Michael D.

Mitchell, Artistic Director Aaron Young, Managing Director

Barry Kornhauser, TYA Director

MACBETH
Blood-In/Blood-Out
Based on The Tragedy of Macbeth by William Shakespeare
Adapted by Charlie DelMarcelle and students of La Academia
Directed by Charlie DelMarcelle
Set Design by Robert Klingelhoefer
Costume Design by Anthony Lascoskie Jr.
Sound Design by Andy Hartley
Stage Management by Julie Bunnell
Starring Charlie DelMarcelle, Andy Kindig, Yolanda London, Brian Martin,
Stephanie Jo Wise

Study Guide
“Study is like heaven’s glorious sun that will not be deep searched with saucy looks...”
- Love’s Labour’s Lost

The Fulton Family Theater Ensemble is supported in parts by grants from the Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and the County of Lancaster. The company has also been
selected for inclusion in the Pennsylvania Performing Arts on Tour (PennPAT) and the PCA’s
Artist-In-Education rosters.

Tour Sponsors:

The Armstrong Foundation

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 Family Theatre Series Sponsors:

Tour support provided by:

Greetings
Thank you for inviting us and for making the arts a part of your day. We value your
patronage, and hope that our visit is a memorable one that serves as an educational
resource for you. This STUDY GUIDE is designed to enhance learning before and after
our presentation. Background information, discussion ideas, and suggested activities are
included to offer a variety of approaches to your exploration. Among other sorts of
lessons, the content addresses Pennsylvania Academic Standards for Reading,
Writing, Speaking and Listening 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6, 1.7, and 1.8 and
Pennsylvania Academic Standards for the Arts and Humanities 9.1, 9.2, 9.3, and 9.4.
This STUDY GUIDE covers a wide range of grade levels. Please feel free to select the
material most appropriate for your use. We look forward to seeing you soon!

About The Play

Violence is in the news a lot these days, whether in the streets of Baghdad or in our
schools and neighborhoods. In our culture, it has proliferated like a disease. How is it
passed? By word, image, and action. Our culture is drenched in violent thought and
symbol and these get passed to us all, especially to our children when they are quite
young, through the media. Do these things perpetuate the violence? That has not yet
been answered. We do know that some of us are influenced by what we see and hear.
Why then are some people “infected” and others
seemingly immune to violent imagery? Can a person be
inoculated? What is “conscience,” and why does
it function as a kind of immune system in some
people, but not in others? We “quarantine” our
sick ones – in prisons. There they infect and re-

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infect each other and often leave sicker than when they entered. What’s to be done?
In the play Macbeth, Scotland is spoken of as “sick” many times and in many
ways. In fact, the language of “disease” is used throughout the play. Why is Macbeth
“infected” by the witches’ prophesy, but not Banquo? What are the symptoms of this
disease? What are its ravages?
Perhaps the play only poses these questions without answering them. We are
thinking of the story of Macbeth as a kind of “metaphysical case study,” in the same vein
as the 19th century classic “monster” tales: Frankenstein or Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
It’s not exactly a fun story, but it’s a thrilling, fascinating, and imaginative one. And, we
hope, maybe a bit instructive.

Discussion Ideas &

Suggested Activities
Language
1. Shakespeare wrote his plays specifically to be performed, not to be printed for
storage in libraries. His mastery of words was essential to an Elizabethan dramatist, for
with almost no scenery or costumes, and only primitive lighting equipment, he had to
depend on his actor’s skill and on his language to create the world of his plays. The art of
printing books was still new, and Shakespeare actually helped to
shape a language that had not yet taken an exact written form.
Shakespeare could set a scene or create a mood beautifully
through his poetry. His skill at selecting the sounds and rhythms of
words gives one the sensation of listening to music when his plays are
read well. To recreate his plays today, the actor must find himself or
herself the openness and astonishment of being human, of being in
the world just as Shakespeare’s characters seem to truly live in their
worlds. If we read the play from the actor’s point of view, we find
that Shakespeare has done of the work for us. The kind of words each character is given
to speak reveal in sound and meaning what is going on inside.
For example, Lady Macbeth’s speech is quite direct. Playing this role, one of
your students would be given the lines:

