“Hamlet” is the second-most performed story in the world, right after — oddly enough — “Cinderella.” “Hamlet” is also the Gallatin Theatre Troupe’s fall production this semester, playing through this Sunday. But unlike other productions of “Hamlet,” the cast of this show has been rehearsing far longer than the usual four-to-six-week rehearsal period.

About half of the cast came from a spring 2013 advanced acting class taught by director and NYU assistant professor of practice Kristin Horton, whose class focused solely on “Hamlet.”

“We basically acted our way through the play,” Horton said. “So we’ve been working together, wrestling through the text, asking these questions for quite a while.”

“Quite a while,” in this case, means more than half a year — an almost absurdly long time to rehearse. In fact, from the class last spring to this fall’s production, Horton spent several weeks directing another production of “Hamlet” at a Shakespeare festival in Iowa City, Iowa. However, the director prefers the structure NYU has provided, crediting the extended rehearsal process as something that gave the cast the freedom to make discoveries in every rehearsal.

Additionally, it provided her with a confident Hamlet — Gallatin sophomore Alec Seymour.

“To play Hamlet is kind of like learning a one-man show,” Horton said.

Indeed, Hamlet speaks a total of 1,476 lines. But despite the immensity of the lead role, Horton views this production as incredibly ensemble-based.

“There’s not one role in the show that’s inconsequential,” she said, citing examples of minor characters like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to the priest who are essential to the play’s action.

Even more important to Horton is the text of the play itself, which she describes as one of Shakespeare’s richest.

“I’ve seen numerous productions,” she said, “and none of them are alike … the text is so complex that a good production will illuminate new things each time.”

This production takes place on a simple stage set in the Cold War era “an era marked by psychological warfare,” Horton said. For a play with politics glossed over in favor of tragedy and death, this setting “helps underscore some of those tensions.”

Ultimately, the student cast is more than capable of portraying the intricacies of Shakespeare’s arguably most famous text.

“I try to cast the strongest actors and often, particularly here at NYU,” she said. “And at Gallatin, it’s women.”

There are several gender-bent or gender-blind instances of casting in this production.

“Shakespeare had all men performing his plays,” Horton said, “Juliet was played by a 13-year-old boy, so why can’t a 20-year-old woman play Polonius?”

She and the cast firmly answer this question in their performance.

“Because really, at the end of the day, the story takes over,” Horton said — and that is indeed what matters most.

A version of this article appeared in the Wednesday, Nov. 13 print edition. Dylan Jarrett is books/theater editor. Email her at [email protected].