SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) – Redhouse Arts Center recently received a $25,000 grant from Shakespeare in American Communities. The grant will fund Redhouse´s partnership with Syracuse City School District to provide 11th and 12th graders an educational opportunity to work alongside cast and crew in the upcoming production of Macbeth.
The grant allows students to attend the show for free. The theatrical workshop will begin following winter break and continue through to the last showing of Macbeth in the spring.
During the program students will engage in behind the scene rehearsals for Macbeth and will also have the opportunity to brainstorm ideas with directors to potentially be put in the play.
Redhouse´s new artistic director, Temar Underwood, is adapting the play to make Shakespeare easier for students to understand.
Director of Education Marguerite Mitchell said making Macbeth more relatable to will help students connect the concepts covered in the play to real life scenarios in society today.
“He wants it to be fun and engaging and thought provoking,” she said. “So in order to accomplish that he’s going to try to modernize it in a way where the kids resonate with the characters, because they seem like someone you would meet anywhere, on the street, any day of the week. ”
Redhouse’s Executive director, Samara Hannah, said using art as the medium in which topics of study is processed is sometimes the easiest way for students to digest challenging content.
“What we always say about Redhouse is we are not the arts as a product, we are the arts as a process,” she said. “Sometimes the product is absolutely the arts, but really the process of teaching people how to do things and creative problem solving, yeah know. ”
This is the first time in almost 10 years for Macbeth to take main stage as part of Redhouse’s season according to Mitchell.
Macbeth’s first showing is April 1, 2021 and will last a couple weeks.
