You are cordially invited to a Macbeth reading hosted by the Oxford and Cambridge Society of San Diego! While we're not able to attend a live performance of Shakespeare at the Old Globe, we thought that this would be an ideal time to organize an online reading of one of the Bard's plays. After considering such factors as length, familiarity, complexity of the plot, number of parts, etc. we've decided to read one of his most famous tragedies, Macbeth.
Wednesday, July 22nd, registration must close, to give ourselves time to get everything set up. So please register asap for a chance to read either a main part or an assembly of minor parts, or simply to be in the audience.
Friday, July 24th at 7.00pm all reading registrants will be invited to a Zoom meeting when we'll draw names out of a hat to assign roles, and to hold a short coaching session.
About the Reading - There are a total of 37 speaking parts in Macbeth, 8 of which can be considered main characters. The title role has by far the most lines, 715, compared to the second-most, Lady Macbeth with 259, so we've decided to split the Macbeth role into 3 readers, Acts 1 & 3, Acts 2 & 4 and Act 5. The other main roles will be Malcolm (211), Macduff (180), Ross (135), Banquo (113), Lennox (70) and King Duncan (70). The other 29 roles will be split into 10 assemblies of roles, e.g. First Witch/First Murderer/Third Apparition/Young Seward will have 97 lines spread between Acts 1, 2, 3 & 5.
At the Zoom role assigning meeting, if you don't like the role you're given we'll put your name back in the hat and pull out the next name, etc. until we've filled all of the parts. Parts will be "gender blind" to give more alums an opportunity to read and if you don't get assigned a role we'll ensure that you're first in line for the next reading.
We're hoping that readers will be able to find appropriate headgear for their character(s) and that we'll be able to provide "scenery" for readers to display behind their Zoom images, depending upon the scene we're up to.
If you would prefer just to watch the "performance" rather than read, please register for a Viewing Ticket.
We do hope that you will support this new endeavor for our Societies.