Zac not only was in Macbeth, but he also was a stage hand and helped with moving the set around. He did a great job!
Here is the article that was in the local paper.
He watched his middle school students act out an abbreviated (but still loyal) version of Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” on Saturday, just four days from opening night. And it worried him.
It was too good.
“Actually, it looks flawless,” said Pharis, a teacher and theater director at Chappelow Arts Literacy K-8 Magnet School. “That makes me nervous.”
The old superstition is for a play to have a dress rehearsal that makes the actors wonder whether the curtains even deserved to be raised. That’s one reason why actors say “break a leg” rather than “good luck” before a play.
But if you asked Pharis way back in December, it’s possible he might have expected things to come down to the last second.
He was asking his middle school students, after all, to put on Shakespeare, and not one of his goofy comedies, either. “Macbeth” is challenging and heavy. But that’s also why Pharis thought his students would like it.
“You’ve got the supernatural, weapons, blood and murder,” Pharis said with a laugh. “I thought that would hook them.”
Still. Shakespeare? Ari VanLoo, an eighth-grader who plays the lead, had never read anything by Shakespeare. Neither had anyone else. In fact, Zach Stevens, an eighth-grader, made fun of his older brother when he was complaining about having to read “Romeo and Juliet” for his English class.
“How hard could it be? That’s what I told him,” Stevens said. “Now I get it.”
Pharis, who acted on Broadway as a child, put on “Mother Goose Eaten By Werewolves” for his first play with the school last year and wanted to challenge his students more. He broke down their fears almost right away.
“I told them that it’s not intimidating,” he said. “Once you find the meaning, Shakespeare’s done all the work for you. It’s all there in the words.”
ENLARGEAri VanLoo sheaths his sword while playing Macbeth in the Chappelow Arts Literacy K-8 Magnet School production of “Macbeth.” The school is putting on the production Wednesday and Thursday.
| | Chappelow Arts Literacy K-8 Magnet School student Ari VanLoo, left, sword fights with Zach Stevens in the school’s production of “Macbeth.” The students were running a dress rehearsal Saturday and will put on the challenging play Wednesday and Thursday this week. |
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