What do you do to get into your role?
Alyssa: From a physical stand-point, I have to start wearing my show shoes and skirts from the first day of rehearsal. People not only spoke differently 400 years ago, they moved differently. Any early costuming I can do helps me figure out that movement, and put it into my character.
From an emotional stand-point, I think about doing things I can’t even imagine. What would you do if there were no consequences, if you were sure you would never be caught? What would you give up if you were guaranteed success? Day to day we bite our tongues and act politely. For this, you just let the worst parts of you fly. And then, go further.
How do you learn your lines?
A: For many actresses, we already know pieces of this amazing play. We’ve workshopped it in classes, or used the monologues in auditions. But for the other dialogues, I learn it anyway I can. Repetition. Mneumonics. Acronyms. Writing the lines by hand. Tying blocking together with the lines. Anything to make them stick.
Favorite thing about your character?
A: Her strength. A woman who took any sort of control in a marriage relationship at this time in history is a wonderful aberration.
What is your dream Shakespeare role?
A: This is it!
What's with the ambition? Lady Macbeth devised an entire murder plot.....why not be happy with the quick elevation to Thane?
A: Why be happy with just that? As a wife, her only job was to bear children. As a woman, she could have nothing but a title. If she can be crowned queen, it is of her own doing. Perhaps it can be forgiven she hasn’t given her husband any sons. She sees power as safety, and wants every security she can obtain.
Do you believe Lady Macbeth truly is in love with her husband? Or do you see him more as a means to and end?
A: I think she truly did. As a wife, she was property, and could have been treated horribly. But her husband showed her real affection and kindness, which she repaid with what love she was capable of. That and the encouragement to murder.
When do you think Lady Macbeth finally hits insanity?
A: For me, it’s not a sudden hit, but a slide. At the end of the banquet scene, when she sees her husband is delusional, talking to ghosts only he can see, she starts to realize this thing she has started is out of her control. That loss of control and fear of discovery, if her King can’t keep his own sanity, seem to be what unhinges her. By the time she walks with her taper, she is drowned in her madness.
Thanks a bunch, Alyssa!
(and thanks to Dana for some awesome pictures!)
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