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The Addison Independent October 13, 2016
Chris Caswell, playing Lady Macbeth, rehearses a scene with Craig Maravich, playing Macbeth, last week at the Weybridge Elementary School. Middlebury Actors Workshop's production of "Macbeth" opens Thursday, Oct. 20, at the Town Hall Theater in Middlebury. INDEPENDENT PHOTO/TRENT CAMPBELL
Take two: Macbeth back on stage
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BY MEGAN JAMES
ost of us know the story of Macbeth: Ambitious Scottish war hero heeds the prophecy of witches, and the urging of his wife, assassinates the king in cold blood and unravels in spectacular fashion. “We all know how it’s going to come out,” says Melissa Lourie, who’s directing the Middlebury Actors Workshop production of Shakespeare’s tragedy, which opens at Town Hall Theater next Thursday, Oct. 20. “So, what’s going to keep us on the edge of our seats?”
Getting inside Macbeth’s head, Lourie says. Which is why she decided to approach the play as a psychological thriller. “Back in Shakespeare’s day, killing kings to get power was commonplace,” she says. “Everybody did it. So it’s interesting that Shakespeare suddenly decides to take that act and dissect it on a psychological, moral level, to see what it does to people.” Lourie had long considered directing Macbeth, but she needed the right lead. “I would never dream of doing this play without a very,
very competent actor in the lead role; it would just be a waste of time,” she says. Enter Craig Maravich. The Monkton resident has been a professional actor and educator for 15 years, mostly in New York City. But in 2008, Maravich started working with Vermont Stage Company, where he did a play with Lourie. Then he became a member of the Breadloaf Acting Ensemble. Maravich and his wife started spending summers in Vermont. Early this year, Maravich and his wife, Sarah, who had begun working for the Burlington School Food Project, decided to relocate full-time XS :IVQSRX Ƹ. VIEPP] [ERXIH XS FI ER EGXSV MR E WTIGMǻG GSQQYRMX] and I consider Vermont my chosen home,” he says. “Theater gives us an opportunity to bring people together and have this shared experience. It’s important to me that I do that in a place where I live, in a place that I care about, a place that I teach in.” When Lourie heard Maravich was available, she leapt at the chance to cast him as Macbeth. “There’s always the challenge of trying to create professional level theater in a state where you have very few professional actors,” she admits. Fortunately, she also scored with Burlington’s Chris Caswell as Lady Macbeth. SEE MACBETH ON PAGE 3