Cooler weather isn’t the only thing we anxiously await this time of year. September is almost here, and that means the Arkansas Repertory Theatre is just about to launch its mainstage season. This is no ordinary fabulous season opener, however. On Sept. 11, The Rep will begin its 40th season with none other than Shakespeare’s “Macbeth.”
We wanted to find out the scoop on the production, so we sat down with the cast and director to talk about everything from the armor they wear on stage to the “Macbeth” beer contest, and find out what this whole “original ‘House of Cards'” tagline is all about.
Here’s our conversation with Bob Hupp, who is beginning his 17th season as producing artistic director at The Rep; Michael Stewart Allen, who plays Macbeth (and who you may remember as the villainous Harry Roat from The Rep’s production of “Wait Until Dark” last October); Jacqueline Correa, who plays Lady Macbeth; Damian Thompson, who plays Banquo (and who played a lead in “The Whipping Man” back in January); and Seth Rabinowitz, who plays Macduff.
“Macbeth” opens Sept. 11 at The Rep. For tickets or more information, click here.
So the characters you’re playing are legendary. How do you connect with them? How do you bring a centuries-old character to life… or death?
Damian Thompson: My character is one of the protagonists in the show, very good natured, gives his trust easily. He gets the same prophecy as Macbeth, but his path is different, and he has a more positive way of receiving that information. He’s a very noble human being and ends up paying for that. Had he had more of a sense of stepping back and assessing, then he might have been able to stop certain things from happening.
I connect with this guy pretty easily. Of course, I like to think I’m trustworthy and noble. He’s someone people in the play look up to, but not necessarily the guy in charge, and I’ve had those relationships throughout my life.
Michael Allen: The thing about playing Macbeth is that it’s called a tragedy for a reason. He’s a good man who falls, and for me, that’s the key in. He starts the play as a good guy, somebody you would be happy to have leading your army, happy to have in charge of things, happy to have at a party. He’s that guy, but makes really bad choices that lead him down a path to destruction. Modern shows like “Breaking Bad” and “House of Cards” are modern examples of that sort of thing. They’re these anti-heroes that you sort of find yourself on their side and you don’t know why.
He’s a really interesting character because he’s very smart, and very noble, and knows what he’s doing. To find the dark that comes at the end of the play for him is the real challenge, I think. We’ve all had those thoughts where immediately after we’re like, “I can’t believe I had that thought,” but you never give over to it. Connecting with him here is to indulge in the idea of what if you did give over to it and how it would change you, how it would mark your soul as a human being. That’s the journey of the play. It’s so beautiful and so rich, you just want to do it justice.
DT: There’s no cut-and-dry protagonist and antagonist. You don’t walk away pointing fingers at the bad guy.
MA: Macbeth is not a villain. He doesn’t have a twirly mustache speech.
DT: You can see yourself in him, I think even more so than in my character.
Jacqueline Correa: I think that’s what’s important, the audience needs to see themselves in Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. That’s why it’s so tragic. With her, she starts out a little different. She opens herself up to the possibility of something darker without quite understanding where that’s going to lead. It’s the idea of what happens when you get what you want, but it doesn’t look exactly how you thought it would. I really connect with her in that she really understands the power of her words and she uses that to her advantage. As actors, we have to have that, and you have to acknowledge that part of yourself that is darker that existsts within the character, otherwise you won’t be able to go there when opening night arrives.
Seth Rabinowitz: The thing that I’ve always loved about Macduff is his loyalty to Scotland and believing in a higher cause. At the beginning of the play, they’ve been at war and are now at peace. I’ve always found that an interesting thing to tap into, this belief of home. Macduff has a family he’s very excited to get home to. It’s only when someone is murdered that that interrupts his journey home. It becomes about how he can help bring Scotland back to peace, and that means diverging from the plan. Unlike some of the other characters in the play who act quickly, Macduff is able to sit back and play things out in his head, he’s a little bit more of a thinker. To be able to do that, to analyse and think about consequences and see a few steps ahead, is something that I can tap into now that I’m a little older. Plus, there’s a bit of an older brother/younger brother relationship with Macduff and Malcom, and I have a younger brother in real life, so it means something different there for me.
