| "Macbeth" Set Conference - 9/18/07
Hour long conference call today. I’m in the mountains in Utah. But I have satellite Internet
and I just received this sketch of the set:
The barred cell under the stairs is for our musician. On Shakespeare’s stage, Macbeth had music in it.
Really, song-and-dance numbers, headed up by Hecate, the Queen of the Underworld. They were perfect
for King James, I, a psychotic, but are so dated and giddy, we felt we just couldn’t pull them off.
Our musician, however, will create the soundscape of the interior of Macbeth’s mind. And it will be live,
acoustic, onstage. No taped crap for us. It’s all being composed and invented, as I mentioned in an
earlier installment, by Kenny Wolleson (of Sex Mob and Tom Waits fame). There is no earthly or unearthly
sound Kenny cannot produce.
We decided to carry the wrought iron across the whole back of the ground level so that people can
climb up and down the ironwork like monkeys when Macbeth’s castle is under siege. The wrought
iron in the center, under the platform, opens as two doors, and will serve as a variety of entrances.
The doors left and right are exactly opposite one another for symmetrical entrances.
I came to the meeting, fresh from a read of the script, with questions like:
Where is Duncan’s room?
If on the inner above, should we splash the curtains with blood?
Should the gates be gaffed to swing open and closed on their own?
When Duff and Beth fight at the end, where do they go away to? Do we need an exit above?
Where is Banquo killed?
Where does Macbeth’s head end up?
What can we save up, in terms of visual glamour to spring on the audience during
the final five or six scenes?
We went over these and others, considered options for different levels on the stage, then the hour
was over. I think in show business, time is different from real life.
We continued the discussion several days later and decided to try and meet in October 13th and 14th
in Vegas. Dan and Aaron accepted the burden of spending three days in Sin City for the sake of the Bard.
Teller
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