Macduff

Macduff is the hero, the fallen and the proud throughout his journey in the pages of "Macbeth". Adam Rutledge take us on that journey with him as Macduff. Enjoy!

Q: What do you do to prepare for a role?

A: I read the play, of course. It sounds a bit trite, but that's really the most important thing I can do before I start memorizing. I'll read the whole play at least once through from the perspective of my role, then I'll read the cut version of the working script several more times. Each time, I look more and more specifically at what people have to say about my character, what my character has to say about other people, and what things my character has been able to observe (vs. what's unknown to him). I don't like thinking about a character in a vacuum; if another character says something about "me," I need to figure out why they say it and incorporate that into my performance.

Q: The best way to learn lines?

A: All the re-reading helps, but out-loud repetition is the only sure bet. For monologues, I'll record myself and listen to the recording.

Q: What is your dream Shakespearean role?

A: Richard of Gloucester, from Richard III. I love the squicky (April: Adam, I totally think you make up a word here) villains, and I love crazy body language and movement. Speaking of villains and movement-oriented roles, I also really like Caliban, from The Tempest.

Q: Macduff, the hero of the show.......and yet he is called out by Malcolm for abandoning his family without cause or notice....he did say he was going to Fife....what is going through Macduff's mind at this point?

A: Well, he went to Fife well before leaving Scotland. Once Macbeth's power grows totally out of control, though, Macduff is all about setting his personal life aside to find Malcolm and save the nation. Once that decision is made, to become a traitor to the throne so as to stay loyal to the country, he can't stick around for long, or even risk telling his family. He has to simply leave, otherwise he'll be found out. And if his family knows, they'll be put in even more danger. The tragedy is that they're put in danger either way, but Macduff can't know that beforehand.

Q: Do we think Macduff has an over-developed sense of patriotism? Or is he just about right?

A: He certainly has a lot more patriotism than I think we're used to seeing these days. I'm well aware of how jaded I am, personally, so it's actually a little refreshing to play someone with such an unshakable idealism.

I really love Macduff's loyalty to his people. In the top of the play, he's not pandering to the king or playing politics with other thanes; the battle was fought in and around Fife, his home, and someone has to lead his people in cleaning up the mess. Later on, he refuses to fight with the Scottish peasants Macbeth has coerced into his army. I suspect it's this loyalty to the nation, and thence to the crown--rather than to the crown through politics--that leads to Duncan trusting Duff to be the one to serve as his wake-up call.

I can't help but wonder how Macduff holds up over the next few years after the play ends; Malcolm has essentially opened the door for the Anglicanization of Scotland, and soon Macduff's country, for which he sacrificed so much, will be unrecognizable to him. "Earl" might not be the most comfortable of titles for a Scottish patriot, no matter how well deserved.

Q: What is going through Macduff's mind when he hears from Ross that his entire estate has been made into a slaughterhouse?

A: Ugh, that scene is so hard to pull off! There are so many things happening here. Malcolm has just said he's coming to Scotland with an army to take back the crown, so Macduff has a moment of triumph; this is why he left his family, after all. We're also fresh of of Malcolm's bizarre deceit, and because of that, Duff still can't be sure how trustworthy the man he's chosen to support really is. Then he's told about his family's death. So here we have a man, depressed and keenly feeling the pain of his nation, confused about his own loyalties, and now grieving. In the midst of all this, he has to reach the final decision to throw in wholeheartedly with Malcolm and visit revenge upon Macbeth. It's quite a lot to think about!

Q: Seeking revenge against Macbeth for multiple reasons rounds out the end of the play before a new king is crowned - What do you think goes through Macduff's mind as he kills Macbeth?

A: I think he pretty well wears his heart on his sleeve in his last monologue: "If thou beest slain, and with no stroke of mine, my wife and childrens' ghosts will haunt me still." I think there's a moment of relief, and release, just before the killing blow is struck.

Thanks Adam!

