"Macbeth" at Augustana College -- November 11 through 14.
Thursday, November 11, through Sunday, November 14
Augustana College's Brunner Theatre Center, 3750 Seventh Avenue, Rock Island IL
Enjoying an area stage run two months before the release of a new film version starring Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand, William Shakespeare's classic tragedy Macbeth runs at Augustana College November 11 through 14, this legendary revenge thriller one of the Bard's most famous tragedies and the first mainstage production in the Rock Island college's 2021-22 season.
Thought to have been first performed in 1606, Macbeth dramatizes the damaging physical and psychological effects of political ambition on those who seek power for its own sake. Of all the plays that Shakespeare wrote during the reign of King James I, who was patron of Shakespeare's acting company, the tragedy most clearly reflects the playwright's relationship with his sovereign. First published in the Folio of 1623, Macbeth is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy, telling of a brave Scottish general who receives a prophecy from a trio of witches that one day he will become King of Scotland. Consumed by ambition and spurred to action by his wife, Macbeth murders King Duncan and takes the Scottish throne for himself, yet is consequently wracked with guilt and paranoia. Forced to commit more and more murders to protect himself from enmity and suspicion, he soon becomes a tyrannical ruler, and the bloodbath and consequent civil war swiftly take Macbeth and Lady Macbeth into the realms of madness.
Directing Augustana's Macbeth is Assistant Professor of Theatre Arts Jennifer Popple, whose previous productions for the college have included One Flea Spare, Noises Off, The Crucible, and In the Next Room (or, The Vibrator Play). The tragedy's title role is enacted by Keenan Ellis, who appeared in recent Augustana productions of Speaking in Tongues, She Kills Monsters, and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, with Lady M. played by Noel Jean Huntley, a performer in 2021 area productions of Beehive: The '60s Musical at the Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse and Company at the Black Box Theatre.
With Amy Nicholson (Noises Off, the Mississippi Bend Players' Biloxi Blues) portraying Ross, multiple roles are assumed by Eli Bates, Lauren Clarke, Anya Giordano, Mischa Hooker, Titus Jildreda, Ella Miller, Roger Pavey, AJ Perez, Jessa Simon, and Emma Watts. And with Shelley Cooper serving as Macbeth's movement director, additional members of the show's creative team include technical director and lighting/sound designer Mike Turczynski, scenic designer Cameron L. Strandin, costume designer Emily Busha, co-sound designer John Flannery, stage manager Rebecca McNamar, assistant stage managers Jesslyn Cohen and AJ Friel, props master and run-crew member Trinity Filut, and run-crew member Lainey Terfruchte.
Macbeth will be staged in Augustana College's Brunner Theatre Center November 11 through 14, with performances Thursday through Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 1:30 p.m. Admission is $5-15, and more information and tickets are available by calling (309)794-7306 and visiting Augustana.edu/tickets.
