An Interview with the Director

Now that MACBETH is in production, audiences might have some questions about the man who made it all happen...Director Tony Speciale! Below is an interview which can also be found in the MACBETH study guide.

CSC NextGen students meeting with MACBETH director Tony Speciale.

Why MACBETH? Why now?
Macbeth is one of the greatest tragedies in all literature. It’s also a perfect introduction for young audiences to Shakespeare because it’s fast, it’s furious, the language is accessible and there are no complicated subplots. It’s also a lot of fun to work on! The play is as brutal and relevant today as it was when first performed because human beings by nature are ambitious and deceptive creatures. We all have skeletons in our closets. We all are faced with moments in our lives when we have to make a choice that tests the boundaries of our individual morality and integrity. MACBETH is a warning, a wake-up call, reminding us that our actions have an undeniable cause and effect in the universe. You can’t compartmentalize who you are from what you do. Your actions determine your character. Karma is real and it’s accumulative. The remarkable thing about the character Macbeth is that we like and relate to him. He’s smart, he’s vulnerable, he’s a survivor yet he does wicked things. However, an audience shouldn’t walk away from the theatre wanting to be like the character Macbeth. Instead Macbeth should help us put into perspective the difficult choices we face in our own lives, bring forth an awareness of the mysterious forces at play in our own destinies, and perhaps most importantly, remind us that we are an active participant in how our futures unfold.

I’m pretty sure you have seen other Macbeth plays. What didn’t you like about some? How will you change it in your direction?
I’ve actually never seen MACBETH. I’ve only read it. For me part of the joy of working on Shakespeare is doing modern productions. I’m not interested in replicating Elizabethan productions because the reality is no one knows exactly how they did it back then! We have some ideas but the stagecraft was so different during Shakespeare’s time that it’s mostly guesswork. Personally I like fast, anachronistic, visceral productions of Shakespeare. Our production of MACBETH is a psychological thriller with fantastical moments of spectacle tossed in. It doesn’t take place in one particular time period or with a large conceptual twist. The play is largely about time and how time—or lack there of—weighs heavily in the choices we make, so it’s fitting that the play feels timeless.One of the unique things about doing a play at CSC is the intimacy of the space. The audience is really in on the action because they’re only a few feet away from the actors. It feels almost voyeuristic. I imagine this intimacy will allow for a microscopic look at Macbeth and his vulnerabilities. I think the goal is for the audience to care for him, even though he does horrific things. In many ways he’s a victim.

How did you decide the way you would portray the witches?
In every Shakespeare play there is a character or group of characters that pose an interpretative challenge for a modern director. In A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM it’s the fairies. In THE TEMPEST it’s the sprites. In MACBETH it’s the witches. Who are they? Why are they in the play? What kind of magic do they truly wield and why are they so invested in the character Macbeth? In our production, the witches represent the trapped souls of the widows of fallen soldiers. Their pain and loss compel them to set in motion a chain reaction of events through their power of prophecy and conjuration. One may also perceive them as figments of Macbeth’s imagination. One idea I’m interested in exploring is the notion that Macbeth is experiencing post-traumatic stress from his service in the military. He went through something life-altering on the battlefield and his psyche is irrevocably damaged. The witches represent a physical manifestation of his emotional and psychological disorder. His darkest secrets and desires are brought to the surface as a result. The witches only shine a light on what’s already there.

Which scene do you anticipate being the most challenging scene to direct?
I think Act V is going to be challenging. The play is episodic in nature but the final act has several short scenes that snap back and forth between locations (e.g. interior castle scenes followed by exterior wood scenes). I find it difficult in general to do battle scenes on stage. Films do them much more realistically. On stage I often see fight choreography that is either poorly executed or that is just weak and so abstract that it avoids the brutality of war completely. I’d like to have incredible moments of realistic fighting followed by more metaphoric and abstract movement that could only take place in the theatre. Shakespeare is poetic after all,and the theatre allows a production the opportunity to be larger than reality. And then there’s Macbeth’s severed head at the end. Not sure how we’re going to do that. Guess you’ll have to come see the production to find out!