Creating a connection across distance
‘Macbeth’ actors are up for distancing challenge
In theater, the show must always go on. For Liam Mitchell, he’d been planning to direct his first production since December. Then the pandemic hit and shut down the majority of the arts sector.
It got him thinking about how he could put together a production.
Online rehearsals began with members of Upstart Crows of Santa Fe. He questioned, “Would it be via Zoom?” Perhaps, but he really wanted it to be in person.
On July 3, the first production of the William Shakespeare classic, “Macbeth,” was staged — following all socially distancing protocols.
“I always thought it was doable,” Mitchell says. “When Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s relaxed the orders, we jumped in and started in-person rehearsals with masks and six-foot distancing, as well as other precautions.”
The Santa Fe native also wanted to tackle “Macbeth” because it’s very relevant to today’s global climate.
Not to mention that he performed the role of Macbeth in a 2018 production and it was the play that impressed him the most.
“The hard-hitting themes on the dangers of ambition, fear and paranoia, Macbeth’s terrifyingly realistic and complex characters, the difficult questions that arise on fate and free will, and what seems to me to be some of the best language in the English literature canon,” Mitchell says. “I’m more sympathetic to Macbeth this time around. He just wants to know what’s going to happen tomorrow and he has this uncertain future. We’re all kind of feeling that right now.”
Upstart Crows of Santa Fe’s “Macbeth” performances are akin to a house concert — tiny audiences, socially distanced in a garden courtyard.
Actors and audience are masked and all best precautions are in place for a safe evening of live theater.
There are 14 actors in the performance.
“Backstage, we have an entire parking lot and each person gets a parking space, with a few spaces in between,” Mitchell says. “Everyone is very spread out.”
In addition to keeping in line with health guidelines, Mitchell says another challenge came in the form of acting.
Because the actors are all masked, the actors adapted with their body movements.
“Luckily, we still have eye contact,” he says. “We keep all the same principles of creating connection. We’ve actually worked with an intimacy director on how we can accomplish this across distance. There are all the intricacies present in the production. We just had to go about it in a different way.”