MacBeth

MacBeth is one of Shakespeare's most well-known plays.  It is performed regularly at Shakespeare Festivals and on school campuses.  It's a dark, dreary play... so Shakespeare was wise enough to include some comic relief after a gory stabbing scene.  The comic relief was played out in the form of the Drunken Porter.

The role is fraught with risque humor, but when I was cast in the role, my Director encouraged me to take it even further.  He wanted me to ad-lib and react with the audience for additional comic effect.  This was the Palm Beach Shakespeare Festival which utilizes an outdoor amphitheater for its July performances.  And it was hot.

One of my written lines was:  "This place is too cold for hell.  I'll devil-porter it no further."  Taking my cue from the heat, I broke from character and walked downstage to the audience, where I ad-libbed:  "Did any of you believe that line I just said?  Too cold for hell?  Would that it were too cold for hell for your sake as well as mine.  I can't imagine what sort of playwright would write those lines for me to say on a hot night like this.  He's probably a one-hit wonder.  We'll never hear from him again."

Then I would weave my dialog back into the scripted version and continue... knowing all along that I had just ad-libbed a scene in a Shakespeare play!!  Blasphemy or balls?  I still can't figure out which.

The next post:  Comments on the current production of “Twelfth Night” by the Palm Beach Shakespeare Festival.

Shakespeare and The News

I am an actor.  I am also a former newscaster.  Some would say they are one and the same.  And there's a lot that can be said to bolster that argument.  In fact, for several years running I managed to act AND anchor the news on the same night!

I was the weekend News Anchor for WPEC, the CBS affiliate in West Palm Beach, Florida.  I anchored the 6 and 11 PM newscasts.  But one year I was also cast as Brabantio, Desdemona's father in the Shakespeare play "Othello."  Brabantio only appears in the first 22 minutes of the play, so I figured out the logistics of squeezing in a performance between newscasts.

When I finished the 6PM news... I got into my car and drove the half-hour to the outdoor amphitheater in Jupiter, Florida's Carlin Park.  I got into costume and was ready to go.  At 8:22, I made my last exit. (I could never stick around for Curtain Calls.)  Then I would quickly get out of costume... rush to my car... drive the half-hour back to the news studio... and change back into my suit for the 11PM news.

The next day, I had people calling me to say that they watched me in "Othello" and got home in time to catch the 11:00 news.  They couldn't help but wonder if we hadn't taped the news earlier (a cardinal sin in the news business.)  But I assured them that we hadn't... and that, like a magician, I had managed to pull off this sleight of hand. 

I am currently performing in “Twelfth Night” for two long weekends, but no longer have to deal with the “nooz.”  So I could accept the substantial role of “Sir Toby Belch” and not have to worry about leaving the show early.  More on “Twelfth Night” in the weeks to come.