I have given suck, and know

How tender ‘tis to love the babe that milks me:
I would, while it was smiling in my face,
Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums
And dashed his brains out, had I so sworn as you

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 Have done to this. (I, vii, 54-59)

The images are brutal and horrifying. The sounds of the words are
harsh and sharp. We can hear how her language is direct and strong, aided
by the evil spirits she has called upon.
She shames Macbeth with her own determination and nerve, and
so spurs him on to the throne. She uses vivid and concrete images, and
gives no outward release of emotion or fear:
These deeds must not be thought
After these ways: so, it will make us mad. (II, ii, 32-33)

But, ultimately, pushed beyond the limits of human endurance, her conscience
haunts her in her sleep and nightly she relives the horror or her deeds:

Here’s the smell of the blood still. All the perfumes

of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. (V, i, 47-48)

Unable to escape images of the murder, and divorced in spirit from her violent
husband, Lady Macbeth commits suicide:

The grief that does not speak

Whispers the o’erfraught heart and bids it break.
(IV, iii, 209-210)

While Lady Macbeth’s speech is bold, straightforward, and brash, Macbeth, on

the other hand, speaks more with images, allusions, and in a poetic tone. He has
imaginative foresight, and the witches’ prophesy excites his own double-edged
ambitions:
And pity, like a naked new-born babe
Striding the blast, or heaven’s cherubins, horsed
Upon the sightless couriers of the air,
Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye
That tears shall drown the wind. (I, vii, 21-25)

Macbeth knows his crime would make the very winds of Heaven
revolt, that his horrid deed would create a tremendous uprising against him
in pity for his victim Duncan. The speech itself, when read aloud, imitates
the very sounds of the wind.

Macbeth’s imagination gives vent to the horror of his deeds by

plaguing him with voices, visions, and sleepless nights:

Is this a dagger which I see before me,

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 …or art thou but
A dagger of the mind, a false creation
Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?
(II, i, 33-35)

Methought I heard a voice cry “Sleep no more!

Macbeth does murder sleep” (II, ii, 34-35)

O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!

(III, ii, 36)

Have your students read the above passages aloud before discussing what they can teach
us about the characters, and have them find other examples of how Shakespeare’s use of
language helps create characters who are distinct, vivid, and alive.

2. Shakespeare composed much of his plays in the form of poetry, often in a

meter called iambic pentameter. Even today, iambic pentameter is the most common
meter used in English-language poetry. A regular line of the meter
contains roughly ten syllables, with heavier stresses falling on
every other syllable. An iamb is a metrical unit, or a “foot” or
meter, made up of one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed
syllable (“alive,” “forget,” “a dog”). Pentameter refers to the
number of iambs in the line (penta is the Greek word for five, as in
a pentagon). So there are five iambs in a line of iambic
pentameter. Blank verse is unrhymed iambic pentameter. Here are a few examples
from Macbeth: (- means unstressed and / means stressed)

- / - / - / - / - /
So foul and fair a day I have not seen.

- / - / - / - / - /
It will have blood, they say: blood will have blood.

- / - / - / - / - /
And damned be him that first cries “Hold enough!”

Ask your class to find other examples of iambic pentameter in the pages of Macbeth and
to create some of their own.

3. William Shakespeare is given credit for introducing nearly 2,000 words into the
English language either by bringing into usage foreign words, making conjunctions of

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two or three other words, using nouns as verbs, or by inventing new ones. Here are just
some of the word and phrases attributed to Shakespeare that we still use today:

alligator, critical, dauntless, eyeball, frugal, gloomy, hoodwinked, jaded, laughingstock,

leapfrog, manager, outbreak, puke, reinforcement, torture, unmitigated, worthless, zany,
and “all that glitters is not gold,” “dead as a doornail,” “elbow room,” “full circle,”
“good riddance,” “heart of gold,” “sorry sight,” “too much of a good thing.”

Have your students research more of Shakespeare’s many contributions to our language.

