Macbeth
Director: Rebekah Scallet
Scenic Designer: Joe Klug
Lighting Designer: Megan Turnquist
Costume Designer: Sandra Spence
Sound Designer: David Greenberg
Photos: Eric White
This was one of two shows I assisted on while at the Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre during the summer of 2019. My primary responsibilities included tracking props and costumes for this show. Macbeth at AST was done with a cast of 17 adults and 7 children. This show included the use of swords and fake blood (lots and lots of fake blood). Rehearsals for this production occurred in the afternoon with rehearsals for my other show, Comedy of Errors, occurred in the evening. The performance space was shared with the musical Guys and Dolls being produced at the same time requiring changeovers for each production's performances.
As shown in this groundplan, the audience was seated in the traditional upstage space of the proscenium theatre. There was no masked path to reach the backstage area of the set. This along with the nature of the set created interesting sightlines to be navigated that eventually were taped on the floor to help guide actors and crew. My run sheet displays the tracking of when the crew moved between the back of the set and the wings as well as handoffs and other such tasks.
Because of the nature of where the set was on the stage (traditional downstage), sight lines were very particular. The three doorways created tight spacing behind the set and the slope of the walls further tightened those areas. Movements from behind the set to the wings was carefully plotted by the other ASM and I for ourselves and occasionally for actors.
This was my first time working with steel weapons and caring for these weapons. Weapons tracking was included in the props tracking and eventually evolved into its own paperwork. Weapons tracking became critical when there were not enough swords and daggers for everyone to have their own, and the weapons needed to be tracked from person to person.
Both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth had quick changes from night clothes and blood to their coronation outfits seen in the picture to the right. The change required the entire 4-5 minutes the actors had in order to clean them entirely of the blood and get them into the many layers of dress they had for the coronation. I assisted with both changes and in cleaning Macbeth of all the fake blood that was on him at that particular time.
The costume tracking focused on applications of blood and when that blood was to be removed. There are a few costume changes notated as well in the PDF here.