Actors from the London Stage Perform Macbeth this Halloween at Schwab
October 12, 2007
Witches and dark deeds haunt this Halloween season when Actors from the London Stage, five thespians from Britain's leading theater companies, stir up a boiling cauldron of trouble in Shakespeare's Scottish tragedy Macbeth. The play comes to Penn State's Schwab Auditorium for two shows at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, Oct. 31 and Nov. 1.
Each of the actors, who come from prestigious troupes including the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre of Great Britain and Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, takes on two or three major roles and several minor ones. By using minimal sets and costumes, the actors ask audiences to be imaginatively engaged in the performance–just as Shakespeare intended.
Tickets for the Center for the Performing Arts presentation are $26 for an adult, $10 for a University Park student and $16 for a person 18 and younger. Buy tickets online at www.cpa.psu.edu or by phone at (814) 863-0255. Outside the local calling area, dial 1-800-ARTS-TIX. Tickets are also on sale at four State College locations: Eisenhower Auditorium (8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays), Penn State Tickets Downtown (10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday), HUB-Robeson Center (11 a.m. to 2 p.m. weekdays) and Bryce Jordan Center (10 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays).
Macbeth is about a Scottish general fascinated by the possibility he will be crowned king and the general's wife, who convinces her husband to murder the king currently on the throne.
The shortest of Shakespeare's tragedies, Macbeth was written in the first few years of the 17th century. Surrounded by superstition, the play is often viewed as a cautionary tale about the dangers of ambition and the lust for power. Actors have traditionally avoided referring to the play by title when in a theater.
Each Actors from the London Stage tour takes the performers to 10 American universities. At each institution the actors spend a week performing and participating in educational activities with students. The actors bring their knowledge of Shakespeare and the performing arts to an array of courses in literature, theater, communications and more. They get students out of their chairs and act with them so the pupils learn how Shakespeare's texts become scripts, words become actions and actions become meaning.
The actors performing Macbeth work without a director, which requires each performer to be responsible for the whole play and even more collaborative than usual. The cast features Charlotte Allam, Will Ashcroft, Chris Donnelly, Dan Winter and Brigid Zengeni.
GN Associates sponsors the performance. WPSU-FM is the media sponsor. Artistic Viewpoints, an informal moderated discussion featuring a visiting artist or local expert, is offered in Schwab Auditorium one hour before each performance and is free for ticket holders. The performance is made possible, in part, through a partnership with Penn State's Institute for the Arts and Humanities' Moments of Change initiative. The Penn State College of the Liberal Arts, Office of Undergraduate Education, Schreyer Honors College and Department of English also provide funding.
Contact: Laura Sullivan, 814-863-6379