Baltimore Sun Reviews Macbeth

Macbeth's dark future

Chesapeake's production is able, straightforward

"Double, double toil and trouble;/Fire, burn; and, caldron, bubble."

The Chesapeake Shakespeare Company is presenting Macbeth through Dec. 2 at Howard County Center for the Arts.

In the public mind, the three witches have almost become comic characters. Stirring their steaming brew and chanting their imprecations, they are ideal subjects for comedy sketches and magazine cartoons, not to mention informal gags at the kitchen range.

But if an audience can immerse itself in the idea that people in Shakespeare's dark, savage Scotland believe seriously in mystic forces that can shape their lives and forecast their destinies, the play will unfold in all its power.

Macbeth is the central victim of these forces. We see him and a fellow general, Banquo, returning with honor from a battle in which they defeated a rebellion against their king, Duncan.

The witches, whom they come upon unexpectedly, make unsettling predictions about Macbeth's future. The first hails him as Thane of Glamis. That makes sense; it is Macbeth's title.

The second hails him as Thane of Cawdor. Macbeth wonders how this can be. He knows Cawdor; the man is alive and well.

The third witch proclaims that Macbeth will be king.

Unlikely as they are, Macbeth cannot put these predictions out of his mind. Already he is acting deceitfully, pretending to Banquo that he does not take the witches' words seriously.

Then the king, discovering Cawdor to be a traitor, transfers his lands and title to Macbeth as a reward for his service.

Two out of three! And only one old man between Macbeth and the throne! Evil ambition is born in his heart.

Seeing clearly what horrors he could unleash, he is inclined to suppress his impulses, to draw back from doing anything rash.

But his wife, Lady Macbeth, is ambitious too -- and practical. It is simple, she says. Just do it.

Together they plot to murder Duncan in his sleep and put the blame on his attendants. The plan succeeds, and Macbeth becomes king.

Although horrified at what he has done, he cannot turn back.

More murders are needed to solidify his position. Encouraged by further predictions by the witches (which turn out to be deceptive), he pursues his evil course. Inevitably his bloody deeds catch up with him.

In this production, Scott Alan Small is a forceful Macbeth. Lesley Malin plays Lady Macbeth, not as a heartless shrew but as a woman ambitious for her husband, urging him on, now in an insinuating tone, now in a scolding one.

Others in the huge cast include Wayne Willinger (Banquo), Charlie Mitchell (Macduff), Tami Moon (Lady Macduff), Frank B. Moorman (Duncan), Vince Eisenson (Malcolm) and Frank Mancino (Lennox).

Ian Gallanar provides his customary able direction, making a few cuts in the script and dropping several characters. In a program note, he says he decided to mount a straightforward production, with no directorial flights of fancy. His performers turn in performances appropriate to this plan.

Some of them, unfortunately, speak so rapidly and indistinctly that many of their words are lost. Shakespeare's poetic images and ruminations, couched in the language of 400 years ago, are often hard to grasp. The audience needs to comprehend every syllable.

The witches (Jenny Leopold, Jenny Crooks, Lorraine Imwold) and their chief Hecate (Santina Maiolatesi) deserve mention for their clear enunciation. In this production, they are not the usual old crones but seductive young women, given to sinuous, choreographed movements. Hecate, in addition, displays a good singing voice.

Designer Laura Ridgeway gives them colorful, picturesque costumes reminiscent of the Gypsy style. By contrast, most of the Scottish noblemen and officers are dressed in a drab mixture of contemporary and archaic garments.

This gives the production a timeless, universal air, but the sameness of the costumes makes it difficult to tell the good guys from the bad, and hard even to identify some of the individual characters.

The action is effectively played against an austere set consisting of a few pillars. Gallanar's sound effects -- soft drums, subtle music -- create an appropriately sinister atmosphere, and his special effects -- Banquo's ghost materializes, and so do some other apparitions -- are nicely managed.

Chesapeake Shakespeare Company presents Macbeth at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays through Dec. 2 at Howard County Center for the Arts, 8510 High Ridge Road, Ellicott City. Reservations: 866-811-4111 or www.ches apeakeshakespeare.com.

Howard County Times Reviews Macbeth

Classic troupe stages a spot-on 'Macbeth'

William Shakespeare may not have written many significant roles for women, but the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company's forceful production of "Macbeth" proves that when he did write female-friendly roles, he went all- out.

Actor Lesley Malin made the role of the guilt-ridden Lady Macbeth the central focus of the new production that opened Friday at the Howard County Center for the Arts. Malin was, by turns, aggressive, sexy, desperate, controlling and finally, suicidal.

It's a performance that will have you wondering if Shakespeare shouldn't have called this show "Lady Macbeth."

