Backstage at Cabrillo College’s theater Tuesday night, student actors were buzzing with excitement as they tried on their costumes and prepared for their first dress rehearsal. The minutes were ticking down as they approached the culminating moment of their rehearsal and performance class.

This year, Robin Aronson is directing “Fortinbras,” a play by Lee Blessing, and it opens this Friday at Cabrillo’s Black Box Theater. Fans of Shakespeare are sure to enjoy the inside jokes of a play that starts right after the final scene of the famous tragedy, “Hamlet.” Aronson stated, however, that “it’s really not necessary to know ‘Hamlet,’ because the play speaks for itself.” Written in 1991, Blessing’s script uses modern vernacular and includes modern references. Hamlet, for example, is trapped inside of a TV.

It is a play Aronson describes as being very timely, because “a new ruler comes to power and decides to make up a whole new story that sheds a positive light on him as a kind of savior.” It is a play about political deceit, but a comedy. Aronson added, “I just felt like if there’s ever a time that we need to be laughing in the darkness, that this play could shed some light.”

As for the creative direction of the play, Aronson opted for an Elizabethan-esque look to give the student actors an opportunity to imagine what it might have been like to live and move in the more formal styles of Shakespeare’s era, and to embody that experience. The costumes are beautiful and transformative, designed by Maria Crush who wanted the costume design to look “elegant and pretty,” despite being “all over the place in terms of period.” Crush is a longtime costume designer for Cabrillo and was there making sure the actors all had everything they needed for their first dress rehearsal. In describing the artistic motivation behind the long hours and demanding schedule, Crush noted, “The drive is strong enough to keep you doing it. You have to.”In the play, many of the characters from “Hamlet” return as ghosts. Blessing uses this device to show different sides to many of the famous characters, including Ophelia. Elektra Shrader found in this rewriting of Ophelia a tremendous creative opportunity. For a character who in “Hamlet” is almost entirely defined by the men in her life, Ophelia in “Fortinbras” is greatly transformed. Shrader said that her character “finds her own autonomy and sense of voice and independence,” and thinks that “it’s really important to have tragic female characters represented as being empowered.” Speaking of her experience learning the part, Shrader stated, “It’s been so fun and freeing. I got to explore the character, and in turn myself, through the complex emotions in the scenes. I think it’s really philosophically interesting.”

For Ian Grant, starring as the titular Fortinbras, “Hamlet” has a special significance. “My grandfather is a retired English professor from SJSU, and he used to take me to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival every summer.” A theater major at Cabrillo College, Grant signed up for the class without really knowing that he would be acting in a production by the end of the course. He thought that it was just going to be a class about rehearsal and performance, and when he learned that he had to audition just to be admitted to the class, he “freaked out, and came back for the second day of auditions” with a two-minute monologue prepared that won him the role. As far as potentially acting in a Shakespeare play, Grant said, “I would love to do that.”

Aronson’s rehearsal and performance class is teamed up with fellow instructor Skip Epperson’s class on backstage production for this show. Under his direction, students built the sets and will run the backstage crew including lighting and sound. This Friday, theatergoers will have the opportunity to experience the fruits of their collective labor as “Fortinbras” opens at 7:30 p.m. at 6500 Soquel Drive in Aptos, with Elizabethan-esque costumes, reimagined characters and passionate acting that is sure to inspire both laughter and reflection. The play runs weekends until April 27. Visit cabrillo.edu/vapa/#events for information and tickets.