A COOL take on MacBeth!

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.