Naperville North students tackle 'Macbeth'
Naperville North High School is brewing up a tale of witches, kings and murder for Halloween weekend.
The school will stage "Macbeth" at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 29, through Saturday, Oct. 31, at the school, 899 N. Mill St.
Director Bill Burghardt said he wanted to make sure his actors were exposed to Shakespeare.
"Our students are not necessarily exposed to Shakespeare through our curriculum and I believe the more students who experience his brilliance, the better educated they will be, regardless of interests," he said via e-mail. "Shakespeare is universal."
The play tells the story of Macbeth's murderous ascent to the throne of Scotland, a path that was predicted by three witches and encouraged by Macbeth's wife.
As if the plot line itself wasn't ominous enough, legend has it the play itself is cursed due to Shakespeare's use of witches' incantations. Over the years theater groups staging it have been subject to bad luck but North junior Mike Devane, who plays Macbeth, said it doesn't worry him.
"In the whole play itself the characters are overwhelmed by bad luck so if anything it's just helping you get into character," Devane said.
Devane and senior Emily Novak, who plays Lady Macbeth, both said they enjoyed playing the villains.
"After you get over the initial step of accepting the fact you want people to hate you it's been fun because you get to get into it and there's so much you can do with it," Novak said.
To prepare, Assistant Director Nick Bender had her actors do exercises that involved pretending to be different animals to get into a primal mindset.
But actors said one of the toughest things to prepare for was the way Shakespeare uses the English language. They spent their first days doing nothing but translating the play - reading and rereading it, watching movie versions and getting help from books like "Shakespeare for Dummies."
"All the other plays I've been in you just memorize the lines and get the gist of the character and you've got it all down," Devane said. "You have to devote a lot of time to understanding this play, understanding each scene, and then acting it out."
Once the actors had the translation down they still had to ramp up their acting style to help the audience understand as well.
"You kind of have to be a bit over the top with movements, reaction, your voice level, the sound, the pitch, everything," said senior Andrew Stachurski.
They will also have carefully crafted costumes, lighting, sets and other special effects to set the eerie mood of the play.
"Going through dress rehearsals and seeing what we're able to pull off coming from a high school performance, it looks pretty good," Stachurski said. "We have a great cast, definitely talented. We all have thrown in a bit of our own creativity and the audience will be able to pick that out."
Tickets for the show are $6 for students and seniors and $7 for adults. The box office opens an hour before the show.
<p class="factboxheadblack">If you go</p> <p class="News"><b>What:</b> "Macbeth"</p> <p class="News"><b>When:</b> 7 p.m. today through Saturday</p> <p class="News"><b>Where:</b> Naperville North High School, 899 N. Mill St.</p> <p class="News"><b>Tickets: </b>$6 for students and seniors, $7 for adults</p> <p class="News"><b>Info:</b> (630) 660-4650</p>