Main Stage Season Schedule

Macbeth
by William Shakespeare
directed by Amy Steiger

October 23-27, 30, 31 & November 1 @ 8:00 p.m.

Town Center & Old State House, Historic St. Mary’s City

Shakespeare’s tale of terrors and of unbridled ambition is full of “present fears” and “horrible imaginings” – witches, ghosts, and deadly violence both actual and imaginary – that trouble boundaries between the material world and systems or feelings that can less easily be clutched in the hands.

Exploring the remarkable natural and architectural landscape of Historic St. Mary’s City, this site-specific Halloween production travels a path from outdoors in the Town Center to inside the old State House. Along the way, we will draw on Shakespeare’s roots in medieval theater, on the history of witches in colonial Maryland and early modern England, and on the power of all kinds of fear, then and now.

In case of inclement weather, performances will take place in the old State House.

Ticket prices for this unique performance of MACBETH are $4 for students, faculty, SMCM staff, senior citizens, and Arts Alliance members; $6 general admission.

Please note:

Each audience for this production will be limited to approximately 40 people, so be sure to make reservations early.

For reservations, email the Theater Box Office at boxoffice@smcm.edu or telephone 240-895-4243 (ext. 4243). You may pick up your tickets in advance at the Box Office in Montgomery Hall or on-site near Farthing’s Ordinary in Historic St. Mary’s City on the evening of the performance.

This is a traveling production of Shakespeare’s play and will require walking from location to location. Pathways from HSMC’s Town Center to the old State House and the State House, itself, will accommodate wheelchairs and walkers.

Patrons should gather at the Box Office near Farthing’s Ordinary in Historic St. Mary’s City for the beginning of the show.

Cabaret Macabre
by Happenstance Theater

November 20-21 @ 8:00 p.m.
FREE performances & workshops

Bruce Davis Theater, Montgomery Hall Fine Arts Center

Happenstance Theater (www.happenstancetheater.com) is a six-member, Rockville, MD-based performance troupe steeped in the traditions of commedia dell’arte, clowning, circus, and vaudeville. The award-winning company, which visited St. Mary’s College two years ago to overflowing and audiences for its performances of BROUHAHA, is committed to devising, producing, and touring original, performer-created visual and poetic theater that stretches the boundaries of traditional circus/clowning practices.

Inspired by the pen-and-ink illustrations of Edward Gorey, by Victorian nightmares his macabre narrative works conjure, “dangerous croquet, Gothic romance, afternoon tea, and perils of the deep,” CABARET MACABRE captures Happenstance Theater’s witty and visual theatrical collage that is the stamp of their work. CABARET MACABRE was nominated for three local “Tony Awards,” the Helen Hayes, in 2014 for Outstanding Costume Design, Resident Production (Sabrina Mandell, co-artistic director of the company); Outstanding Movement, Resident Play; and The Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding New Play or Musical.

Performances of CABARET MACABRE are free and open to the public. Reservations required.

During their residency, company members will conduct two workshops on devised theater and on improvisatory performance. These workshops are free and open to the public as well, but space is limited. Time and location TBD. Please check back periodically for more information.

The Nether
by Jennifer Haley
directed by Mark A. Rhoda

April 22-25 @ 8:00 p.m.
April 26 @ 2:00 p.m.

Bruce Davis Theater, Montgomery Hall Fine Arts Center

Recipient of the prestigious Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for playwriting (2012), Jennifer Haley’s THE NETHER is a sci-fi crime thriller that takes its characters and audience into the dark corners of the imagination.

The Internet has evolved into The Nether, a vast network of virtual realms, many indistinguishable from IRL. Users may log in, choose any identity, and indulge any desire, from the safety of their increasingly delimited realities. When Detective Morris investigates a site called The Hideaway, where pedophiles may live out their fantasies, she brings its creator (Sims IRL/Papa in The Nether), in for interrogation. They discover that their emotional attachments formed in and their reliance on this realm have affected them IRL, raising ethical questions about virtuality and its allure.

Playwright Haley chooses an extreme example – manifest in The Hideaway – to test the hypothesis that virtual reality is just that, virtual, a no-space to which we may retreat to engage in behaviors we might otherwise resist, condemn, or reject “in real life” (IRL). Or would we?

THE NETHER contains mature themes and may not be appropriate for all age groups.