Though seasonal summer al fresco performances of Shakespeare’s plays are a regular occurrence from Ashland to Santa Cruz, staging his works during the “off-season” (the other nine months) is more unusual.
That seasonal segregation of the Bard’s work is broken this month at the Raven Performing Arts Theater, where the Raven Players begin a three-week staging of one of his most direct and powerful works, The Tragedy of Macbeth. It’s also one of the most popular of his plays, reliably one of the five most-staged in the English-speaking world (along with A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet and Twelfth Night).
“I think there’s a reason Shakespeare starts the play with the witches, and you know right away, these are the puppet masters,” said director Steven David Martin. “I have always thought that this is the witch’s world, and we are living in it.”
The audience for Macbeth will be seated on the stage, as has been the case with several previous Raven productions. The cast includes Matthew Witthaus as Macbeth, Katie Watts-Whitaker as Lady Macbeth and other familiar actors including Tim Shippey, Declan Hackett and Jeanette Seisdedos.
‘The Tragedy of Macbeth’ will be staged weekends from Oct. 24 – Nov. 9 at the Raven Theater. Tickets $10 (students), $25 (adults) at raventheater.org/events/macbeth.
Other Stages
This coming weekend sees two more shows hit the floorboards, with another in the wings. The Cloverdale Performing Arts Center enters its second of three weekends of presenting Clue, based on the boardgame and the motion picture that resulted. Directed by Patrick Kinyon, the play is filled with knowing cliches and stereotypical characters (Miss Scarlet, Professor Plum, Mrs. Peacock, Colonel Mustard and the rest) making for a fun evening at a small-town theater.
Friday-Sunday performances through Nov. 2; tickets $25-$35 plus fees at simpletix.com/e/clue-tickets-186233.
Starting this Thursday, Oct. 23, is a production of The Honest and True Real Life Story of the Princess Bride, based on William Goldman’s novel and the 1987 movie. It’s billed as “Nueva’s loving parody of this classic American story”—meaning the Nueva School for the Arts at Windsor High. If last spring’s production of The Phantom Tollbooth is any indication, this should be an imaginative and enjoyable high school production.
Thursday-Saturday, Oct. 23-25, 7:30pm, free admission. At Windsor High School Theater, 8695 Windsor Rd.
Healdsburg High won’t be left off the theater landscape, either. A couple of weekends away, Nov. 7-9, the Greyhounds Theatre will present D.E.A.T.H. INC., a “darkly comedic and disorderly show,” written by Rody Villegas of the Fringe Festival in Los Angeles. This will be only the second theater production since the school’s drama department disbanded 10 years ago.
It’s described as “a creatively imagined vision of the afterlife… that proves even in death, the paperwork never ends,” says theater director Monica Chavez.
D.E.A.T.H. INC. will play on the stage at Esquivel Hall (formerly Frost Hall) on the high school campus, Nov. 7-8 at 7:30pm, Nov. 9 at 2pm. Tickets will be $10 for students, $15 for adults.