Bob, why “Macbeth to start off the 40th year?
Bob Hupp: I wanted to start the 40th season with Shakespeare. Over the last 16 years, we’ve tended to do Shakespeare every other year, both outdoors and indoors. When we first started doing Shakespeare, it was like pulling teeth to get people to come and see them. On the first day of ticket sales for the 40th season, what show sold the most tickets out of the gate? “Little Mermaid.” What sold second? “Macbeth.” We wanted the 40th to reflect all the things we do best. That’s why there’s world premieres, family musicals, adult comedies, classics and Shakespeare. A theater company defines itself by how well it interprets those plays that have large artistic footprints.
I love this “original House of Cards” tagline. Tell me more.
BH: I look at a play like “Macbeth” as being both timely and timeless—timeless because it’s been around since 1606 and continues to get reinterpreted, but the core of the story has survived all these centuries because it’s also timely, and that’s where this “House of Cards” reference comes in. So many stories that are instantly iconic in our culture like Michael said, “Breaking Bad” and “House of Cards,” they’re just a retelling of this Macbeth story Shakespeare created… The corruption of power and the pursuit of ambition for ambition’s sake and how those two conditions destroy not only the people who strive to achieve those things, but corrupts and darkens the world around them, that to me is a telling lesson for our times.
I think this story keeps coming back into popular culture because this story of the destructive nature of ambition comes back to haunt us. It speaks to something we all identify with, something we’re all afraid of, something we can recognize in the darker part of ourselves and here we see the consequences.
Plus, as actors and a director, “Macbeth” is a bloody mess and it’s a heck of a lot of fun.
SR: It’s dynamic. Some of Shakespeare’s plays have these long sections of dialogue, this one moves. It’s not two characters going on and on about something; stuff is happening.
BH: It’s short and fast and it’s read in high schools in Arkansas. That’s one thing that’s so cool about this production is that it received a National Endowment for the Arts Shakespeare in American Communities grant, which allows us to add an entire week of free student matinees that we wouldn’t have been able to do otherwise. We get to create these in-depth study guides, to take the actors out into the classrooms across Arkansas and really bring this play to students in the state. That’s a big deal for us, getting to engage with young people and introduce them to Shakespeare.
What can you tell me about the set and costumes?
SR: So it’s set in roughly 1050 AD when the real Macbeth lived, and it’s very much of that era. The costumes are heavy and they look like animal skins and wool, very similar to what they would have had access to at that time. It’s got that really earthy quality that I think is so cool for this show. Sometimes you see it modern and it works, but when you can do an earthy quality, especially with the supernatural ties, it makes it more interesting and it feels right. The production design reflects that and it’s exciting for us, as opposed to doing it in modern suits and ties, or it’s all post-apocalyptic. This is old school and I like it.
JC: When you keep it in the time period it’s supposed to be, you allow the audience access into something where they’re not distracted by anything else. It’s so tempting to go see a Shakespeare play that’s been updated and you’re constantly going “Oh, isn’t it great how they did this instead of that.” When you keep it in its intended time, I find it much more powerful than CEOs taking over a firm, that happens all the time. But when you see a king fall, that has a much more profound effect.
MA: WIth a play like “Macbeth,” it’s such rich language, it’s such a beautiful play, that it stands on its own and you just want to get out of its way. Setting it in this time period does that. The audience isn’t going to be wondering why we have guns or clipboards or it’s set on a spaceship or whatever. They’ll just be able to listen to the words, and soak in the power of it.
DT: When you think of the modern day shows that are making a splash, there’s been a turn toward historical dramas and things of that nature. We’ve been so modernized, it’s something we’ve been missing. I feel like the whole point of watching “Game of Thrones,” besides the fact that it’s well-written, is that you get an insight on a time period that we don’t see any more. Everything now is Star Trek and touchscreens.
SR: It’s also just fun, to be a soldier and put on leather and a lot of accoutrement, boots and breastplates. Once I start putting on pieces of my character, it really starts to crystallize. We can rehearse all day, but this changes you.
