling has several complaints about the Southern California venue.

"This is our first show in L.A. and it's so hard. Everything is really expensive and so spread out! There's the problem of how to rent a theater and how to get to the theater. We have to wait for the actors who are riding the bus to get there," he says.

Kresling tries to elaborate on what was fun about putting the production together, but the stress seems to momentarily overshadow him.

"What's fun? Looking back on it will be fun," he jokes. "We questioned it while we were preparing the play. It was a logistical nightmare. No, but what is fun is doing it. The last few nights we've been getting pretty big audiences and it's great when they laugh - when they really get it."

Matt Harris, a fourth-year UCLA student studying Italian and special fields in film, alias Rosencranz, agrees heartily.

"It gives anyone interested in theater an opportunity to be creative, to express themselves," Harris says. "I'm not in it for an acting career. I just enjoy the environment and I like entertaining people."

Though many of the cast and crew aren't looking to squeeze into show biz, Kresling asserts that participating in a student-run production is advantageous to those who are.

"Actors are tools, " Kresling says. "They always go around trying to get employed when what they should be doing is making their own work. We're the writers, directors and stars. Everyone plays a million different roles. Sometimes we pull the musicians up on stage. We all worked to build the set. We just forced ourselves to learn fast," he says.

If you're not your own boss, Kresling warns, the road to stardom can be difficult. "You have to go through all that nonsense of working your way up in the hierarchy. I started this because I never got cast in anything."

But just because Kresiling didn't make it big as an actor doesn't mean his writing lacks the wit and energy it takes to satirize one of Shakespeare's most famous tragedies.

"He's brilliant," Harris says of his pal. "He's gonna be famous, so save your ticket stubs because they might be worth a lot someday."

Kresling does give in to the acting bug by playing a series of minor characters. "I'm in a lot of the scenes where I couldn't find enough actors. At one point, I pop out of a tiny suitcase."

As intriguing as the suitcase bit sounds, Harris cites one of "Oh, Hamlet!'s" musical numbers as his favorite funny moment.

"Hamlet and Horatio sing a duet where Hamlet tells Horatio about his plan to feign madness. They play the ukulele and do a little dance," Harris says.

Few people would automatically associate Broadway-style song and dance with Shakespearean tragedy, but Kresling insists that it was meant to be.

"It has lines that lend themselves perfectly to being a musical. Like 'the skull had a tongue in it and could sing once.' Musicals are really cornball. It's like 'Oh, Jesus, another song.' It's a musical parody, but at the same time the music is really good," Kresling says.

Harris explains that "Oh, Hamlet!" gains a comedic tone by playing down the tragic deaths and lost love - instead elaborating on Shakespeare's low-brow B-plots.

"We play up elements of the common and bawdy by putting in lots of sword fights and dancing around and music," Harris says. "I think that's what the original audiences wanted from Shakespeare anyway. It was like going to the movies - they just wanted to laugh and have a good time."

A good time and a fresh look at an old play is just what "Oh, Hamlet!" hopes to offer, again drawing on the student angle.

"You know how adults are," Kresling says. "They're dull. But we turn conventions upside down the way only kids can do."

"Seeing people your age do something like this can be inspiring," adds Harris. "Plus it's more economical than seeing a play at one of the big theaters."

Kresling says that there is a student discount, then pauses. "What's a good student rate? Let me make one up." Just another benefit of having your own theater company.

THEATER: "Oh, Hamlet!" is put on by the Pressed Ham Theater Company and runs through Oct. 12 at Galaxa Studios located at 3707 Sunset Blvd. in Silverlake. TIX: $10, $7 for students. For more info call (213) 735-9284.

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