Current Production

 

PAST PRODUCTIONS

 

2008 |
As You Like It

 

2007 |
A Midsummer
Night's Dream

 

2006 |
Taming of the Shrew

 

2005 |
Hamlet

 

2004 |
Much Ado About Nothing

 

2003 |
Macbeth

 

2002 |
Henry V

 

2001 |
Twelfth Night

 

2000 |
The Tempest

 

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Set Design ………. Scott Bradley

Costume Design ……….Clint Ramos

Lighting Design ………. Linda O’Brien

Sound Design & Original Music ………. J Hagenbuckle

Fight Choreography ………. Robert Walsh

Cast

Georgia Hatzis ….. First Witch

Mara Sidmore
 …. Second Witch

Christina Bynoe …. Third Witch

Baron Kelly* ….. Duncan

Dan Domingues …. Malcolm

John Porell ….. A Sergeant

Ted Hewlett*
…. Lennox

Bill Mootos* …… Ross

Jay O. Sanders*
….. Macbeth

Benjamin Evett* ….. Banquo

Jeff Gill
…….. Angus

Jennie Israel* …….. Lady Macbeth

Adam Soule
………… Macbeth’s Servant

James Kelly
…………. Fleance

Christopher Hagberg ….. A Porter

Robert Walsh* …………… Macduff

Pablo Espinosa
………….. Donalbain

Owiso Odera
……………… First Murderer

Douglass Bowen-Flynn
…. Second Murderer

Lewis Wheeler
…………….. Third Murderer

Julie Jirousek* ………………. Lady Macduff

Oliver Poole
 ………………… Boy

Walter M. Belenky ………… Messenger

Baron Kelly ………………….. A Doctor

Ensemble

Chris L. Butterfield; Michael Deminico; Dan Kelly; Dan Minkle; Sean North; Ruibo Qian; Alex Simoes; Elana Wright

* Members of Actors Equity Association

Synopsis

As taken from Play Shakespeare

The play opens with the three Witches ("Weird Sisters") discussing their upcoming meeting with Macbeth. Macbeth, Thane of Glamis, and Banquo, both generals for King Duncan of Scotland, have just defeated an invasion of Scotland by the allied forces of Norway and Ireland led by the rebel Macdonwald.

As Macbeth and Banquo wander into a heath the three Witches greet them with prophecies. The first witch hails Macbeth as "Thane of Glamis", the second as "Thane of Cawdor", and the third that he shall "be King hereafter". The Witches also inform Banquo he shall be father of a line of kings. While they wonder at these prophecies, the witches disappear, and the Thane of Ross — a messenger from the King — arrives and informs Macbeth of his new title, Thane of Cawdor. The first prophecy is thus fulfilled (as Macbeth is already Thane of Glamis). Immediately Macbeth begins to harbour ambitions of becoming king.

Macbeth writes to his wife about the witches' prophecies. Duncan decides to stay at Macbeth's castle at Inverness and Lady Macbeth hatches up a plan to murder him and secure the throne for her husband. While Macbeth raises concerns about the regicide, Lady Macbeth eventually manages to persuade him.

In the night, Macbeth kills Duncan and Lady Macbeth arranges bloody daggers to frame Duncan's servants for the murder. Early the next morning Lennox, a Scottish nobleman, and Macduff, the loyal Thane of Fife, arrive. The porter opens the gate and Macbeth leads them to the king's chamber, where Macduff discovers Duncan's corpse. In a sham fit of fury Macbeth murders the servants before they can protest their innocence. Macduff is immediately suspicious of Macbeth, but fearing for their lives, Duncan's son Malcolm flees to England, and his brother Donalbain to Ireland. With the rightful heirs gone, Macbeth assumes the throne as new King of Scotland because of his relation to the dead King.

Despite his success, Macbeth remains uneasy regarding the prophecy that Banquo would be progenitor of kings. Macbeth therefore sees Banquo as an element jeopardising his rule. Macbeth invites Banquo to a royal banquet that he is holding that night and asks when Banquo and his son, Fleance, will return to his castle. In secret he then incites murderers to kill Banquo and Fleance. While they succeed in cutting Banquo's throat, Fleance is able to escape. At the banquet, Banquo's ghost enters and sits in Macbeth's place. Macbeth is the only person who can see it, and his display of terror and his monologue cast doubt on his guiltlessness.

Disturbed, Macbeth goes to the Witches to receive more prophecies. They conjure up three spirits which tell him to "beware Macduff", but also that "none of woman born shall harm Macbeth" and he will not "vanquish'd be until Great Birnam wood to high (Dunsinane Hill) shall come against him". Since Macduff is in exile, Macbeth massacres everyone in Macduff's castle, including Macduff's wife and children. Lady Macbeth eventually becomes racked mentally with guilt from the crimes she has committed. In a famous scene, she sleepwalks and tries to wash imaginary bloodstains off her hands.

In England, Malcolm and Macduff plan for an invasion of Scotland. Macduff leads a camouflaged army with Malcolm and Englishman Siward (the Elder), the Earl of Northumbria, against Dunsinane Castle. Macbeth delivers a famous nihilistic soliloquy ("Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow" etc.) upon learning of Lady Macbeth's death (the cause of it is unexplained although it is generally assumed that she committed suicide). Meanwhile, Malcolm's army advances as though in a moving wood, as they have cut off the trunks of the forest while moving as camouflage.

A battle ensues, culminating in Macduff's confrontation of Macbeth. Macbeth boasts that he has no reason to fear Macduff, as he cannot be killed by any man born of woman. Macduff declares that he was born by Caesarean section (before his mother's actual delivery)—and was therefore not "of woman born". Too late Macbeth realises the Witches have been equivocating. A fight ensues, which ends with Macduff beheading Macbeth offstage, thereby fulfilling the last of the witches' prophecies.

In the final scene of the play, Malcolm is crowned as rightful King of Scotland, suggesting that peace is restored to the kingdom. However, the witches' prophecy concerning Banquo, "Thou shalt [be]get kings", was known to the audience of Shakespeare's time to be true, as James I of England was supposedly a descendant of Banquo.

Photos: Richard Feldman 2003