Interview with Claire Kelly & Nick Urda on Shakepeare on the Sound's production of Macbeth

       This summer's production of theTragedy of MACBETH in Pinkney Park

Rowayton produced by Shakesepare on the Sound is one of the cultural

 highlights the summer season in Connecticut.I interviewed

 the Artistic Director Claire Kelly and actor  Nicholas Urdu who

plays  the part of MacDuff.


The interview continues to be broadcast until July 13th, 2017 on
Tuesdays at 9pm and Thursdays at 5:30pm on Altice-USA Channel 88 CT.

 

 

 



Claire Kelly, Artistic Director, MACBETH

for Shakespeare on the Sound

Nicholas Urda, Actor in the role of MacDuff in MACBETH &
Artistic and Education Associate, Shakespeare on the Sound


The production of MacBeth is set outdoors in the Park looking out on the sound. The audience or "groundlings" as they were called in Shakepeare's day can bring a blanket and picnic to sup
before the beginning of the play. It begins at sunset and ends while the stars are out.

ABOUT CLAIRE KELLY

Claire Shannon Kelly (Artistic Director) Claire is also the director of the 2017 production of Macbeth. From 2011-2015 Claire worked at Shakespeare on the Sound as Artistic Associate and Director of Education. For Shakespeare on the Sound’s mainstage she has directed Hamlet, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, which won the BroadwayWorld CT award for Best Ensemble Cast in a play, and As You Like It.  Educationally, Claire just finished directing a 5 person A Midsummer Night’s Dream. She co-created and directed Shakespeare on the Sound’s K-5 touring production Let’s Play Shakespeare!, directed their anti- bullying program Speaking Daggers, and devised and directed a children’s version of All’s Well That Ends Well. Currently she is in development of two new plays: The Family and Wordsmith. She has worked at the Guthrie Theater, the Shakespeare Theater of New Jersey, the Ordway Music Theater, and the George Street Playhouse among others. Additionally, Claire is a Teaching Artist and has taught theater to students from pre- school through high school. She will be traveling to Africa in August 2017 where she will teach and direct Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Livingstone, Zambia. Claire has holds a Masters of Arts degree from New York University in Educational Theater

ABOUT NICHOLAS URDA

Nicholas Urda (Artistic and Education Associate) In addition to being the Artistic and Education Associate, Nick has been working professionally as an actor on stage and on screen for the past 12 years. Nick’s credits include Federico García Lorca in Olives and Blood (CT Rep), The Off-BWay premiere of The Preacher and The Shrink, Brutus in Julius Caesar (Curious Frog), The Real Thing, The Shrew Tamer (Northern Stage), Private Lives (Two River Theatre), Othello, starring Patrick Page and Avery Brooks, Comedy of Errors, Don Juan, The Persians (Shakespeare Theatre Co, DC), Loves Labour’s Lost (Royal Shakespeare Co). He was introduced to Shakespeare on The Sound through the Speaking Daggers program in 2012 and has been working there as an actor and teaching artist ever since. Most recently, he played Valentine in our production of The Two Gentlemen of Verona and Jack in the reading of The Importance of Being Earnest. As a teaching artist, Nick currently works for SAY, the Stuttering Association for the Young as well as a private acting coach. Nick holds a BFA from Marymount Manhattan College as well as completing the fellowship with The Shakespeare Theatre, DC

HISTORICAL REFERNCES FOR SHAKESPERE"S MACBETH

MacBeth is a Scottish play and is based loosely on an episode from Scottish history, the death of King Ducna at the hands of his kinsman MacBeth who become King.

Scottish King Duncan

 

Scottish King MacBeth

 



Queen Elizabeth I

Scottish King Malcolm

Shakespere based his play The Tragedy of MacBeth on a historical document, Holinshed Chronicles, The history of England.


 Shakepeare had years of success at the Globe Theatre under the reign of Queen Elizabeth and upon her death he was faced with a new King that he wanted to win over..  King James the 1st succeed Elizabeth the 1st. He came from Scotland, where he had presided as King James the IV of Scotland. James was the son of Mary Queen of Scots, a cousin of Queen Elizabeth he 1st.   His mother was executed by order of Queen Elizabeth and his father assassinated. These early tragedies produced in James a fear and fascination with witchcraft. James also like theatre and adopted Shakespeare's company changing their name to "The King's Men".Shakespeare wanted to flatter the new king and created a Scottish play in his honor.  He borrowed from real Scottish history to invent a fictional and dramatic play including witchcraft that is has made
dramatic history for over centuries.

Cawdor Castle in Scotland



King James VI of Scotland & King James 1 of England

Mary Queen of Scots, Mother of James I