On Saturday morning I had
a chance to attend a play “Macbeth”, written by William Shakespeare, at
the Chicago Shakespeare Theater. This was a performance done by the Chicago
Public School (CPS) students and teachers. Macbeth tells
the story of two brave Scottish general Macbeth and Banquo, who receive a
prophecy from three sinister witches. These three “weird sisters” tell
Macbeth that he will become king of Scotland, but it would be Banquo who will
father Scotland’s futures kings. After both men leaves the witches, they start
having visions of wearing the crown and becoming King of Scotland.
In this short classic, Shakespeare tell the story of one man's plans of ambition, revenge and paranoia that spirals out of control. When Macbeth and Banquo run into the three
witches, one of the witches predicts that Macbeth will become king of Scotland
and Banquo son will be king. Macbeth start to fantasize and wonders if this statement
is true and what will happen if he was king. He soon share this good news with
his wife, Lady Macbeth. Next, you have Lady Macbeth consumed with courage
and concocting a plan to help Macbeth kill the king. Power and revenge
lead both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth committing an evil act and leading into destruction
and death.
Macbeth was an
outstanding performance done by the Chicago Public School (CPS) student and
teachers. The student performances was outstanding when transitioning
quickly from scene to scene. You can see the cast member has an ever-moving
urgency when entering and exit on the stage. The cast member's costumes was
blended very beautifully. The enthralling pace of the beating drums and
flashing lights made the scene feel more
eerie and scary. While looking at the
cast fighting dangerously, you will see a great deal of swords being swung and
the actors engaging in some painful looking fight done by choreography Matt
Hawkins. At one point, when a student named Casey
Pitts was performing Macbeth, you saw two ladies speaking his thoughts out loud in Spanish. I even notice
that some of the student had two characters to perform. The cast member delivered
their lines with such great passionate and perfection.
I found Macbeth to be
well preformed and very entertaining. After the performance, the cast member and
audiences were able to engage in conversation about their performances and
personal experience with Macbeth. Many of the cast members were asked who their
favorite character was and what their favorite line was. The student was able
to add their own talent to the play. They add a crying scene when the nurse and
maid watched a young Lady Macbeth go insane. You also saw
Macbeth thoughts being spoken in Spanish. There also a little comic relief
in this dark tale, right when the king was murder.
In conclusion, the CPS
and CTS main challenge in presenting Shakespeare’s plays was to help the younger
audience embrace and understanding the connections between themselves and the
characters of committing such an evil act. First, take a look at how Macbeth
thoughts led him to believe he was being crowned King honestly. Next,
you see Macbeth hire someone to kill his good friend Banquo two children so
they wouldn’t be crown king. This shows how many of the characters action and
consequence make you think of evil violence that is happening every day in many
of our communities. I really like the fact that CPS and CST have this program
in some school. This give them a chance to look at learning as being exciting
and fun, while accomplish an inspiring dream.
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