Final Macbeth Performance Reflection

     Loss is something all beings, human or beast, must go through at one point in their lives. The emotions involved in loss are some of the strongest one could ever feel. The tragedy, Macbeth, provides some of the best evidence of this and the idea of loss is prevalent throughout much of the play. In scene 4.3 of Macbeth, Ross comes to inform Macduff about the death of his family and it is this painful loss that provides Macduff with the vengeance that eventually brings him to kill the tyrant, Macbeth. Loss drove us to war in 2003 and loss drove us to vote for change in 2008. Loss is in these cases and in many others, the driving force behind man's actions. Macbeth's story is also that of loss, he lost his king, his sanity, his wife, his friends, and his kingship. This prevalence of loss as a driving force and as a frequent event in Macbeth is why Jason, Matt, and I decided Macbeth is a play about loss.
     The scene my group had chosen to perform was scene 4.3, in which I played the part of the Doctor and Ross. Our Director’s Concept changed my roles from doctor to show coordinator and from Ross the nobleman to Ross the talk show host. This was a scene filled with emotion from Ross who had struggled to utter the news of Macduff’s family’s death to his face. Macduff had to pull the words out of him, “Be not a niggard of your speech. How goes ’t? (4.3.209)” To express the agonizing emotion in scene 4.3, our Director's Concept needed to be inherently emotional. We had chosen a talk show as the concept because in a talk show there is a strong focus on feelings and reactions. In talk shows such as Oprah and Dr. Phil, the highlight of the show is emotion. Much as Oprah might release emotions from one of her guests, Ross released the emotions being felt by Macduff. Both a play and a talk show have a special interaction with the audience and this makes the setting of a talk show appropriate for a play. The talk show, through its intimate nature and design, highlights the emotions involved in loss, which we believe to be the very essence of the play.
     To bring this concept to life we had dressed to fit the part; I had wore a headset as a show coordinator, and I dressed casual yet formal as a talk show host; Jason wore a uniform as he was Macduff, someone ready to fight; and, Matt had dressed formally as Malcolm, a leader of the battle. For the setting and sound I had prepared a keynote which did not go exactly as I planned, when the video of it played, the controls weren't showing. Sadly, this was drastic to the Director's Concept because without the video our peers couldn't tell the concept apart from one of World War 2. The video was ineffective and without the director's concept in the minds of the audience my costumes' effectiveness was nullified. I wouldn't describe the scene as a failure, I would simply say we reached for the sky and fell on our faces.
     There is much to be said about learning a play from performing it as well as from seeing others perform it. We have learned about both general stage performance, such as blocking and levels, as well as the play Macbeth during the past few weeks. At this point in time I can say I not only know the story of Macbeth but I can also say I know the performance of Macbeth. I can thank my teacher’s performance based approach to this just as much if not more than I can thank the reading of the play’s direct text. Semantic learning, learning by attaching meaning, is known as the strongest type of learning. Performing and seeing my peers perform have given me memorable moments which allow me to attach meaning to the play therefore causing me to remember it. That is why these performances help us so much and are such a useful educational tool. I could go on incessantly about the positives such as getting people to participate who normally wouldn’t, breaking the ice in the beginning of the year, etc. However there are some weaknesses that I would like to bring up about this approach. The time spent for performance rehearsals and the actual performances could arguably be spent better and some people, such as me, with laughable acting skills could be embarrassed in front of the class. Other than these weaknesses, performing what we read is different from the usual class activities making it something everyone will pay attention to and learn from which is more than enough to justify it.

-Evan R.