Malcolm

My faithful readers, how we have missed you!!!! Week one is down, two more performances to go...and we know you are craving some more posts from the depths of "Macbeth". We sat down with the Prince of Cumberland (Stephen Ferrick) for an inside look to the 'good guys' side of the tale. Enjoy!!

Q: How do you prepare for a role?

A: The first thing that I do to prepare for any role is read the script four times: once for familiarity with the play, and one read-through for each of the three essential things that an actor has to know in order to start working on a role - What do I know to be true about my character? What does my character say about himself? What do others say about my character? The end result is a couple pages of notes on the role and the show, and a good idea of where to start that let me start sculpting the clay of the character (or Play-dough, if you're the sort who enjoys lame jokes). Once I have a general shape, the proverbial lump o' clay gets tossed to the director, who adjusts and re-sculpts it as they see fit, and removes any extra limbs that I might have thought looked cool when I started working the clay. The end result is a statue with two sculptors, who work together to keep improving the piece at each rehearsal until it is unveiled on opening night.

You can't get too attached to your initial sculpture, however, or you'll end up with a sphinx without a nose. Beyond hammering the script into my head, I try to keep it pretty simple. The most important thing for an actor to concentrate on when building a character, especially in Shakespeare's plays, is making the characters accessible to a modern audience. I know some actors who do an insane amount of research for the roles they're in, particularly Shakespearean ones; they look up historical context, read analyses of the characters, watch other people perform the roles, and do a bunch of other stuff that I consider (for the most part) to be going overboard. If you're cast as Romeo, for example, researching social interaction and courtship in 14th century Verona and considering the audience that Shakespeare was writing for and his intent with each line isn't going to make your character connect with the audience any better, or make them care when Romeo dies. The audience will appreciate a character that they can understand and relate to more than one that is "true to Shakepeare's vision" or "historically accurate". Randy Jeffreys did a fantastic job as Macbeth, not because he played a Scottish Thane with dreams of kinghood, but because he played a guy who'd worked hard and been loyal his whole life, and been passed over for recognition that he deserved. Also, Macbeth's fall from grace will resonate (I feel like I'm overusing that word) with anyone who's ever thought about taking matters into their own hands to get what they feel (or in this case, what a manipulative companion feels) they deserve. Long story short, it's important to act for your audience.

Q: How do you go about learning all the lines?

A: WORDS WORDS WORDS. There's no secret method an actor can use to memorize lines (or if there is, it's too secret for me to know). It's all about reading, re-reading, re-re-reading, reading out loud, attempting to recite from memory, failing, kicking any furniture in one's general vicinity, shouting assorted curses at the inanimate objects you just kicked, trying to recite from memory again, rinse and repeat. It does help me to learn lines as I'm going to be delivering them; if I'll be walking across the stage when I speak a particular line, I'll walk with the script as I'm memorizing it, for example.

Q: Prince of Cumberland.....do you think Malcolm was expecting that? How close do you think the royal family is to one another?

A: I'd imagine that he was expecting it to happen at some point, he's King Duncan's oldest son, after all. There isn't much dialogue between Duncan and his sons that suggests that their relationship was terribly close, but they seem to be pretty well-adjusted for a royal family. Malcolm and Donalbain seem pretty tight despite their personality differences, with Malcolm being more of a planner and politician and Donalbain being more action-oriented. I tried to push the closeness between the two brothers whenever I could onstage, since it makes Don's death at the end of the show more of a blow to the crown prince.

Q: Duncan is murdered in what seems like minutes after your new honors as Prince by his "sleepy grooms"....what do you think is Malcolm's gut reaction to the murder? Shock? Dismay? Or does he already have a few people in mind who he feels actually performed the murderous deed?

A: Malcolm is ever a planner. He's definitely stunned and horrified by the news of his father's murder, but he realizes that 1.) If someone is out to stage a coup, he's next, and 2.) Mourning won't help him or his brother. I doubt he has any suspects in mind at the time, but he's thinking clearly enough to realize that he and Donalbain need to leave, despite the suspicion it will throw on them.

