Macbeth to debut at the Waldron

Ivy Tech’s rendition of the Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” will premiere at the John Waldron Arts Center today.

A dark tale about murder, power hunger, evil and fortune, as well as the judgment that comes after, “Macbeth” will take the stage at 7:30 p.m.

The 19-person cast is mostly made up of Ivy Tech students, but there are also some students from IU. The play will continue through Saturday and again April 17 to 19.

Ticket prices are $15 for adults and $5 for students and senior citizens.

Director Jeffery Allen said he first became professionally acquainted with theater through another work by Shakespeare, “The Tempest.”

“I started my career when I was 15,” Allen said. “It was performed in the zoo of all places. So, we were competing with the peacocks for attention. The peacocks won more frequently than we did.”

As his career progressed, Allen found himself directing many classic theater plays.

His ambitions during his three years of IU residency included helping improve programs at the Center for Lifelong

Learning and the John Waldron Arts Center.

Allen said the brevity of “Macbeth” allows it to be a good starting point for ambitious actors. However, the stage work required for the play presents a challenge.

“It is a non-stop barrage of darkness and violence,” Allen said. “It is not unfair to say that this is a play that shows you evil.”

Doug Shields plays one of the murderers Macbeth hires to commit miscreant deeds.

“It is pretty brutal,” Shields said.

Shields said the play was to be performed for a group of international students on Thursday, in addition to the other scheduled dates for viewing.

Despite popular opinion, the character Macbeth is not a man controlled by the supernatural, Allen said. Macbeth’s fate is a series of violent choices, rather than seeds of fortune.

Emphasizing the witches of the play, Allen said he incorporated his own personal nightmare about the incarnation of evil. He said he, along with the cast, put effort into exemplifying the blatant evil Shakespeare intended to represent through these characters.

“Macbeth is a monster,” Allen said. “He is a man who gives into that which he wants, and that raises a good question for all of us. What stops us?”

Rehearsal for this reproduction of “Macbeth” has been occurring since mid-February.

“I have been very pleased with the dedication, the attention to detail and the willingness to just keep working,” Allen said of his cast.

For Allen, the storytelling of “Macbeth” is not solely entertainment. It is an examination of human conduct, focusing on the drives, compulsions and consequences of a sociopathic murderer.

“Art’s greatest role in our culture is to help us with that great ‘why?’” Allen said. “We don’t tell the story of “Macbeth” because we want to glorify a butcher. We tell the story so that we have a better understanding of how butchers come to be, and what we are going to do about one when we encounter one.”