A drum, a drum! Macbeth doth come

For the seventh consecutive year, Professor of Literature Jenijoy La Belle and Lecturer in Theater Arts and Lecturer in Literature Shirley Marneus are coteaching Shakespeare (the Lit 114 class), which examines three plays—one of which TACIT (Theater Arts at Caltech) presents as its winter-term production. This term’s play is Macbeth, the Bard’s murderous and witchy tragedy.

The tag-team instructors encourage students in the class to become involved with the production, and vice versa. “As Dr. La Belle says, you don’t really learn the play until you do it,” Marneus notes.

“Shakespeare was interested in people, very interested in psychology, a great poet, a stunning dramatist,” she says. In class, each speech is carefully examined for tone, inflection, “to see how the man uses words, meter, stichomythia [rapid back-and-forth dialogue first seen in Greek dramas]. There are a great many things we pay attention to that students can then see in the play.”

While remaining true to the text, Macbeth, like other TACIT plays, will take on a unique Caltech flavor: a combination of culturally diverse cast members and some creative twists. For one, the cast will not don 10th-century Scottish costumes or speak with burrs.

Anachronism, Marneus notes, “is always a problem in Shakespeare”—his actors wore Elizabethan clothing regardless of the setting. In order to lift the play out of a particular time and emphasize
its universality, the cast will wear plain black clothing, draped with tartans. The players will also speak in their own voices, whether the accent is East Coast, East Indian, or Eastern European.

In another touch, says TACIT manager Gavin Claypool, the stage will be “more abstract and bare” than in other shows. There will be minimal use of set; the same construct will be the witches’ cauldron in some scenes, a well in others. As in Shakespeare’s own productions, the set will not change. It will be up to the actors, the text, and especially the audience’s imagination to transform the scene and fill in the details.

“We have some very exciting performers,” Marneus enthuses, “including new students, frosh, and alums. I’m very proud and pleased that they come back to work with us.” The cast also includes children of alums, and Marneus revels in the continuity and integration of the TACIT community.

Pointing to alums like Mark Adler, JPL’s Mars Exploration Rover Spirit mission manager, whose sons are in the play, she says, “You have a sense of people who are leaders and will be leaders, also exploring the creative aspects of theater, bringing in their children.

“They bring the same kind of dedication to an art form that they do to their scientific discipline, and make it part of their life. Maybe it makes them better scientists. Their science certainly makes them better actors.”

Performances will be held in Ramo Auditorium on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays from February 20 through March 6; a special closing performance will be held 1 p.m. Sunday, March 7, at the Huntington Library. For more information, performance times, and tickets, contact Public Events at 1 (888) 2CALTECH, (626) 395-4652, or events@caltech.edu, or visit www.events.caltech.edu. Individuals with a disability can call 395-4688 (voice) or 395-3700 (TDD).
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