4. As in Shakespeare’s day, language continues to change to accommodate the needs

and ways of its speakers. Have your class find words that have been added to the English
lexicon in just the last ten years. See if they can determine how these words were created
and what were their origins. In our adaptation of Macbeth, some contemporary street
language is utilized as a counterpoint to the everyday Elizabethan “street” vocabulary that
Shakespeare used in his plays. The very term “blood-in/blood out,” our subtitle for the
play, is gang lingo, suggesting that the only way in and, finally, out of a gang is through
violence. Ask your students to explain why this phrase is relevant to the story of
Macbeth. Have them explore the jargon of other subcultures in our society.

Staging
1. As noted earlier, Shakespeare’s plays were originally presented with little or no
scenery. Sometimes a simple placard would convey a scene’s location, but by and large
it was the Bard’s poetry that stimulated the imaginations of the audience and so built the
world of the play. Have your class look for examples in Macbeth that help create the
Scotland that Shakespeare conceived.

2. Unlike scenery, costuming tended to be lavish and elaborate. As the actors stood
in close proximity to the audience, slapdash or poor quality apparel would have ruined
the illusion of the play. Still, regardless of the piece’s setting, actors always wore
Elizabethan finery. This was largely because back then there was little solid knowledge
of what people wore in other times and places. After seeing Macbeth: Blood-In/Blood –
Out, have your students compare the Fulton’s production elements to those of
Shakespeare’s theatre. How were they the same? How different? What did the design
choices tell them?

3. Acting was not considered an appropriate profession for women in the

Elizabethan era, and acting companies utilized boys to play female roles. Ask your class
to research why this might have been so, and in what other cultures and time periods this
also was the case. (The history of Kabuki in Japan provides a particularly interesting
example.) Discuss the use of actors in the Fulton’s version of Macbeth. Was gender an
issue?

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 Shakespeare Through the Ages
1. When the English colonists set sail for the New World, they brought only their
most essential possessions along, and these often included the works of Shakespeare. By
the time of the American Revolution, a dozen of his plays had been performed hundreds
of times throughout the colonies. In the 1830s Alexis de Tocqueville remarked: “There’s
hardly a pioneer’s hut that does not contain a few odd volumes of Shakespeare,” and that
included the log cabin of young Abraham Lincoln. Throughout the nineteenth century,
Shakespeare was the most popular playwright in America.
Shakespearean actors from England came
here because the touring possibilities were
plentiful. Shakespeare’s plays were
produced everywhere – in saloons,
churches, hotels, and, of course, in opulent
theaters like the Fulton Opera House. (In
fact, the show that inaugurated the Fulton’s transformation from a
town meeting hall to a genuine theater in the early 1870s was
Englishman E.L. Davenport’s Shakespeare Company who performed Othello as a benefit
for the widows and orphans of the Civil War.) Your students might enjoy researching the
contributions to the roles of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth made by some of the most
famous English actors of all time. For example, ask what David Garrick brought to the
play in the late 1700s. Ask how Sarah Siddon’s performance of Lady Macbeth
transformed the role forever with what one simple stage action. Ask about her brother
John Phillip Kemble who produced a Macbeth in 1794 that was hated. Why? In more
recent times, Lawrence Olivier performed the title role twice, in 1937 and again in 1955.
In the former, his make-up was so thick and stylized that actress Vivien Leigh
complained: “Well, you hear Macbeth’s first line, then Larry’s make-up comes on, then
Banquo comes on, then Larry comes on.” How did his second try at is go?

2. Nineteenth-century audiences found Shakespeare’s themes to be representative of

their own trials and tribulations. His characters copes with love, hate, jealousy, ambition,
and mortality just as audience members did in their own lives. They also admired the
playwright’s gift for language. In schools, his plays were taught as rhetoric. Students
would memorize passages of his plays and recite them aloud. Have your students
memorize a passage from Macbeth to recite. The “Tomorrow and tomorrow and
tomorrow” speech from Act V, Sc v might be a compelling choice. Also have them write
their own versions of the monologue, modernizing the diction and the situation, but
preserving the structure, themes, and emotional content. Have them share their results
with the rest of the class.

