Chautauqua Theater Company Concludes Its 27th Season With MACBETH 8/21

Chautauqua Theater Company (CTC) Artistic Directors Vivienne Benesch and Ethan McSweeny today announced the final production of the 2010 season: William Shakespeare's Macbeth. Directed by CTC veteran Andrew Borba and featuring CTC's full complement of 14 Conservatory members, Macbeth opens on August 13 and runs through August 21.

"Not even a Friday the 13th opening could keep us away from this, one of Shakespeare's most deliciously notorious plays," says Benesch. "Steeped in superstition, and with more action than an Ironman film, Macbeth makes such a fitting choice for our young Company on the rise."

"It's a romance, a love story: JFK and Jackie gone horribly wrong," says Borba. "Macbeth is a brilliant soldier, a national hero, the ascendant star. But the rise cannot happen fast enough for him or his wife, and ambition drives them to snatch the crown through murder, an act which haunts them and gradually destroys everything and everyone around them, imploding the modern day Camelot they hoped would stabilize the world. It's that very contemporary and familiar story that makes this such a thrilling play to direct."

Borba directed a highly successful 2006 production of Twelfth Night for CTC. He has also acted in CTC favorites such as Arcadia, Every Good Boy Deserves Favor, The Just, and All My Sons; served as text coach for The Winter's Tale, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Much Ado About Nothing and Measure for Measure. Borba's credits outside of Chautauqua include work in film, TV and theaters across the country.

While a newcomer to Chautauqua, Brett Dalton, who plays Macbeth, is no stranger to Shakespeare. A native of Campbell CA and a third year graduate student at the Yale School of Drama, Dalton had featured roles at Yale in: A Midsummer Night's Dream and Macbeth at Yale, as well as The Droll, The Seagull, Paradise Lost, Ah! Americans and Passion Play. He has also acted in regional productions at Williamstown Theater Festival and on a Fox TV series pilot.

Lady Macbeth is played by another CTC newcomer: third year NYU Graduate Acting Program's Megan Ketch. Her acting credits include Angels in America, Part II: Perestroika, HMatrixH and The Game of Love and Chance and Richard III at NYU. New York: The Cherry Orchard, Columbia and Classic Stage Company; Twelfth Night, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Fiasco Theater. A native of Durham, NC, she has several regional Theater Productions to her credit as well.

The role of Duncan, the monarch who precedes Macbeth on the Scottish throne, is played by guest artist Bernard White who will no doubt be familiar to audiences from his extensive film, stage and TV credits including: The Matrix Revolutions, The Matrix Reloaded, Pay It Forward, City of Angels ; TV appearances in "NCIS: L.A.," "Lie to Me," "Bones," "Eleventh Hour," "NUMB3RS," "Alias," "24," "E-Ring," "West Wing," and stage productions in New York, Los Angeles and Amsterdam. Regional theater credits include Blithe Spirit, Lucy and The Conquest at Williamstown, Wings of Desire at The American Repertory Theatre; The Death of Garcia Lorca at New York's Public Theatre, among others .

Scenic Designer James Kronzer joins CTC for his first season in 2010. He has worked On and Off Broadway in New York , on National Tours and in regional theaters across the U.S. He is the recipient of eight Helen Hayes Awards for design in the Washington, D.C. area and Jeff Awards in Chicago.
Costume design for Macbeth is by Wade Laboissonniere who returns to the Bratton Theater for his third season. Laboissonniere's work has been seen On and Off Broadway and on regional stages nationwide. At CTC he previously designed costumes for Twelfth Night and The Just.
Tyler Micoleau returns for his third CTC season as lighting designer. In previous seasons at Chautauqua he designed Arcadia, The Glass Menagerie, Reckless, Death of a Salesman, Collected Stories and Street Scene. In 2010 he won both an OBIE Award and a Lucille Lortel Award. His extensive body of work includes designs On and Off Broadway as well as a variety of regional theaters.

Sound designer Steven Cahill is a fourth season returnee to CTC. His previous CTC credits include: Twelfth Night, Much Ado About Nothing and Reckless. He has been music producer for Stars on Ice since 2004 and has won numerous awards for his work on TV, film and regional theater.