Macbeth

[Kelliexo90]

Posted: 1/22/05 at 3:54pm

So I have to say, I really like this show. I don't usually gravitate toward Shakespeare, but this is the only show we are doing at my school at the moment. So I decided to be in it. At first I hated it, but now I've grown to like it. I am the captain(I set the scene, I have the first long speech in the play haha), and the second bloody apparition. We opened on Thursday, and it was supposed go until today but because of the snow we had to postpone it. Has anyone else been in this or seen a production of it?

[MaTakeALookAtMe]

Posted: 1/22/05 at 3:57pm

have you seen the movie Scotland, PA? It is a quirky story based on Macbeth.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 1/22/05 at 4:21pm

I spent the first part of this past summer's vacation in Scotland, visiting sites that Shakespeare used in MACBETH. I had a great time in Cawdor Castle and Scone Palace, as well as hiking in Birnum Woods. I also viewed the "Seat of Scone" which is now in the Edinburgh Castle. My only regret is that I didn't get to Iona, where the Macbeths are buried. It was on my itinerary, but a delayed flight caused me to miss my connection. Oh well, those things happen.

Now, I've been teaching MACBETH for 33 years. I know the play opens with the three witches and not a captain--he appears later on to tell Duncan of Macbeth's bravery in battle. Are you using an adapted text?

Updated On: 1/22/05 at 04:21 PM

[Racetrack]

Posted: 1/22/05 at 4:17pm

When I was in fifth grade I played the second witch in Macbeth. It was a lot of fun, but we didn't exactly have either the best place to perform it or the best actors either. Lol. Still a lot of fun.

[BlueWizard]

Posted: 1/22/05 at 10:02pm

There was a thread on MACBETH a few weeks ago -- I recommend you do a search for it, because a lot of interesting things were discussed.

Certainly MACBETH is one of Shakespeare's very best masterpieces, and arguably his most theatrically thrilling.

[babygiraffeboots]

Posted: 1/24/05 at 6:56pm

I read it over the summer in a shakespeare class we're we also did some performing of it. I also just finished reading it with school and get to do Lady Macbeth's insanity speech for a project so I am very excited, and will also have fun making my english class think I'm even more psychotic then they already do(I made a whole argument on how macbeth is sane and the dagger could be real and everything is realtive).

[Staci1818]

Posted: 1/24/05 at 7:02pm

I just finished it in class recently. The only essay we wrote was on "Macbeth as a classic tragedy"

[Jim Colyer]

Posted: 1/26/05 at 4:47pm

I heard Macbeth is a bad luck play, that it has a jinx on it like The Curse of the Bambino or The Curse of King Tut. Has anyone had any unlucky experiences with Macbeth? I can recommend Hollywood's 1935 classic of A Midsummer Night's Dream, Romeo & Juliet (196 and Mel Gibson's 1990 Hamlet. What about Macbeth?
Jim Colyer

[mominator]

Posted: 1/26/05 at 4:52pm

It is a theatre tradition that you shouldn't mention the play by name. Way back when I was witch #1

[VIETgrlTerifa]

Posted: 1/26/05 at 4:52pm

I recommend the 1990 tv version of Othello directed by Trevor Nunn with Ian McKellen, Imogen Stubbs, and Zoe Wanamaker. Imogen Stubbs singing Desdemona's "Willow" lullaby is worth it.

[camerangel]

Posted: 1/26/05 at 5:00pm

"It is a theatre tradition that you shouldn't mention the play by name. Way back when I was witch #1"

It's a a superstition, more than a tradition.. It is said that you should never say the name of the play within a theatre (or on theatre property for that matter) unless you are actually performing it there at that time. It is bad luck and many have attributed accidents and misfortunes including deaths to people saying the name. If I remember correctly back when it first opened it was so popular that it caused other shows to close. The usperstition evolved from there.

Updated On: 1/26/05 at 05:00 PM

[BlueWizard]

Posted: 1/26/05 at 9:01pm

There was a discussion thread a few weeks ago about the origins of the superstitions surround "The Scottish Play" (and it isn't because the original staging was so successful it caused other shows to close, though that is an interesting thought -- but TITUS ANDRONICUS was Shakespeare's most successful play in his lifetime). Read here:

https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.cfm?boardname=bway&thread=691042#697906

The thread also has interesting discussion of the Scottish Play in general.

Updated On: 1/26/05 at 09:01 PM

[musicalmjk]

Posted: 1/26/05 at 10:35pm

TITUS ANDRONICUS really. you hardly ever see this show out there now a days. This is one from shakespeare's Quentin Tarantino days right? I would love to see a production of this sometime in my life.

[gettinhep]

Posted: 1/26/05 at 10:51pm

Aaaarrrggghhhh!!!!! They are mentioning the Scottish Tragedy! You should all go outside, turn around three times and spit!

[BlueWizard]

Posted: 1/27/05 at 4:14am

TITUS ANDRONICUS really. you hardly ever see this show out there now a days. This is one from shakespeare's Quentin Tarantino days right? I would love to see a production of this sometime in my life.

Yes, TITUS ANDRONICUS was amongst Shakespeare's earliest (if not THE earliest) plays, and was his most commercially successful. With TITUS, Shakespeare was very much mimicking the form of tragedy set by Kyd's THE SPANISH TRAGEDY, which mixed high Senecan drama with low, native-English entertainment. If anything, Shakespeare was trying to outdo Kyd in bloodshed and the ability to shock an audience.

(If you ever get a chance, read Kyd's THE SPANISH TRAGEDY; it's a stunning masterpiece. It's arguably the most influential play of the English Renaissance, and was a jumping board for Shakespeare's Titus, Lear, Hamlet, among others.)

TITUS ANDRONICUS fell out of favour in the Romantic and Victorian periods, which opted for something less violent and devestating. A similar fate befell KING LEAR (in fact, one writer thought he knew better than Shakespeare and changed KING LEAR'S ending so that Cordelia lives), which wasn't fully appreciated until the 20th century.

TITUS ANDRONICUS finally regained popularity due to the RSC's production in the 1950s, featuring Laurence Olivier and others. Julie Taymor's film version has also helped immensely in making the play well-known enough to be read and discussed.

Updated On: 1/27/05 at 04:14 AM

[Kimmygonbefamous]

Posted: 1/27/05 at 9:37am

I went to England this past spring and we visited the rebuilt Globe Theater. You're not allowed to say the name of the play while in the theater...for superstitious reasons surrounding the play, and also because most of the wood that was used to rebuild the theater was takem from the grounds of Cawdor, so I supposed it's cursed wood. I was so tempted to just yell, "MACBETH MACBETH MACBETH MACBETH", but then I realized that that would make me an entirely evil antagonistic b***h.

Posted: 1/27/05 at 11:19am

Go, Rebel, go!

[WindyCityActor]

Posted: 1/27/05 at 12:10pm

I actually have an audition from "MacBeth" in less than a week...the title role is available so I'm gunning for that.