MACBETH Comes To The Hipgnosis Theater 4/3-4/19

The Hipgnosis Theatre Company proudly presents William Shakespeare's Macbeth, one of his best-known and darkest works, directed by John Castro. Macbeth runs from April 3 to 19, 2009 in a limited engagement at the Clemente Soto Velez Center (Flamboyan Theater), located at 107 Suffolk Street, between Rivington & Delancey, in NYC. Official opening is April 3. The play follows on the heels of the company's acclaimed 2008 production of Bertolt Brecht's The Caucasian Chalk Circle, which received a 2008 NY Innovative Theater Award nomination for Outstanding Production Of A Play.

Performances are Wednesdays through Sundays at 8pm with a matinee performance on Saturday 4/18 at 3pm. Tickets are $18 and can be purchased online at www.SmartTix.com or by calling 212-868-4444. Running time is 2 hours and 15 minutes including one intermission. For more information visit www.HipgnosisTheatre.org.
Macbeth, the "Scottish play", follows the doomed path of the title character, a Scottish nobleman who is encouraged by his wife and a series of inexplicable, seemingly supernatural events to murder the sleeping King Duncan in order to take over the throne. The raw evil of Macbeth's deed and its effects on him take center stage in this deeply haunting play.
The Hipgnosis Theatre Company's production of Macbeth takes its inspiration from the original presentation of the play. While most modern productions stage Macbeth in darkness, Shakespeare's King's Men originally acted out this nightmarish play in broad day-light, thus having to evoke the darkness of the setting (and of the plot) with their language and action, rather than with technical effects. Hipgnosis will set its production on a fully-lit stage, relying on its ensemble to execute the challenging feat of creating imaginary darkness. The stark tone of Hipgnosis' production will be further heightened by white vinyl-flooring, fluorescent light strips, a white witches' nest at ceiling level and white tyvek costumes, to propose that, in our urban society, ubiquitous light can be as much a source of terror and nightmare as darkness was in Jacobean England. Light will be a sinister participant in this performance, a living presence, serving the environment of the play itself by creating a harsh, unforgiving and clinical atmosphere.

The Hipgnosis Theatre Company's ("Creative phenoms" ~ NYTheatre.com) mission is to place the communion between actor and audience - the unique alchemy of theater - squarely at center stage. Visit www.HipgnosisTheatre.org to learn more about their mission.

Praise for Hipgnosis Theatre Company's 2008 production of

Bertolt Brecht's The Caucasian Chalk Circle
"Director Margot Newkirk unifies all the pieces with a faithfully Brechtian aesthetic...a skilled performance." ~ Variety/Mark Blankenship
"The Hipgnosis Theatre Company production employs a multiethnic cast of talented male and female actors." ~ Back Stage/Jerry Portwood
"A magical resuscitation of Bertolt Brecht's The Caucasian Chalk Circle. The artistry of this group of creative phenoms is truly admirable. The 13-member ensemble forms a juggernaut of character-actor power." ~ NYTheatre.com/Chris Harcum

"Taken as whole, this group is the best large cast I've seen in quite some time on an Off-Off-Broadway stage -- or Off-Broadway, for that matter." ~ BlogCritics Magazine/Jon Sobel

The cast includes Julian Rozzell, Jr. (Passing Strange at Stanford University) as Macbeth, Elizabeth Mirarchi as Lady Macbeth, Brandon Bennett, Bryn Boice (Polish Joke at Manhattan Theatre Club), Nick Brooks (The Devil and Daniel Webster at City Center), Angelo Clement, Marion Corrales, Brett Essenter, Pharah Jean-Philippe, John Kevin Jones (Jeffrey at Lincoln Center), Pablo Lopez, Tim McCann, Prentice Onayemi (Young Jean Lee's The Shipment - the "hilarious Prentice Onayemi" ~ The NY Times/Charles Isherwood), Michael Poignand (The Wind in the Willows at New Vic), Ayanna Siverls, Douglas Scott Streater (Young Jean Lee's The Shipment - "charismatic Douglas Scott Streater" ~ The New Yorker/Hilton Als), Rachel Tiemann (Old Tricks at the Chocolate Factory), Richard Ugino (If This Hat Could Talk at the Apollo Theater), Jose Vasquez and Amelia Workman (Young Jean Lee's The Shipment - the "graceful and rich-voiced Amelia Workman" ~ TimeOut NY/David Cote).

Director John Castro has directed more than 20 plays, including The Winter's Tale, Measure for Measure and The Taming of the Shrew for Hipgnosis Theatre Company; As You Like It and Much Ado About Nothing for the Compass Rose Theatre Company; and a number of productions for Sedentary Productions in Washington, DC including Harold Pinter's Betrayal and The Dumb Waiter, David Mamet's The Shawl and Oleanna; John Patrick Shanley's Danny and the Deep Blue Sea; and Richard Greenberg's The American Plan.
The design/production team consists of Robert Nguyen (Lighting Design), Krista Thomas-Scott (Costume Design), Demetrios Bonaros (Sound Design), Doug West (Fight Choreography) and John Simmons (Stage Manager).

Trains: F, J, M & Z to Delancey/Essex St.

 

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