Director Ian Gallanar eschews high concepts and gimmicks in favor of allowing his troupe of mostly veteran actors to concentrate on the script and the characters. It's a back-to-basics approach that can't really be faulted -- though it can't be called brilliant, either, like the troupe's audacious "Comedy of Errors."

The word-heavy production engages the intellect, all right, but it would be all the more effective if it better engaged the emotions.

Most folks know the story about a Scottish king convinced by his power-seeking wife to slay another king, Duncan, and grab the throne of Scotland. Macbeth gets what he wanted (a victory), but loses any hope of tranquility as supernatural forces prey upon his guilt.

Scott Alan Small makes Macbeth all aggression and rage, getting the most out of his many confrontational scenes. By contrast, Frank B. Moorman plays his nemesis, Duncan, as a model of level-headedness. Small shows his range by ably transitioning from his floor-stomping showcases into the touching romantic interludes with Lady Macbeth.

One thing that really angers the king is a trio of witches that always seem to portend trouble. Well, what did you expect from witches, Halloween candy? Played by Jenny Leopold, Jenny Crooks and Lorraine Imwold, the trio's movement-heavy scenes add an intoxicating otherworldly element to the proceedings.

Reality is hammered home in the battles that ensue. Before you know it, Macbeth has ordered the killing of his former friend Banquo (Wayne Willinger) and wiped out the family of Macduff (Charlie Mitchell), including his visibly pregnant wife (played by visibly pregnant actor Tami Moon).

The murders take their toll on the upwardly-mobile Macbeths. Lady Macbeth seeks to appease her husband with the admonition that "a little water will clear us of this deed," and she's right because clearly no one in Shakespeare's time could have foreseen DNA collecting at crime scenes.

But the psychological ramifications of murder leave Lady Macbeth worse for wear. Before we know it, she's wandering around, looking like a shadow of her former self and muttering the classic line "Out, damn'd spot! Out, I say!" It's a riveting scene, displaying range unforeseen from longtime company member Malin.

Good old Macbeth returns to the witches for guidance. Maybe he should have consulted instead with another roving female, Hectate, the goddess of the moon (played by Santina Maiolatesi). At least she could have sung an operatic interlude, like she skillfully does in one of the production's other memorable scenes.

Equally as intriguing as the action of this production is director Gallanar and lighting designer Dave Eske's decision to keep the stage darkly lit. While this makes the unfolding drama suitably ominous, it also dulls the intensity, robbing the audience of witnessing the immediacy of the fight scenes and reading the nuances on actors' faces.

Finally, a word needs to be said about the use of teenage actors: Chesapeake Shakespeare mixes them in comfortably here, setting an example as to how professional troupes can and should blend underage actors in their shows. The trio of Daniel Swann, Megan Lentz and Brennan Johnson work well with their Actors Equity counterparts, bringing an authenticity to the youthful roles that would have seemed forced if played by older actors.

Maybe that's one reason the lights were so low: You don't want young 'uns witnessing all that violence!

The Chesapeake Shakespeare Company continues its production of "Macbeth" Friday-Saturday 8 p.m., and Sunday 2 p.m., Nov. 15-18 and Nov. 30-Dec. 2, in the Howard County Center for the Arts' Black Box Theatre (8510 High Ridge Road, Ellicott City). Admission is $25 general, $15 for seniors and students younger than 21. Call 866-811-4111 or go to www.chesapeakeshakespeare.com.

Howard County Times Covers Macbeth

Lust! Power! Betrayal!

11/08/07
By Tony Sclafani


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On a cold, rainy Thursday night inside the Howard County Center for the Arts' Black Box Theatre, swords are clanking and voices are being raised. Anyone accidentally overhearing the proceedings might think war has been declared.

They would be half right: A battle is in the works, but it's a make-believe one, nestled in the second scene of the fourth act of William Shakespeare's "Macbeth," being rehearsed by actors in the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company. The Howard County-based professional ensemble is readying the production as the Friday, Nov. 9 opening attraction in its sixth season.

"This is the killing of the Macduff family," explains company member Frank Mancino, alluding to the mayhem on stage. "Macbeth is mad because Macduff ran off to England and left his wife and kids in the castle. So Macbeth sends us to murder them."

"He can't get Macduff, so he wipes out his family instead," adds fellow company member Jenny Leopold, who has both acted and directed for the company before. "This is the big final battle you're getting to see."

One thing you learn while hanging around the actors of the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company is that the troupe lives up to its name. They take the Bard very seriously. They know the classic British playwright's verses, plots and history like Britney Spears knows how to make headlines.

The knowledge has served them well. In just a few years, the company has gone from fledgling upstart to one of the most critically lauded drama groups in the state. In addition to winning several Greater Baltimore Theater Awards, it was the only Maryland troupe invited to take part in the prestigious Shakespeare in Washington Festival earlier this year.

