Planning in summer 2023 between Assistant Director Josh Turner and Director Mary Mayo.

Dear Josh,   

I’m so happy to have you assist with this project. It’s going to be a handful! 

To catch you up: Macbeth will be played by three actors. One of them will be the principal Macbeth and the other two will be his good spirit, evil angel. In other words, the two shadow Macbeths will embody his internal struggle, the struggle of choosing between right and wrong. It’s a struggle familiar to all of us and feels like something important to look closely at right now. 

While the production will center around Macbeth and the exploration of the internal struggle to do what’s right (and eventual failure at that), how that struggle plays out in his relationships will also be important to explore. Lady M is also struggling with her internal demons. Banquo, to a lesser degree, is also sensing the pull of his bad angel. Lady Macduff cannot hide her struggle from her young child. Malcolm uses Macduff’s awareness of the struggle between good and bad to test his loyalty. I will ask all the actors to look each of their characters through the lens of cozying up to evil versus embracing what is good.  

We are keeping Macbeth’s world as simple and minimalist as possible and letting the witches’ world be spectacular. The appearance of Banquo’s ghost will be a place the two world’s meet and I’m looking forward to hearing/seeing more from the designers about the particulars. I’ll make sure you’re invited to future design meetings. 

Finally, my training is in original practices. Therefore, I look to the language and very simple design elements to tell the story. I will work quite a bit (or as much as time will allow) with the company of actors on scansion, paraphrasing, and embodying imagery, and figurative language in the texts. I think Professor Emerita of English, Miriam Gilbert, will be super helpful with this. I also hope to cast a few of my past students who have studied with me so they can help out the folks newer to Shakespeare. 

The other big note about our production is that Dr. Tawnya Pettiford-Wates will be with us the first week of rehearsal. I read her chapter, “Ritual Poetic Drama” in Black Acting Methods last year and was deeply inspired by her work with Shakespeare. I assigned the chapter to my Shakespeare students and it set off the semester with just the right tone in terms of embracing classical text by making it your own. I applied for and received an Ida Beam Distinguished Visiting Professor grant to bring her to campus for a week. She will work with the Macbeth cast, visit classes, and give a lecture on Thursday, August 31 entitled “From Shange to Shakespeare.” 

I’ll leave you with a quote from The Masks of Macbeth by Marvin Rosenberg that is important to me right now: 

“Like all great tragedies, Macbeth asks questions rather than gives answers; it is centrifugal, throwing out ripples of experience that cannot be boundaried (658).” 

I look forward to working with you. 

m