The Clyde Fitch Report is pleased to be lead online media sponsor of Macbeth in Close-Up, the first film produced by the Gorilla Repertory Theatre Company, directed by its founding and producing artistic director Christopher Carter Sanderson.
Macbeth in Close-Up has been accepted by the innovative website Kickstarter.com to receive funding. Donate as little as $10 or as much as $5,000 and receive unique premiums (outlined on Kickstarter) for your participation.
Mary Frank Madera has been cast in the role of Lady Macbeth.
Madera joins the cast of Gorilla Rep’s Macbeth in Close-Up after starring in Gorilla Rep’s production of The Cherry Orchard in Washington Square Park.
In an interesting twist, Madera’s daughter, Kathryn Jane Madera, will be playing the supporting role of MacDuff’s daughter in the film.
Through Oct. 21, the CF Report will pose Sanderson a question about Macbeth in Close-Up and Sanderson will provide both a text and video reply.
Today’s question:
How do you handle portraying Lady M with depth without branding her as a manipulative bitch?
Video Answer:
Here’s More:
Like most of Shakespeare’s best characters, Lady Macbeth is too often reduced to a stereotype or caricature. She is a strong woman who sees much of what is wrong with her country; the king is too old and has lost touch with his own warlike culture, and the war can be ended by a strong leader’s decisive action. Lady M is charismatic herself and would make a great queen under the right circumstances. Indeed, war is the circumstance under which leaders gain immediate promotion due to the death of a superior.
Madera has the chops to make it clear at each moment in the beginning and middle of the play that things might go her way. As Lady M sleepwalks and encounters her guilt, it would be boring if she had no real guilt to begin with. This is our chance to see her encounter the consequences of her mistake, just as Macbeth has the apparition scene to look into himself.
The end of the play begins with the death of Lady Macbeth and with her the possibility that Macbeth might prevail. We have to feel the sense of loss that Macbeth feels when his bloody muse has died.
Madera brings the depth of feeling we need to set up this important plot point. It doesn’t hurt that she has the intensity that a real Gorilla Rep veteran brings to the table.
