Photo Coverage: In Rehearsal with The Red Bull Theatre's MAC BETH

Red Bull Theater will soon present the second of its two upcoming Off-Broadway productions at the Lucille Lortel Theatre (121 Christopher Street between Bleecker & Hudson Streets). Isabelle Fuhrman (Orphan, The Hunger Games, All The Fine Boys), Ismenia Mendes (CSC's The Liar, Cressida in NYSF's Troilus & Cressida), AnnaSophia Robb ("The Carrie Diaries," "The Act," "Mercy Street," Down A Dark Hall), Sharlene Cruz (Den of Thieves at Harlem Rep), Sophie Kelly-Hedrick (Off-Broadway debut), Lily Santiago (New York Shakespeare Festival's Othello), and Ayana Workman (The Price of Thomas Scott - Mint, Juliet in NYSF's Romeo & Juliet) will star in Mac Beth, adapted and directed by Erica Schmidt from Shakespeare.

In Schmidt's production seven girls meet up to do a play in an empty lot outside the city on an autumn afternoon. School uniform tartan transforms in this American urban wasteland. The girls are witches, ghosts, and kings. Using only Shakespeare's text, they hurl headlong into the unchecked passions of Macbeth as the line between real life and blood fantasy quickly blurs. Through prophecies and smartphones, unexpected resonances emerge from Shakespeare's dark nightmare of ambition gone awry.

This production will play a limited Off-Broadway engagement May 7th through June 2nd only, with Opening Night set for May 19th. It will follow the company's production of The White Devil.

Erica Schmidt's numerous credits include Richard II with Robert Sean Leonard; All the Fine Boys (The New Group, wrote and directed); Turgenev's A Month in the Country with Peter Dinklage and Taylor Schilling (CSC); Taking Care of Baby (MTC); Trust (The Play Company, Callaway Award nomination); As You Like It (Public Theater/NYSF); Debbie Does Dallas (wrote and directed Off-Broadway).

Mac Beth will have set design by Catherine Cornell, costume design by Jessica Pabst, lighting design by Jeff Croiter, and sound design by Erin Bednarz. This adaptation was given its premiere by Seattle Repertory Theater. The running time is 90 minutes with no intermission.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride