OZ Arts Nashville Will Present Manual Cinema's THE 4TH WITCH This June
The Chicago-based company's shadow puppetry show reimagines MACBETH with Nashville Shakespeare Festival.
Contemporary arts center OZ Arts Nashville will join forces with Nashville Shakespeare Festival to present The 4th Witch, the latest awe-inspiring production from Chicago-based multimedia theater company Manual Cinema, who conure a highly innovative reimagination of one of Shakespeare's best-known works, Macbeth.
Four performances June 4-6 mark the return of Manual Cinema's distinct live filmmaking style that mesmerized audiences at OZ Arts with a sold-out run of Frankenstein in Fall 2019.
The run at OZ Arts includes a special Saturday matinee performance to encourage families to attend. The 4th Witch is recommended for audiences ages 12+, making it a perfect early summer outing for parents, teens, and tweens alike.
Told through breathtaking shadow puppetry, actors in silhouette, and evocative live music, Manual Cinema's The 4th Witch is an inversion of Shakespeare's intriguing and masterful "Scottish Play." This new story follows a young girl who is orphaned by war and later rescued by three witches, who agree to take her on as an apprentice on the condition that she must never use her powers for revenge. Consumed by grief and rage, the girl comes to realize that it was the tyrannical warlord Macbeth who killed her parents - and that she must choose between reconciliation or vengeance.
Perfect for families and theater buffs alike, this highly-anticipated new production showcases Manual Cinema's deeply resonant visual storytelling and ingenious mix of old and new technologies. Audiences see the final film projected on a large screen over the players, while a mix of live actors, old-school overhead projectors, shadow puppets, and transparencies create the magical effects in real time - all set to an stunning, original live score composed by Ben Kauffman and Kyle Vegter.
Part classic tale, part allegory for our present moment, The 4th Witch crafts a powerful narrative of a young person living under tyranny and finding ways to use her voice to effect positive change. The show explores themes of grief, war, and generational conflict, so is recommended for middle school ages and up. It also includes loud sounds and flashing lights.
"We are thrilled to have the opportunity to welcome the extraordinary talents of Manual Cinema back to Nashville at the start of the summer," said Mark Murphy, OZ Arts Executive and Artistic Director. "We still hear regularly from audiences who were blown away by their beautiful, intricate production of Frankenstein in 2019, and we know this timely political allegory presented in The 4th Witch will hit home as we all think about how we can use our collective powers for good."
Tickets to The 4th Witch at OZ Arts Nashville start at just $35 and are on sale now via this link. Youth pricing and tickets for Artists & Creative Community start at just $25. (And, through May 31st, families or larger groups can access a special 4-pack of tickets for just $95 with the code WITCHES.)
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