3. Only in the twentieth century did the nature of Shakespeare’s relationship to

the American public change. He was still the most widely known, respected and
quoted dramatist, but his work gradually came to be seen as part of high culture rather
than popular culture. Among the reasons for this was that the American language
moved rapidly away from the rich Elizabethan style, making Shakespeare’s words

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 alien to a people who once so effortlessly understood their power and meaning. Still,
for more than four centuries, Shakespeare has played a defining role in American
culture. Today he remains the most widely produced playwright in America – his
work performed in theaters, on film, and in schools. Popular
culture has borrowed freely from the Bard. Many books,
movies, and musical scores use phrases from Shakespeare in
their titles, even when the content does not overtly draw upon
his work. Have your students find the Shakespearean source
work of the following. The first should be an easy one,
especially if they’ve memorized the passage suggested above:

William Faulkner’s tragic novel

Pomp And Circumstance (1901). The famous musical score by Sir Edwin
Elgar played at graduations

Brave New World (1932). The futuristic novel by Aldous Huxley

North By Northwest (1959). The classic Alfred Hitchcock film

Winter Of Our Discontent (1961). The haunting novel by John Steinbeck.

What Dreams May Come (1998). A Robin Williams movie.

Band Of Brothers (2001) Emmy-Award winning film.

The book A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley is based on a Shakespeare play. So is the
musical West Side Story and the sci-fi movie classic Forbidden Planet. Even Walt
Disney’s animated feature The Lion King has its root in a Shakespearean Tragedy. Ask
your students if they can discover the sources.

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4. Although Macbeth is the shortest of Shakespeare’s Tragedies, it is among the
most enduring of his works. Since its composition in 1606, there has never been a time
when the play wasn’t being performed on stages around the world, this despite a reputed
“curse” that bedevils its production. A synopsis of the play can be found on many
numerous Internet sits, so is not offered in these pages. As early as 1916, Macbeth was
translated into the medium of film, and since then has been made into dozens of movie
versions. It has been adapted in other ways, too. There are versions of this Shakespeare
classic rendered as a tone poem, concept album, and even a rock
opera, and, as shown above, there are references to the play in
many popular culture outlets, including television, video games,
and comic books. Perhaps you can view one or more of the
following film versions of the story with your class: Joe Macbeth,
a 1955 film noir, resetting the story as a gang war in Chicago; Throne of Blood, the 1957
film directed by Akira Kurosawa, placing the story in medieval Japan; Men of Respect, a
1991 film set as a mafia power struggle in New York, told in modern English; Scotland,
PA, a 2001 retelling of the story as a black comedy set against the backdrop of a 1975
hamburger stand; Maqbool, 2004 Hindi adaptation set in the Mumbai underworld; or
Macbeth, a 2005 independent neo-noir version of the play set in an alternate universe
where the United States is led by a totalitarian government. Compare the movie(s) to the
text and to the Fulton’s staged version.

Themes & Motifs

1. Shakespeare’s tragic heroes are extraordinary and extraordinarily flawed figures.
Part of the tragic paradox is that what we admire about them brings about their downfalls.
Macbeth’s bravery and strength are used in the service of a cruel
ambition. There is a feeling of inevitability about their undoing;
their character is their destiny. Thematically, Macbeth can be seen
as a warning of the dangers of unbridled ambition, showing how it
can be a morally corrupting agent. Ambition is Macbeth’s tragic
flaw; it consumes him. Have your students trace Macbeth’s
internal struggles throughout the play.

2. Have your students also trace lines of imagery through the play, tracking how
Shakespeare uses language to help depict the dissolution of Macbeth’s character and
world. Blood , storms, sleep and sleeplessness, sickness, darkness, and even clothing are
used metaphorically.

3. Here are a few questions for discussion:

How is Macbeth affected by his actions? How does Shakepeare reveal this?

What role does destiny play in Macbeth’s life? What about his free will?

