The Bard’s Play: Rustic Mechanicals to perform ‘Macbeth’ at Parkersburg Art Center
The Rustic Mechanicals, shown performing Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” in 2024 at the Parkersburg Art Center, return June 20 to perform “Macbeth.” (File Photo)
The Rustic Mechanicals, shown performing Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” in 2024 at the Parkersburg Art Center, return June 20 to perform “Macbeth.” (File Photo)
The Rustic Mechanicals, shown performing Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” in 2024 at the Parkersburg Art Center, return June 20 to perform “Macbeth.” (File Photo)
The Rustic Mechanicals, shown performing Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” in 2024 at the Parkersburg Art Center, return June 20 to perform “Macbeth.” (File Photo)
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PARKERSBURG -- The Rustic Mechanicals will present Shakespeare's classic tragedy "Macbeth" at the Parkersburg Art Center in June as part of their 2025 Vaulting Ambition Tour.
The Mechanicals previously performed "The Tempest" at the art center in 2024.
The performance of "Macbeth" will play the Parkersburg Art Center on June 20. The doors will open at 6:30 p.m. for a pre-show music jam, with the show beginning at 7 p.m. Tickets are $18 and seating is limited. Tickets can be reserved at https://www.parkersburgartcenter.org/upcomingcurrent-events.
Founded by Celi Oliveto in the summer of 2014, The Rustic Mechanicals is the only troupe of actors in the state dedicated to touring the works of William Shakespeare and other classical playwrights.
"Macbeth" features murder, prophecy, witches and, surprisingly, love. The power of a prophecy tempts the ambitious General Macbeth and his passionately persuasive wife to accelerate their road to royalty. Something wicked this way comes when the real-life husband and wife founders of the Rustic Mechanicals play the original power couple whose vaulting ambition unravels their love and their lives.
Jim Warren, director of "Macbeth," is ecstatic to bring the magic of a tragedy to life in a new, unique way.
"What an awesome challenge we have in carrying the torch (so to speak!) of doing 'Macbeth' using Shakespeare's Staging Conditions to gross-out, freak-out, surprise, delight, and scare our audiences without light boards, sound boards, or electric fog machines. We will create a live, acoustic soundtrack: creepy sounds/voices that will help an audience imagine the heath, the castles, the backdrop for the battles in ways that Shakespeare's company did for the play's first audiences... and underneath it all has to be love! If our production is not filled with big love, the story, the tragedy doesn't work. I am completely bored by and intolerant of theatre, tv, film where I don't care about characters," Warren said.
The crew also features Voice & Text Coach Bridget Rue Esterhuizen, Fight Choreographer Millie Omps, and Dramaturg John S. Shirley, with Production Design by Jason A Young, Production and Tour Management by Niki DeWitt, and Technical Direction by Seret Cole.
The Mechanicals featured in this production include Jason A Young, Sarah Young, Joshua Brooks, Stephen Phillips, Sinead Tobin, John Spellman, Aaron Harris, Seret Cole, Eric Jett, and Daisy Deaton.
Jessica Siefert, Managing and Education Director of the Parkersburg Art Center, expresses her gratitude for the Rustic Mechanicals and their return.
"This is unlike any other theater performance. The audience is right there on stage with the actors. It is so engaging and so much fun. I absolutely loved the performance of the Tempest last year and I’m really looking forward to seeing what this troupe of lively thespians does with Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Parkersburg Art Center is proud to bring this unique experience to the audience here in the Mid-Ohio Valley," Siefert said.
The Mechanicals will continue to tour "Macbeth" throughout the fall months for schools and educational purposes. The Mechanicals focus on making Shakespeare's plays accessible to modern audiences by utilizing dynamic and extreme casting techniques paired with Shakespeare's staging conditions. For more information on booking these touring shows, you can email vtcrusticmechanicals@gmail.com.