Theater
Class to Present Fast and Furious Macbeth
“Look like the innocent
flower/But be the serpent under it.”—sage advice by
Lady Macbeth
Northampton, Mass.— Don’t let the title fool you. Skinny
Shakespeare…The
Scottish Play, an upcoming adaptation of the Bard’s famous bloodbath, Macbeth,
will offer up all the murderous ambition, creepy fortune-telling witches, visions
of bloody daggers and vengeful ghosts in the original.
"Double,
double toil and trouble..." The three witches from Skinny
Shakespeare. |
Skinny
Shakespeare, directed
by Ellen Kaplan, professor of theatre, is a collaboration
among students in her Advanced Shakespeare course. Performances
will take place December 8 through 11, at 8 p.m. in Hallie
Flanagan Studio Theatre, Mendenhall Center.
The Advanced
Shakespeare students play multiple roles in the play, in
addition to serving as assistant director, sound and lighting
designer, stage manager, make-up artist, stage crew, house
manager, and helping with ticket sales and do publicity.
“I wanted the set for this play to reflect the darkness and destruction going
on in Macbeth’s inner world,” said Kaplan, “to look like a world where only
demons and devils could exist. Even the famous trio of witches are portrayed
and costumed as birds of prey–vultures.”
Kaplan, who teaches acting and
directing, recently directed Smith productions, including
Las Meninas (2009) and Cuentos
de Eva Luna (2009), a play
that she translated from Spanish and adapted for the stage
from the novel by Isabel Allende.
Set designer Edward Check,
who teaches set and production design for theatre and film,
recently art-directed the film Sex and
the City:The Movie.
During the HBO series of the same name he art-directed the
first four seasons of the show, at which time he received
two Emmy nominations for Best Art Direction.
The play’s
costume designer Stella Schwartz ’11 recently designed costumes for Smith’s spring
main stage production, Tricky Wicked
Bitch.
All performances are free. The
Wednesday, Dec. 8, performance is an open dress rehearsal,
which will give a glimpse of what goes on behind the scenes. |
