1
Plans for Macbeth in a Day
Shakespeare Lives! Camp 2013
9:00 9:
40 Games & Warmups
(Bob)
● Who Started the Motion
● Group object game
9:40 10:
20 Play Activities
● Story
○ Five groups
○ Hand out papers with text
■ each has a synopsis of an act, followed by key lines from the act
○ Players decide on a tableau that illustrates the synopsis
■ read lines during each tableau
○ Show tableaux to group in order of acts
○ Engage all players in reviewing whole play synopsis
● Streets and Alleys
○ Lady Macbeth calls out the changes
■ Macbeth chases Duncan
○ Banquo calls out the changes
■ Murderer chases Fleance
○ Macbeth calls out the changes
■ Murderer chases Macduff’s son
○ Malcolm calls out the changes
■ Macduff chases Macbeth
10:20 10:
30 Break
10:30 11:
00 Play Activities
● Vaulting Ambition (“I have no Spur / To prick the sides of my intent, but only / Vaulting
Ambition, which o’erleaps
it self, / And falls on th’other.”)
○ Go on a journey
■ In a favorite outdoor, natural place
■ Find a red box
● Discover the thing they want most in the world inside the box
○ Players discover something they want more than anything else in the world
■ What would it be like to have it? What would you do to get it?
○ Share by showing, not telling, what they want
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11:00 12:
00 Stage Combat
● Bob leads “Run, Old Bear”
○ V.7 Macbeth:
“They have tied me to a stake; I cannot fly, / But bearlike I must
fight the course.”
● Tug of War (or something to get them partnering with space objects)
● Teach a few moves within the context of scenes:
● III.3 Banquo’s
murder:
○ Banquo: “It will be rain tonight.”
■ First Murderer: “Let it come down.”
○ Banquo: “Fly, good Fleance, fly, fly, fly!”
○ Third Murderer: “There’s but one down; the son is fled.”
● IV.2 Macduff’s
family’s murder:
○ Murderer: “He's a traitor.”
■ Son: “Thou li'st thou shageared
villain!”
● V.7 Macbeth/
Young Siward fight:
○ Young Siward: “What is thy name?”
■ Macbeth: “My name’s Macbeth.”
■ Young Siward: “The devil himself could not pronounce a title /
More hateful to mine ear.”
■ Macbeth: “No, nor more fearful.”
■ Young Siward: “Thou liest, abhorrèd tyrant; with my sword / I’ll
prove the lie thou speak’st.”
● V.8 Macduff/
Macbeth fight:
○ Macduff: “I have no words: / My voice is in my sword”
○ Macbeth: “I will not yield / To kiss the ground before young Malcolm’s
feet”
12:00 1:
00 Lunch
3
1:00 2:
20 Play Activities
● Murder Handshake
○ During the Day
■ Everyone walks around shaking hands
■ The player assigned the character of Macbeth can murder others by
scratching the wrist or palm while shaking hands
○ During the Night
■ Victims die
■ Everyone decides on one person they think is Macbeth
● If they’re right, the game is over
● If they’re wrong, the person they chose must die
● The Murder of Duncan / Subtext
○ Dog and Bone
○ Read through the selected summary lines from scene I.7, one at a time
○ Discover what’s being said in our own words
○ Discover what each character is thinking
○ Shakespeare Translator
■ Groups of three
■ Have one person speak lines and another speak subtext as if the
conscience or angel/devil on the shoulder of the third person, to whom
they’re speaking
● Weird Sisters
○ Give and Take (sound coupled with movement) as warmup
○ Ball Toss sending
sound across the space
○ Hand out slips of paper with Witches’ IV.1 lines on them
■ Just a few words per slip (eg. “Double, double”)
■ Hand them around the circle in order spoken
○ Memorize the text on your slip and discover a physical action to accompany it
■ Go around the circle, in order, showing action with line
■ Repeat
2:20 2:
30 Break
4
2:30 3:
45 Play Activities
● Part of a Whole
○ Build a machine with each person a moving part
○ Build an organism with each person a moving part
● Prophetic Visions
○ Divide into three large groups
○ Up to four narrators in each group choose important words and work on
embodying the text
○ Actors, working with narrators, develop apparitions as parts of a whole
○ Present the scene
■ Narrators speak the text
■ Actors embody the apparition together as parts of a whole
● They can echo key words as the narrators speak
● Telephone (Race)
○ The heads of two lines each receive the same message
■ determine which message reaches the end fastest and which most
accurately
● Macbeth gets some bad news
○ Multiheaded
Singer
■ Sing a very easy song (“Twinkle, Twinkle”, eg.) around the circle, each
person singing one word and trying to sound like one voice
○ How does Macbeth feel upon hearing that his wife is dead? And about the moving
wood?
○ Read “Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow” one word at a time around the
circle
○ Two sides (one Macbeth, one Messenger), four groups (one per line)
■ Messenger 1: “The wood began to move.”
■ Macbeth 1: “Liar and slave!”
■ Messenger 2: “I say a moving grove.”
■ Macbeth 2: “Ring the alarum bell!”
● Stage Picture
● Review Story
○ Divide five different groups from the morning and do the same activity with
different players and a new understanding.
■ Try for one tableau per set of lines instead of one for the act summary
3:45 4:
00 Reflection
● Today, I was surprised when...
● My favorite character in Macbeth is __________ because...
● I feel ___________ when I’m speaking Shakespeare’s words because...
● My body feels...
Macbeth Story
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Act I
● King Duncan learns that Macbeth helped Scotland win a battle against Norway.
● Three witches tell Macbeth he will be the Thane of Cawdor and the King of Scotland.
● A messenger from the King tells Macbeth he is Thane of Cawdor.
● King Duncan decides to stay at Macbeth’s home for a night.
● Lady Macbeth urges Macbeth to kill King Duncan.
Second Witch: All hail Macbeth, hail to thee Thane of Cawdor.
Macbeth: The Thane of Cawdor lives: Why do you dress me in borrowed Robes?
Third Witch: All hail Macbeth, that shalt be King hereafter.
Banquo: Speak then to me
Third Witch: Thou shalt get Kings, though thou be none:
Macbeth: Duncan comes here tonight.
Lady Macbeth: Look like th' innocent flower, But be the Serpent under't.
Act II● Macbeth murders King Duncan.
● Lady Macbeth wipes blood on King Duncan’s guards and leaves the daggers with them.
● When Macduff finds the king’s body and wakes everyone up, Macbeth kills the guards.
● The king’s sons, Malcolm and Donalbain, run away.
Macbeth: I have done the deed
Lady Macbeth: Why did you bring these Daggers from the place?
Macbeth: I am afraid, to think what I have done
Macduff: O horror, horror, horror
Donalbain: What is amiss?
Macduff: Your Royal Father's murdered.
Malcolm: What will you do? I’ll to England.
Donalbain: To Ireland, I: Where we are, there's Daggers in men’s smiles
Act III
● Macbeth is afraid Banquo knows he killed the king, so he sends murderers to kill him and his son, Fleance.
○ Banquo is killed, but Fleance escapes.
● At a banquet, Macbeth sees the ghost of Banquo.
○ Lady Macbeth asks everyone to leave.
● Macduff was not at the banquet because he ran away to England.
Banquo: It will be Rain to Night.
First Murderer: Let it come down.
Banquo: O, Treachery! Fly good Fleance, fly, fly, fly
Macbeth: Prithee see there: Behold, look, lo, how say you … If I stand here, I saw him.
Lady Macbeth: Fie for shame.
Lennox: Macduff lives in disgrace. Sir, can you tell Where he bestows himself?
Lord: The Son of Duncan Lives in the English Court ... Thither Macduff Is gone
1
Macbeth Story
2
Act IV
● Macbeth goes to see the witches.
○ They show him visions that make him think:
■ Macduff is dangerous.
■ Macbeth can’t be killed by someone “of woman born”.
■ Macbeth can’t be killed until the forest moves toward the castle.
■ Banquo’s heirs will be kings.
● Macbeth sends murderers to kill Macduff’s wife, children, and servants.
● In England, Macduff meets with Malcolm (King Duncan’s son).
○ Malcolm pretends he would be a bad king to find out if Macduff is really loyal to him.
■ Macduff proves he loves his country.
■ Malcolm tells Macduff he was just making up the bad stuff and that he’s really a good
person.
○ Malcolm, Macduff, and Malcolm’s uncle Siward start marching toward Scotland with an army.
