Macbeth comes to Griffith Park

Ashley Nguyen, ISC Company Member

The only reason why I auditioned for my drama class in high school was because my best friend was too nervous to audition alone. Other than that I was a choir/band kid and didn’t really think that acting would be my thing. It wasn’t until I read Shakespeare’s Macbeth that I really began to appreciate theatre.

Macbeth was my gateway play.

When I was about fourteen years old, my high school had a group of actors from a local theatre company perform for us in an assembly. After thirty minutes of what I believe was an abridged version of Romeo and Juliet, they had talkback.

One of the biggest clowns in my class raised his hand, waved it, and vigorously vied for the actors’ attentions. When one of the actors called on him, he stood up and with a giant grin on his face yelled, “MACBETH!”

The kind, inviting smile of the actor quickly dropped, he screamed “ANGELS AND MINISTERS OF GRACE, DEFEND US!” (Hamlet, act 1, scene 4) and he pointed towards the door.  “Get out. Close the door, turn around three times, spit, then knock on the door and ask to be let back in.” We were all confused and kind of scared.

He quickly cleared his throat and told us about “The Curse.”

Apparently, there is a superstition that mentioning the name of the play in a theatre is bad luck and could cause productions and actors of the play to meet unfortunate circumstances.

One of the supposed origin stories for this superstition is that Shakespeare used “authentic” witch spells in the play and as punishment; real witches cast a curse on the play, condemning it for eternity.

Well, I love me a good scary story, so that got me interested in reading the play, which in turn got me interested in reading more plays.

Nine years after the “Curse Incident” and I am an actress and a member of the Independent Shakespeare Company. This summer, Macbeth is one of the plays in the Free Shakespeare Festival repertoire, and I’m a witch!

We’ve just finished the pre-season with a workshop run of Macbeth that included a post-show talkback and a really cool interactive art piece called “The Nightmare Floor”, where people wrote their nightmares on the floor in Sharpie.

One of the things that I’ve always loved about this play is that the witches are speaking events into existence. They’re conjuring spirits and ruining lives. So, I did that on top of people’s nightmares for about a month.

What I love about Indy Shakes is how invested the audience gets into the performance and how easy it is for them to engage. Macbeth is probably one of the most well-known titles in Shakespeare’s folio and when I tell people what we’re performing this summer, it always gets the most excited response.  We received some great constructive feedback during our workshop performance and I’m really excited to share my favorite play with the summer audience. 

 See Ashley when she performs in Macbeth all summer long as part of the Griffith Park Free Shakespeare Festival, June 27 – September 1 at the Old Zoo, Griffith Park. Also this summer: Shakespeare’s As You Like It and Oliver Goldsmith’s She Stoops to Conquer.  Pack a picnic, bring a blanket and a warm sweater for chilly nights.  All events are admission-free. Call 818-710-6306 or visit www.iscla.org for more information.