There are intersecting storylines going on at Pittsburgh Public Theater right now, filled with intrigue, twisty plots and dramatic turns. And oh, they’re doing “Hamlet,” too.

There’s the long goodbye of Ted Pappas, who after 18 years at the Public is directing his final show as producing artistic director. There’s his Hamlet, Matthew Amendt, the Indiana, Pa., native who was a winner in the company’s 1999 and 2000 Shakespeare Monologue & Scene Competition while in high school and went on to become a classical actor.

And there’s the play itself, with a cast including veterans who have worked many times with Mr. Pappas and newcomers he has wanted to work with, such as local performers Monteze Freeland and Erika Strasburg.

“There are many grand finale plays, but there’s only one ‘Hamlet,’ and the company and I have built up to it over the years,” Mr. Pappas said. “With all the Shakespeare productions, ‘Othello,’ and all the Greek plays, and the company of actors we have developed together, we have built toward a big production of ‘Hamlet.’ I didn’t want a small production.

“Then this great young actor sort of fell into my arms, and we were off and running.”

Mr. Amendt has been chasing this opportunity to return home since he left to train and become a regular stage presence at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis.

“Having grown up outside of Pittsburgh and being away for 10 years now, this is a dream for me,” he said. “There hasn’t been a year that has gone by that I haven’t looked at the Public’s website and looked at the season and said, ‘What can I do?’”

His warm-ups to “Hamlet,” perhaps the most coveted and fraught role in the English language, have included Prince Hal — “persuasively and grippingly played,” according to the Washington Post — for the Shakespeare Theatre Company of Washington. D.C.’s two-part “Henry IV.”

It was a part he had prepared for since age 7, when he was struck with an illness that left half of his face paralyzed. His late mother, a teacher, gave her bright son the Bard’s “Henry V” and “IV” to pass the time spent enduring test after test in those days of uncertainty. The recurring paralysis lasted through his late teens, then disappeared as mysteriously as it appeared.

During those teen years, he was on the Public’s O’Reilly stage, at the Shakespeare contest, and was named a U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts as a senior at Indiana Area Senior High.

“What a story! I am going to make a movie about that! This brilliant young high school student who wasn’t sure which way life would take him, becomes enamored of Shakespeare through our education department, Rob Zellers and the whole team, and develops into someone who I consider to be one of the great young classical actors in our country,” Mr. Pappas said in one long breath. “And it was sparked by the Public Theater’s welcome mat!”

Mr. Amendt’s mother, Susan, an Indiana School District teacher and arts advocate, died in 2010 after a lengthy illness.

“To think about how when my mother was sick, Shakespeare’s words really saved me. And to come back here and celebrate that … it’s a dream,” Mr. Amendt said.

Not only is Mr. Amendt back where he started, leading a company of 21, but he also has to say some of the most iconic lines in all of Shakespeare’s works. To utter the “To be or not to be” speech that so many have said before is daunting, to be sure, but also represents the pinnacle of roles for an actor with classical roots as deep as his.

“We are aware it has more famous lines than any play ever written. But what I am finding, watching Matt, they come at me in a different way because they are in the context of a story,” Mr. Pappas said. “We are so used to ‘Neither a borrower nor a lender be,’ but you see Polonius giving advice to his son before he goes overseas — it’s so touching then. The whole play, the mythology of it, has evaporated, so we play the characters in the situations.”

Mr. Amendt has come prepared, his director said. The actor wanted the company to know “I’m here for them, and the production won’t fall because I am not ready.”

He explained, “I have friends who work for a company in New York who talk about the shallow pool vs. the deep pool. There’s a cursory way you can work, but the trick is, how quickly can we get into the deep pool? So I’ve tried really hard to lead the company to the deep pool quickly … so we could all move forward for Ted.”

“The actors want to support Matthew at the deepest level. They come in so prepared [‘it’s amazing’]. I’ve never seen anything like it,” Mr. Pappas said. “They’re ready to go. They’re excited. They have researched it. … It’s a chance for all of us to wrap this great play around us as people who live and breathe theater.”

Everyone is well aware of another storyline playing out as they bring “Hamlet” to the stage. Mr. Pappas announced last year that he would leave as the head of the Public Theater after this season. His successor has already been named — Marya Sea Kaminski of Seattle Rep moves into the position of artistic director, and Louis Castelli moves into the position of managing director.

“Hamlet” is Mr. Pappas’ final curtain but not his final bow as head of the company.

After the final performance, there will be a salute titled “Ted Takes a Bow!” on May 20, including a video tribute and other surprises for his sendoff. Mr. Pappas will maintain an apartment in Pittsburgh and plans to spend time with his family in Greece before he returns in March to direct the regional premiere of “A Doll’s House, Part 2.”

Among the few unfinished pieces of business in 18 years at the Public was directing an Ibsen play, but Lucas Hnath’s follow-up to “A Doll’s House” comes close.

“I love curtain calls. I love finales. I’m all about the big finish,” Mr. Pappas admitted. “To get to do ‘Hamlet,’ at the O’Reilly, with this cast, starring Matt? That’s my fantasy. I like a big parade. I like fireworks.

“I’ve always said on my tombstone please put, ‘The finale was as good as the opening number.’”

Sharon Eberson: seberson@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1960. Twitter: @SEberson_pg.

First Published: April 19, 2018, 12:45 p.m.