Second Apparition: Macbeth, Macbeth, Macbeth.
Macbeth: Had I three ears, I'd hear thee.
Second Apparition: none of woman borne Shall harm Macbeth.
Murderer: Young fry of Treachery?
Macduff’s Son: He has killed me Mother, Run away I pray you.
Macduff: These Evils thou repeat'st upon thy self, Hath banished me from Scotland.
Malcolm: My first false speaking Was this upon my self.
Act V
● A doctor watches Lady Macbeth sleepwalking and talking to herself.
○ She feels guilty for murdering King Duncan.
● Macbeth gets ready for battle, but he thinks no man can kill him.
● Malcolm’s army hold tree branches in front of them so Macbeth can’t tell how many people they have on
their side.
○ It looks like the forest is moving toward the castle, just like the witches said.
● Macduff finds Macbeth and tells him he was born by an operation instead of naturally, so he was not “of
woman born”.
○ Macduff kills Macbeth
● Malcolm becomes king of Scotland.
Lady Macbeth: Here’s the smell of the blood still
Doctor: This disease is beyond my practice
Macbeth: Wherefore was that cry?
Doctor: The Queen (my Lord) is dead.
Macduff: Hail King, for so thou art.
All: Hail King of Scotland.
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Prophetic Visions
First Apparition (An Armed Head):
Macbeth, Macbeth, Macbeth:
Beware Macduff,
Beware the Thane of Fife: dismiss me. Enough.
Second Apparition (A Bloody Child):
Macbeth, Macbeth, Macbeth.
Macbeth:
Had I three ears, I'd hear thee.
Second Apparition:
Be bloody, bold, & resolute:
Laugh to scorn
The power of man: For none of woman borne
Shall harm Macbeth.
Third Apparition (A Child Crowned, with a Tree in his Hand):
Be Lion mettled, proud, and take no care:
Who chafes, who frets, or where Conspirers are:
Macbeth shall never vanquished be, until
Great Birnam Wood, to high Dunsinane Hill
Shall come against him.
Leader's Copy Witches
Double
Double
1 Round about
2 the Cauldron go:
3 In the poisoned
4 Entrails throw
5 Double, double,
6 toil and trouble;
7 Fire burn,
8 and Cauldron bubble.
9 Eye of Newt,
10 and Toe of Frog,
11 Wool of Bat,
12 and Tongue of Dog:
13 Double, double,
14 toil and trouble,
15 Fire burn,
16 and Cauldron bubble.
17 Scale of Dragon,
18 Tooth of Wolf,
19 Witches Mummy,
20 Maw, and Gulf
21 Of the ravin'd salt Sea shark:
22 Root of Hemlock,
23 digged i'th' dark:
24 Double, double,
25 toil and trouble,
26 Fire burn,
27 and Cauldron bubble.
28 Cool it with
29 a Baboon’s blood,
30 Then the Charm is firm and good.
Macbeth Gets Some Bad News
Macbeth:
Wherefore was that cry?
Seyton:
The Queen (my Lord) is dead.
Macbeth:
She should have died hereafter;
There would have been a time for such a word:
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last Syllable of Recorded time:
And all our yesterdays, have lighted Fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief Candle,
Life's but a walking Shadow, a poor Player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the Stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a Tale
Told by an Idiot, full of sound and fury
Signifying nothing.
Subtext Duncan’s
Murder
Macbeth: (1.) If we should fail?
Lady Macbeth: (2.) We fail?
But screw your courage to the sticking place,
And we'll not fail: (3.) when Duncan is asleep,
What cannot you and I perform upon
Th' unguarded Duncan? (4.) What not put upon
His spongy Officers? who shall bear the guilt
Of our great quell.
Macbeth: (5.) Bring forth MenChildren
only:
(6.) For thy undaunted Mettle should compose
Nothing but Males. (7.) Will it not be received,
When we have marked with blood those sleepy two
Of his own Chamber, and used their very Daggers,
That they have done't?
Lady Macbeth: (8.) Who dares receive it other,
As we shall make our Griefs and Clamor roar,
Upon his Death?
Macbeth: (9.) I am settled, and bend up
Each corporal Agent to this terrible Feat.
(10.) Away, and mock the time with fairest show,
False Face must hide what the false Heart doth know.