Shakespeare in the Park - Macbeth Does Central Park

They're doing MACBETH this summer in Central Park for the Shakespeare in the Park run that they have every year. How exciting! I'm a nut for the Bard, having taken more Shakespeare classes than I should have in college (hey, I WAS an English major after all, although my bastardization of the English language, grammar, and spelling would never let on that I had been) and having studied acting and directing for a summer in London.

Here is the info:

MACBETH
Written by William Shakespeare
Directed by Moisés Kaufman

June 14 - July 9, 2006
Tuesday through Sunday
All shows at 8:30pm!
No performance July 4, added performance July 3.
Click here for a performance schedule.

All I know is that Liev Schreiber is in it, and he's on my "I would sincerely like to pound you into next week" list. That combined with the fact that it's one of my favorite Shakespeare plays (the other being Hamlet), will most likely insure that MY ass will be in a seat for a performance. I suggest you do the same.

And now for an amusing story:

When I was in college and spent a month in London over the summer to study acting and directing through the Globe theatre (they were in the process of reconstructing it and had a whole program), we were doing scenes from Macbeth.
Now one superstition that is known amongst theatre actor lore is that when working on Macbeth, you never say the name "Macbeth"; you say "The Scottish Play". Where that came from, I'm not sure, I have to do a little more research and will add it later to this; if you know, please comment and enlighten my ass. All I know is that it supposed bad luck to mention the real name of the play on the set if you're working on it; it may be if you're working on any play and happen to be on the stage.

Well, my friend Josh and I were on set going over some things and he said THE WORD. He laughed it off, as we all did (although the rest of us were reluctant to say the "M" word") and he said it again, jokingly.

The next day, while on set I believe, he broke his arm, and was in a sling for the rest of our stay at Butler's Wharf. Needless to say, he NEVER said that word again.


Thanks to Ken for the update! :)