“Macbeth”

      Alleghany Community Theatre’s next Readers Theatre will stage scenes from two versions of William Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” Thursday, April 24th at 7 pm in the Alleghany County Library, 122 North Main Street in Sparta.

      “What makes this show special,” said the show’s co-producer and ACT president Jim Williams, “is that the entire cast is made up of students from Alleghany High School and the Sparta Elementary School.”  The production will consist of two parts.  First, the high school students will read selected, significant scenes from Shakespeare’s original “Macbeth.”  Then after the intermission, students from the Sparta Elementary School’s gifted and talented program will perform a short, modernized and humorous version of the play.

      The ACT board of directors has recently been discussing ways to reawaken interest in theatre at the local schools.  “The idea for this special performance came from an ACT member who remembered that the high school’s Honors English program regularly reads plays in class as part of the curriculum.” Williams said, “So we approached the English Department Chairman, Lucas Pasley.”  

      “When ACT asked if the school wanted to be involved with Readers Theatre,” said Pasely, “I asked my students and over 20 were enthusiastic about getting involved.”  Coincidentally, Sandra Busic, Director of the Gifted and Talented Program at the Sparta Elementary School, had recently had her students perform a “Macbeth” spoof written by Geoff Bamber.  “When I told my kids they had a chance to do the show again as readers theatre, the response was overwhelming,” Busic added.

      Widely considered one of Shakespeare’s most famous plays, the tragedy “Macbeth” is the story of a Scottish nobleman who gets caught up in a series of prophesies that ultimately lets his aspirations get the better of him.  The play is loaded with a range of emotion and literary devices including greed, ambition, betrayal, riddles, irony and fantasy, with a healthy dose of murder thrown in for good measure.

      ACT Readers Theatre is a staged reading of a play with little or no technical aspects. Actors read from scripts, but they still “act.”  There may be simple movement and a narrator often reads stage directions describing any action or location information necessary to help the audience understand what is going on.

      ACT Readers Theatre productions are staged in the Alleghany County Library meeting room every other month. ACT Readers Theatre is organized in cooperation with the Alleghany County Library and the Alleghany County Arts Council with partial funding by the NC Arts Council Grassroots Grant. To find out more about ACT Readers Theatre, check the ACT webpage at www.sparta-nc.com/ACT or contact Jim Williams at 336-372-8024 or Dudley Carpenter at 336-372-7901.