Why do you think Macbeth “sees” the phantom dagger floating in front of him

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 before he kills Duncan?

Why does Lady Macbeth walk in her sleep?

The play is full of contradictory statements such as “When the battle’s lost
and won” or “fair is foul and foul is fair.” In such lines, what is Shakespeare
suggesting about the state of Macbeth’s world, and how does this mirror what is
going on in his mind?

Are there any modern day tyrants whose lust for power
have lead them to commit savage acts comparable
to those of Macbeth? Are there other parallels that can be drawn between the
circumstances and characters of the play and those of modern times?

Why do you think the Fulton chose to stage its Macbeth as it did?

Resources
Websites
www.absoluteshakespeare.com
www.bardweb.net
www.edhelper.com/shakespeare.htm
http://Shakespeare.palomar.edu
http://the-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/
http://web.uvic.ca/shakespeare/

Books
Bloom, Harold. Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human. Riverhead Books, 1998.
Epstein, Norrie. The Friendly Shakespeare. Penguin Books, 1993.

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Gibson, Rex. Discovering Shakespeare’s Language. Cambridge University Press, 1999.
Kermode, Frank and Stanley Malless. Coined by Shakespeare: Words & Meanings First
Penned By The Bard. Webster, 1998.
O’Brien, Peggy, et al. Shakespeare Set Free. Attria Books, 1993.

Feedback
1. If you are a teacher and can find time in your busy schedule, please complete
the Teacher Evaluation Form you should have received.

2. Also, please have your students let us know what they thought of our
production by sending letters. (And tell them not to be surprised if they hear back from
us with a “Thank You.”) Perhaps you can ask each any or all of the following: What
was…

…the most fun part

…the part that surprised you
…the most exciting part
…the part you talked about the most afterwards
…the first thing you’ll tell your parents about when you get home
…the part you’d like to see again
…the part you thought about the most

Address all to:

MACBETH
c/o Barry Kornhauser
The Fulton Opera House
P.O. Box 1865
Lancaster, PA 17608

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 Theater
“What revels are at hand? Is there no play
To ease the anguish of a torturing hour?”
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream

OTHER THEATRICAL OPPORTUNITES AVAILABLE FOR YOUNG

PEOPLE THROUGH THE FULTON FAMILY THEATRE

Spring 2008 TOUR

Sowing The Wind by Barry Kornhauser and students of Huntington

County, PA. Farming is one of the most dangerous endeavors in
America. More than a simple occupation, it is a way of life
that involves workers of all ages. In Sowing The Wind, a
father, mother, and son on a small family farm face difficult
decisions about their health and safety. Audiences become
active participants in helping these characters choose which
actions to take to promote their well-being. They don’t just watch
the play happen; they make it happen! Written under a Mid-Atlantic Arts
Foundation “Artists & Communities” Grant and produced via a PennPAT “New
Directions” Grant.
Suitable for All Ages.

Bocon! (Big Mouth) by Lisa Loomer. This fable filled

with humor, enchantment, and song, tells the story of 12-year
old Miguel who flees Central America for the United States.
A natural-born story teller and irrepressible “big mouth” or in
Spanish “bocon,” Miguel loses his voice when he loses his
parents and begins a metaphorical journey north to the City
of Angels (Los Angeles). Along the way he meets up with an
unusual traveling companion, La Llorona, the legendary “Weeping Woman” of Central
American and Mexican mythology. Through their unlikely friendship, Miguel finds his
voice and the courage to cross the border to a new life. Miguel’s story is relevant to
immigrant children from all parts of the world, and to any child who is learning the many
meanings of finding one’s own “voice.”
Recommended for all ages.

Tour for ¡Bocón! available: February 4 - April 15, 2008

Also WORKSHOPS and RESIDENCIES

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 AND AT THE NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARK
FULTON OPERA HOUSE

Also year round ACADEMY CLASSES in theater arts, including

summertime performance opportunities in the BROADWAY JR. and
YOUTHEATRE programs.

For more information, contact

Aaron Young at
(717) 394-7133 ext. 117 or
Ayoung@thefulton.org

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