MacBeth.
Ooh! (glancing around) MACBETH!
THERE! I said it. Some people won't.
But we'll get back to that.
Not too terribly long ago,
all things relative, I had been
planning on making a drive to LA
somewhere to catch Val Kilmer in his
one-man Mark Twain show. This woulda been
a given, really. I'm a fan of both Mr. Kilmer AND
Mr. Twain, and am also fortunate to know
Robert Valentine and have enjoyed
HIS Mark Twain.
And his Thomas Edison - to a great great degree,
but that's another story.
Sometime the afternoon of the show,
(was that a Mametism?)
I decided against going to LA, and instead
go to a community theatre production of
The Importance of Being Earnest.
Yeah.
You heard (read) that right.
Dropping LA for a community theare.
Dropping Kilmer and Twain to go see a show which,
having been involved in at LEAST once,
I've seen a lot.
Long story short (too late)
I'm SO glad I made the decision I did.
It was without a doubt the best interpretation
and production of Earnest that I've seen. And I
have to say - I've been bored to tears on Broadway,
and some of the best theatre I've seen has BEEN at the Community Theatre level.
(((Yvonne Flack - Radio in back and white)))
That's part of what made me
contact Yvonne Flack (who directed Earnest) to do an interview about MacBeth. She's directing a version
that be up during the latter part of March, 2013.
Go to www.inlandstage.org for more on
the upcoming season.
It's a good'n.
So...
Shaelyn Blaney and I set up,
and got going for what would turn out to be
a wonderful interview. Interview? Yeah. I suppose.
But what I really try to strive for is
more of a conversation.
Think Terry Gross, only taller.
And more Presbyterian.
Anyway.
First of all, when you talk to Yvonne,
it's incredibly clear she knows knows knows her stuff.
But it comes out with casual reference through a sort of comparative explanation. This as opposed to, ohhhhh...
Ya know those people who ask a question at
some symposium or something, only their question
is posed (to coin a phrase) to show how much
they actually already know?
Really hate that.
When you talk to Yvonne,
ya don't get that at all. You get knowledge
ALL too apparent. But it comes out with a casual and relaxed friendliness. There's no way I can truly do justice
to this wonderful conversation. Ya really NEED to check
out the interview live or via podcast. Both will be at www.kvcr.org starting 3/1/13 at 8pm.
This production
of MacBeth has a post-apocalyptic
setting - housed in a meat packing factory.
Mm! Tasty! It makes wonderful sense though,
in this bloody aftermath of a world they're in...
trying to survive - and struggle for power amongst
various factions. It's a dark show, with an all too
appropriate dark setting. There's a modern, if not
futuristic update, but the language is more
than 99% intact.
Other tweaks shouldn't really bother the purists,
and should be quite interesting
for the rest of us.
Now one of the things about
MacBeth - in the theatre world that is - is that
it's considered bad luck to say it. MacBeth, that is.
Technically speaking, I suppose it's really ONLY bad
luck if the name is uttered inside of a theatre, but there
are some that are SO hardcore (or so NUTSO) that they
won't say it ANYWHERE! They won't say MacBeth...
At All. They'll walk around saying, "The M-word"
instead. While we were talking, I had to ask her
feelings on the subject. She says she doesn't
believe in it. Words have power... but it's
only the power we give them.
HOWEVER -
While saying that there
hasn't been any bad luck in the run, she say's,
"...but so far - knock on wood (and she does) - we
haven't had any bad luck." Now THAT'S irony.
I think. I'll have to ask my wife.
One of the
other REALLY cool things
about this interview is that it also
included Sean Longstreet, who's providing
an original soundtrack for Inland Stage Company's
MacBeth. At the last minute, I called Sean to ask if he'd
bring a guitar with him to the session. Maybe an acoustic
that we could point a mic at - and hope
for somethin' good.
He ended up bringing an acoustic-electric,
which we were able to pug directly into the board,
and have a nice sound as a guitarist talks about
what he's gonna do - and then proceeds to give
a bit of a demo. Worked out QUITE well.
Sean is no stranger to
scoring for plays (and more) and
is QUITE talented AT it. He's also a wonderful
multi-instrumentalist with a very technical mind and
the ability to translate emotion into sound. He also has
the ability to stand out... without upstaging, and has
created some wonderful dark moods to
accompany this production.
And, I'd say,
his music REALLY helped
to propel the final product of the on-air
version of the interview as well. I mean - I knew
it'd be cool. But it REALLY made it.
Really.
After the interview,
they posed with Kai. Kai Ryssdal,
from Marketplace.
Okay.
We all did.
I mean...
That's whatcha do.
Whatcha do choo-choo.
Right?
Even a caveman could do it.
At the time of this writing,
the afore-mentioned interview airs
tomorrow night at 8 (3/1/13). Anytime after,
there'll be a podcast available too. You can hear it
at 91-9 FM, or online at www.kvcr.org.
Again - it was a GOOD interview!
And the music - the beginnings of a soundtrack
for MacBeth - became QUITE the soundtrack for
this interview.
I DID the interview. I EDITED it.
But listening to it, it STILL makes me want to
go see this upcoming production. And THAT, I suppose,
is the reason for this write up. Doing the interview itself
was fun. Listening to it in post-production (even though
I was the one DOING the post-production) gave me
chills at times, and MADE me wanna listen to
whatever followed.
MacBeth!
See it near you!
And again - www.inlandstage.org for
more on the rest of a really, really cool season,
and www.kvcr.org to hear KVC-Arts, or
to get the podcast.
Thank you Yvonne. Thank you Sean.
And thank you Inland Stage.
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