July 2, 2013

Shakespeare’s darkest and most powerful tragedy is coming to the URBN Annex Black Box Theater. Macbeth – the story of a Scottish king consumed by an evil, corrosive ambition for power – will run Aug. 8 through Aug. 25 as a Commonwealth Classic Theatre Company (CCTC) production sponsored by the Theatre Program’s Co-op Theatre Company and managed by a team of Westphal alumni.

Macbeth director Joshua Browns, a Westphal alum (’98) and current Theatre Program Adjunct Professor, co-founded CCTC with Producing Artistic Director Mary Ann Baldwin, Paul Parente and Trice Baldwin, who will be playing Lady Macbeth in the show. The Macbeth crew also includes Entertainment & Arts Management (EAM) alums Danielle Kindt as house manager and Becca Rose as stage manager. 

CCTC has produced a yearly series of classic theater performances in parks and other public spaces for the past eight years. In 2007, CCTC and the Mandell Professionals in Residence Project co-produced the Shakespearean comedy Love's Labors Lost, which Browns directed. The production featured a cast of five professional actors from CCTC and a cast of eleven Drexel students. “I'm extremely proud of the fact that quite a few of the students who participated in that play are now working professionally as performers in stage and television or have careers in the arts,” says Browns.

Theatre Program Director Nick Anselmo is looking to work with companies like CCTC that will hire students and/or alumni to work on productions. “Classics like Macbeth appeal to the entire Drexel community while creating opportunities for Theatre and EAM students,” he says. “These productions become a source for terrific co-ops for students over the summer.”

Drexel students, faculty and staff with a valid ID will receive a special $5 ticket to all performances of Macbeth. To view the performance schedule and purchase tickets, click here. The URBN Annex Black Box Theater is located at 3401 Filbert St., Philadelphia. 

CCTC's approach to Shakespeare has been geared towards the big and bold demands of outdoor theatre, but Browns adds that the Black Box stage provides an opportunity to try a more intimate, subtle approach. “What’s different about this production is that we're trying to present Macbeth in a very modern context. The language will be all Shakespeare's, but the clothes, weapons, attitudes and points-of-view will feel like this is a story occurring now, in the present,” he says.