What is that Zombie doing in Shakespeare

A colleague asked me if our production of Macbeth was really Shakespeare’s Macbeth. I understood the question because we had been using our zombie concept to help sell tickets to students. I assured him that it was really Macbeth and that he would surely recognize the play. He clarified his question a little, noting that Shakespeare did not include zombies in the play.

It is a logical question. While there is a great deal of darkness and murder in the play, the word zombie never appears in the script.

Shakespeare was no stranger to the occult, of course. Many of his plays include witches or seers or other such mystical characters. Many Londoners of Shakespeare’s time would have been true believers in this sort of thing. In Macbeth, Shakespeare includes three witches who, as written, seem to lay down the archetype for our current Halloween witches with their enchantments and boiling cauldron. These witches are an important part of the plot and lay down a great deal of the exposition.

Orson Welles once directed a famous production of the play that came to be called the “Voodoo” Macbeth. Welles chose to set the play in Haiti and turn the witches into voodoo priests and priestesses. Some think the actors were actual practitioners of voodoo and often cast real spells and curses on members of the company and audience as part of the play.

It is a short leap for us, then, to include the concept of zombies in our production. Many of the scenes are very dark, several characters are killed during the course of the action, one in particular seems to come back to life after having been killed onstage, and of course there are those crazy witches. It just seemed to us that even Shakespeare might include zombies if he was writing the play today.

Once we set the concept, many of the other pieces fell together rather nicely. Choices regarding lighting, sound, music, movement, scenery, and costumes became exciting and obvious. The concept is not a reworking of the play itself but rather a vehicle for telling the same story Shakespeare told 400 years ago.

Don’t expect a lot of changed lines or reinterpretation just because there are a couple of zombies hanging around. The play is still Shakespeare’s script; we made some cuts for length but made no changes for meaning. You should easily see the play for what it is: a straight-forward cautionary tale about lust for power.

Times Flies When You Are Having Fun

Boy . . . when you are working on four shows all at the same time, some things really slip away from you. That's how it has been for me.

My primary concern is the impending opening of MACBETH at Firestone. This play has a lot of moving parts and getting them all to work together and all at the same time has been a little like herding cats. The good news is that we have strung together a few excellent rehearsals and I can now say with some confidence that the show is going to be terrific. We still have a couple of fairly tall hurdles to jump and it won't be easy . . . but it will be done and presented to the public. You should come. I'll be the guy breathing a sigh of relief in the back row.

I am also involved in planning our next production, CROWNS, as well as a couple of outside projects. This has really kept me hopping and not on this blog. I was hoping that a few more kids would blog here but so far, no. Several say that they have written things for the blog but I never seem to receive them via e-mail.

I guess they are busy, too.

I am really excited about CROWNS because I love the show. I first saw it at the Cleveland Playhouse and knew immediately that one day we would present it for our audience. I started making plans not too long afterward and now here it is! It hink it is really going to be a lot of fun. We have a great director and an excited cast of mostly newcomers.

Season Subscriptions for our season have been selling really well. We have already surpassed previous years' totals and it looks like we will make the sales goal tomorrow. Once we do, all theatre students earn a pizza party for their hard work (even though no class reached their particular class goal).

It should not surprise me that the Subscriptions are selling well . . . we have the best season in town. I say that not just because I picked the shows --which I did-- but because we offer the most variety of style and literature as well as high prodcution values and an excellent entertainment value. I would put our season against anyone else's for sheer entertainment and enjoyment of live theatre.

More later on MACBETH. There's lots to say. Maybe even a few pictures for your enjoyment.