We Players Remount MACBETH at Fort Point, Now thru 6/29

We Players, in partnership with the National Park Service / Golden Gate National Recreation Area, will present a site-integrated production of Shakespeare's Macbeth at Fort Point, the civil war era fortress located beneath the Golden Gate Bridge. The production runs June 5 through June 29, 2014, Thursday through Sunday.

After critically acclaimed production runs in 2008 and in 2013, We Players remounts Macbeth at Fort Point in the winding dark stone corridors, narrow passageways, expansive brick casemates, and inner chambers of the fort. Why remount this production? In October 2013, the dark clouds of the US government shutdown hovered over its production of Macbeth at Fort Point, forcing the company to cancel numerous performances and disappoint over 1,000 ticket holders. We Players gives Macbeth a renewed life by producing an exciting re-development this spring. It is also an opportunity to share this powerful and unique performance with a wider audience and with those who were turned away last fall.

In its upcoming 2014 production, We Players shifts the perspective. Co-directors Ava Roy and John Hadden will explore this tale of blood and the thirst for power through the lens of the "old guard": Warriors who have engaged in battle for decades; who are older than their young wives; who are the same age as their King. We Players believes this will provide new insights into the story and its portrayal. Founding Artistic Director, Ava Roy comments, "We are eager to dive even deeper into the richness of the text, the subtleties of the relationships between characters, and to search for further nuance in the language and in our connection with the very stones of the fortress."

2014 production cast members will include a host of We Players' alumni: John Hadden as Macbeth (Fool in Twelfth Nigh or What You Will at Hyde Street Pier), Scott Phillips as Macduff (Claudius in Hamlet on Alcatraz), Jack Halton as Banquo (Polonius in Hamlet on Alcatraz), Nathaniel Justinianio as Ross (Zeus in The Odyssey on Angel Island State Park). Returning performers include: Ava Roy as Lady Macbeth; Steve Boss as both Duncan and Porter; and Caroline Parsons, Julie Douglas and Maria Leigh continuing their work as the three Weyard Sisters

As with recent performances on Alcatraz and Angel Island State Park, We Players continues its collaboration with the National Park Service to connect people with local Bay Area public spaces through site-integrated theatre. "An essential goal of our work is to inspire in our audience personal relationships with the places in which we play," says Ava Roy, the company's Artistic Director. Its upcoming production is located inside Fort Point, in the direct onslaught of the billowing fog and relentless wind. The Golden Gate Bridge soars overhead and the city skyline flickers giving audiences a full sensory immersion into Macbeth's Scotland as it collides with Civil War era and modern day San Francisco.

Fort Point sits directly below the southern anchorage of the Golden Gate Bridge, at the entrance to the San Francisco Bay. Now a National Historic Site, Fort Point was completed in 1861 and used to defend and protect the San Francisco Bay against possible foreign invasion. Fort Point is a beautiful example of masterful masonry work, and thanks to Joseph Strauss, Chief Engineer of the Golden Gate Bridge, who re-designed the construction of the bridge to preserve Fort Point, this monument is open to all. More information on Fort Point is available at www.nps.gov/fopo/.

San Francisco Magazine recently honored We Players with the "Best of the Bay" pick for their unique site-specific performance work and declared, "We Players didn't just break the fourth wall, it toppled the whole playhouse". According to Managing Director Lauren D. Chavez, "We Players' mission is to create site-integrated performances that transforms public spaces into realms of participatory theatre, in an effort to engage with history and the environment, build community, and inspire personal relationships with place." For more information, please visit www.weplayers.org.

Macbeth is co-directed by Ava Roy and John Hadden. The show will run Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays at 7:00pm, with three preview performances May 30, 31, and June 1. Tickets are $30 for previews, $45 for Thursdays, $60 for Fridays and Saturdays, and $75 for Saturdays. Ticket sales start March 17th at www.weplayers.org.

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