TAM Presents MACBETH, 10/17-19

William Shakespeare's swift and relentless tragedy, Macbeth, comes to Theater at Monmouth. Filled with ghosts, witches, and dark prophecies, Macbeth will run for one weekend only in Cumston Hall October 17-19 before heading out on the road as part of the theatre's Shakespeare in Maine Communities Education Tour. Macbeth will tour for three weeks to schools and community centers across the state. This production is part of Shakespeare in American Communities, a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest. TAM is one of 40 theatre companies selected from across the country to participate in this initiative.

Nobody ever believes road-side fortune-tellers but what if their prophecies started to come true? How far would you go to attain all they promised? Kill a king? A friend? A child? Three mysterious outsiders compel the kingdom's champion to commit treason, rebellion, and regicide. Hallucinations become real and daylight hides its face as blind ambition contorts Macbeth into one of Shakespeare's bloodiest butchers.

Director Heidi Handelsman recently completed an MFA in Directing at Brown/Trinity, where credits include Middletown, A Bright Room Called Day, The Winter's Tale, and Rhinoceros. She has directed plays for and with teenagers in Rhode Island and Connecticut including As You Like It, Love's Labour's Lost, and A Dybbuk. For Macbeth she wants to "create a production so immediate, engrossing, and chilling that young audiences leave the theatre hooked on Shakespeare. The Macbeths and the witches will disrupt a safe and familiar-seeming world," she says. "[They'll] leave the few survivors to shine a wholesome light into the darkness this unnaturalness has created."

Theater at Monmouth has provided literature-based education programs in schools and community centers since the Theater's founding. Since 2005, TAM has taken the Bard on the road with Shakespeare in Maine Communities- featuring 60 to 90-minute adaptations of Shakespeare with five to eight actors. The target grade levels for this tour are middle and high schools; previous tours have reached more than 6,000 students annually. For more information about TAM's Education Tours visit www.theateratmonmouth.org/education/education-tours

Macbeth features Drew Johnson as Macbeth, Pamela Mae Davis as Lady Macbeth/Seyton, Greg Boover as Banquo/ Young Siward, Wendy Way as Duncan/Porter/ Doctor, Michael Dix Thomas as Witch 1/Angus/MacDuff, Marjolaine Whittlesey as Witch 2/Lady MacDuff/ Donalbain, and Lillian Meredith as Witch 3/Lenox/Malcolm. Set design by Sara C. Walsh, costume design by Elizabeth Rocha, and lighting design by Jim Alexander.

Performance Calendar: Shakespeare in Maine Communities will tour Macbeth to schools and performing arts centers October 13 through November 1, 2014. Public performances at Cumston Hall

in Monmouth: October 17 & 18, 7:30 pm; October 18, 2:00 pm; October 19, 1:00 pm. Ticket prices: $20-25. For tickets or booking information call 207.933.9999 or visit theateratmonmouth.org

Theater at Monmouth, founded in 1970, was named the Shakespearean Theater of Maine by the State Legislature in 1975. The theatre's mission is to present innovative approaches to Shakespeare and other classic plays through professional productions that enrich the lives of people throughout Maine. Since its founding, TAM has produced expertly crafted, engaging productions in its three-month Summer Repertory Season entertaining audiences from 36 states and through Education Tours annually reaching more than 15,000 students statewide.

For more information, visit:

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Liz Nelson
Theater at Monmouth Marketing & PR
207.933.2952 | marketing@theateratmonmouth.org | www.theateratmonmouth.org
http://twitter.com/TAMonmouth | http://www.facebook.com/TAMonmouth

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