Q: You away to England, and then find yourself in a deep conversation with Macduff about Scotland, your potential reign, how you are going to overthrow the tyrant, etc. Why the confusion tactics? What are you trying to glean from Macduff? Do you think an accord is truly reached between the two, that Malcolm has Macduff's loyalty?

A: That was one of the more problematic scenes for me, simply because Malcolm spends the majority of it lying about what a terrible person he is, and then hand-waves it away with just a couple lines. The point of the scene, as I understand it, it to establish Macduff as very loyal to Scotland (as shown when he tries to justify Malcolm's negative traits) and to show that despite his patriotism, he values a good a fair ruler more than the official rules of succession that allowed Macbeth to take power. Malcolm had his father murdered and had to flee the country for his safety, so he's not exactly in a trusting mood at this point. He needs to know that Macduff is someone he can trust to do the right thing for Scotland and her people. The conversation is cut short when Macduff receives news that his family has been murdered, and the discussion of treachery and loyalty is thrown out the window for revenge. I believe that if his family hadn't been killed, Macduff would still have sided with Malcolm and returned to overthrow the tyrant, but there might have been a monologue where Macduff questions his decision and considers siding with Macbeth at the last moment. What a twist!

Q: Malcolm loses his brother, Donalbain, in the final act. What some play goers may not realize is that Director J.B. switched this up a bit and replaced young Siward with Donalbain. As an actor, what is your take on this revision? Do you find it to be more powerful in the unaltered script?

A: Siward is only mentioned a couple times before he appears to duel Macbeth. He's built up as the best soldier in all of England, and his death makes Macbeth look stronger, which puts some suspense into the Macbeth/Macduff fight. As I mentioned earlier, when performing Shakespeare to a modern audience, priorities need to be changed a bit. Since most people in the audience probably know the outcome of the play, building Macbeth up as a good fighter and making it seem like he can beat Macduff doesn't really serve a purpose. Cutting Siward (no pun intended) and replacing him with Donalbain makes a lot of sense, and I think the revision makes the last few scenes of the play more powerful than they would have been with Siward getting slain.

Thanks Stephen!

In the Spotlight: Macbeth

Randy Jeffreys, who plays Macbeth, was kind enough to shed some light onto Macbeth's descent into madness...

What to you do to get into your role? Randy: Most of all being an adherent of the Mamet approach, I trust the text to give me what I need to find the core and truth of my character. Of course Shakespeare gives you the very best to work off of ! How do you learn your lines? R: No real unusual method, I just immerse myself in the script...at home, in the car, at work whenever possible. Rehearsing with a script in my hand is maddening to me, so I strive to be off book as fast as possible. I truly believe you can't really begin to breathe life into your character until you are free of the script...at least that is how it feels to me. Favorite thing about your character? R: The fact that he is at his core a very decent man at the start, and the descent into the darkness is so compelling, and gripping and of course tragic. What’s your dream (Shakespeare) role? R: This is it by a large margin. When do you think Macbeth goes to the 'dark side'? R: Certainly an argument can be made that it's when he kills Duncan, but I think he feels the most irrevocably lost after Lady M's death. He loses his last tenous grip on the man he once was. Why do you think he is so easily manipulated by his wife, Lady Macbeth? R:I don't know if manipulated is quite accurate. He has clearly pondered the path he takes before they openly "discuss" it. Although his love for her does make him open to her desires as well. Do you think he ever wonders about how and why the witches chose him? R: I'm not sure. The events happen to him in such a breakneck manner that he may not ever really dwell on that. By the end and of course far too late, he realizes just how badly he has succumbed to their "mis-information". What do you think is his last thought before the one of woman born ends his existence? R: Excellent question ! Probably just wondering how it all went so bad , so fast. Just a complete feeling of fury, desolation, and regret...pretty difficult to imagine the enormity of his sense of loss. Thanks Randy! And again, thanks Dana for fabulous action shots!

In the Spotlight: Lady Macbeth

We sat down to chat with Lady Macbeth, played by Alyssa Herron, and got some inside scoop into the motivations of this scheming lass!

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!)