BH: Our staff started working on the leather armor in the spring. They’ve been cutting and hammering leather for months and months. As for the shoes, in that era, they would’ve worn something akin to moccasins. The moccasins for this show were handmade by Native Americans in the same traditions they always have, and each pair gets blessed before they’re sent to us. Hopefully they bring good luck to everybody.
The set design, because this play moves so fast—Act 5 is 20 minutes long and has nine scenes—you really have to have a set that doesn’t change. I sent our set designer Mike Nichols these photos of the prehistoric stone monoliths throughout the British Isles and Scotland, the most famous of which being of course Stonehenge. We don’t know their history, but we equate them with these things that have a sort of mystical and magical quality, as does this play. Merging the idea of these mythical stones and the ruined castles that dot the landscape, we came up with the inspiration for this set.
Another fascinating thing about this production is that the underscore is being written in the moment by Mark Binns. He’s sitting in rehearsal and composing the music as he’s watching the stage. We’ll then edit and distill that down and incorporate the score into the production.
There are also some secret ghostly things in the works, things they’ve never done before, born of a partnership with Aristotle, but you’ll have to wait and see for yourself.
Do you remember the first time you read “Macbeth?”
JC: I feel like I saw it first, but it’s one of those things that every time you read it, something else jumps out at you depending on your own understanding of the world and of yourself at the moment.
MA: The first time I read it was as an assignment in high school. We read it out loud, trading parts, and I remember thinking “God, this is so boring.” Then I saw in on stage and it blew me away. I was in a production of “Macbeth” in college, and from that moment on, I’ve been fascinated with it. Every time you say the words, you learn something. It gives you more every time you see it, every time you read it.
SR: Funny story, it was high school when I was first exposed to it. My junior year, a bunch of theater kids took a trip to London. We were jet-lagged and went straight to Stratford, and this is when they were doing Shakespeare plays with no intermissions. We saw “Macbeth,” and I definitely fell asleep for the first 20 minutes, but I was awake for the rest and what I remember of it was great. The interesting tidbit was that we went to the stage door after the play to get autographs. The guy playing Macbeth was super nice, signed my program, the whole thing. Later, I call my dad and ask if he’s ever heard of an actor named Derek Jacobi. At the time, I had no idea who he was. I saw him play Macbeth and remember almost nothing. It kills me to this day. But since then, the play has come back to me at different points in life, and each time it does, it’s brings something different with it.
DT: I can’t remember specifically reading the play before grad school or the different times I’ve seen it, but scenes like the witches or when Lady Macbeth reprimands him, those embed themselves in your mind.
MA: I think Shakespeare’s meant to be seen. That’s a big thing that I believe as an artist and an actor, the classics specifically. They’re not meant to be taught in class as literature, they’re meant to be heard. That’s how you experience it—in the theater.
One more very pressing question: Have you tried the “Macbeth” beer yet?
BH: No, but they’ve tried some of Little Rock’s other fine beers, that’s for sure. This is the case more and more. Some of these actors have never been here before, some have. Michael was in the first play I directed here, “The Grapes of Wrath.” He’s seen Little Rock change. It’s so cool to see people who don’t live in Little Rock come to Little Rock and enjoy themselves. There’s always something to do.
SR: Bob’s put together a really great mix of people who’ve been here before and who haven’t. I don’t know anything about the city, but I can lean on people like Michael and know where to go. As a cast, we really like spending time with one another, and that’s so nice. For someone who’s never been here before, I’m having a great time.
JC: One of the nice things about our profession is that you go to places that maybe you never thought you would. I don’t think I ever thought, “I’m going to take a vacation in Little Rock.” Then you arrive and get to know a place, you start to feel at home there as you get to know the area and the people. This is such a special spot because the community supports the theater, which isn’t always the case. People are hungry for it here and like to see actors come in and out. It’s so nice to be surrounded by that kind of enthusiasm.
MA: It’s been amazing to watch Little Rock change over 16 years. You just sort of see it in snapshots. Every time I come back, it’s better and better. When I first came here, there wasn’t much to do downtown, now there are three craft breweries within walking distance of where we’re staying. The trails are clean and paved and you can bike across the river, it’s just amazing. I love how Little Rock is evolving, and it’s been so cool to get to be a small part of it.