King of tragedies

The accolades all become academic, though, as the actors prep for a brand new production. While "Macbeth" is one of Shakespeare's best-known plays, it amounts to a hefty bundle of pages, with literally thousands of lines spoken by nearly a dozen main characters. Loosely based on a historical account of King Macbeth of Scotland, it tackles such characteristic Shakespearean themes as lust, power and betrayal.

"I think Macbeth gets to the very core of some really important human issues," says troupe founder Ian Gallanar, who is directing this production in a sparse, back-to-basics style. "It's about more than ambition. Will we become impure to get something? I think Shakespeare says it in 'Macbeth' better than anybody's said it before or since."

While this is the first time the company has attempted the tragedy, Gallanar and "Macbeth" go back far enough that it takes him a while to remember his first encounter.

"My very first exposure to 'Macbeth' was in the fifth grade. I played Banquo. What appealed to me then was I got to play a ghost. I got to wipe some ketchup or something on my face. The whole idea of scariness and that kind of stuff was intriguing and interesting."

The experience may have indirectly led to his lifelong infatuation.

"What it did for me at an early age was that it made Shakespeare something that was fun, interesting, and something that I liked -- rather than something that was unapproachable, intangible or difficult," he notes. "So when there were opportunities to perform Shakespeare, I didn't shy away from them. I remembered having all that fun at an early age."

Reaching out

Gallanar is still having fun but it's also a lot of work. Besides staging "Macbeth" in the troupe's usual space, he decided to branch out and mount it at two private schools and at the Patuxent Institution, a state psychiatric facility.

"One of the reasons we're called the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company is because we've thought of ourselves as a regional company, not just one located in a city for that city alone," he explains. "We did huge amounts of strategic planning this year. What came across was that we really wanted to spend some serious time and effort with our education program."

As such, Gallanar and company decided to stage productions in schools where troupe members work. They'll be mounting "Macbeth" at the McDonough School in Owings Mills, where Kevin Costa is on the faculty, then take it to the Episcopal High School of Alexandria, Va., where Chuck Leonard teaches.

Each production will draw on a handful of local students for the smaller roles. Also, both teachers will play the part of the Porter in their respective schools; for the Howard County performance, longtime troupe member Patrick Kilpatrick will play that role.

"We wanted to spend a couple of weeks having a big impact, not just going and doing a performance and then leaving," recalls Gallanar. "We wanted to spend time with the kids and have them get their fingers in the mud, as it were, of Shakespeare and the play we're working on."

The Patuxent Institution gig came about almost by accident, with a stray phone call. "Somebody who was with the chaplain's office called. The warden had been looking to do something like this for a while," he says.

Gallanar and company found the idea irresistible. "Community is a very important part of our values, and here was a part of our community nobody ever thinks about."

Lines and angles

Back in the rehearsal hall, actors Scott Alan Small and Lesley Malin are milling about, waiting to run through their lines. The two seasonsed actors are playing the lead roles of Macbeth, Thane of Glamis, and Lady Macbeth, his wife.

Small and Malin interact playfully, conversing like a long-married couple, before the conversation turns to the nuts-and-bolts of touring.

"It's the same actors, pretty much," says Small, "but it will mean different entrances and exits at the other locations. We have all the same set pieces, so we'll have that familiarity. But we don't have the same opportunity to rehearse on other stages, so we'll have to make those connections in our head."

"It's a challenge for everybody," adds Malin, who is also the troupe's managing director. "It's great to work on those creative muscles a little bit and try some new places. The two private schools have some beautiful theaters. I think everyone's looking forward to having those big theaters with lots and lots of people in them."

Both actors say they have their methods of memorizing the dozens of intricate lines contained in Shakespeare's plays.

"It's easier with a Shakespeare play because he wrote in verse. And one of the reasons he wrote in verse is because it's easier to remember," Malin quips.

Adds Small: "She pays more attention to the verse, where I try to break the verse down in my head."

"That's wrong, you shouldn't do that," interrupts Malin with a laugh.

"What connects it for me is seeing the blocking and seeing this person across from me. Learning dialogue really needs that back and forth with another person," says Small as director of programming Tami Moon calls for the players to assemble for a run-through.

"I can sit at home and run my lines in my head," adds Small by way of a final word, "but I really have to see what I'm doing in order to remember what I'm supposed to be saying."

The Chesapeake Shakespeare Company will present "Macbeth" Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., and Sundays at 2 p.m., Nov. 9 to 18 and Nov. 30 through Dec. 2, in the Howard County Center for the Arts' Black Box Theatre (8510 High Ridge Road, Ellicott City). Admission is $25 general, $15 for seniors and students younger than 21. On Sunday, Nov. 11, one child will be admitted free with a paying adult. Call 866-811-4111 or go to www.chesapeakeshakespeare.com.

Washington Post Video on Prison Performance

Washington Post Covers CSC Show at Patuxent Institution

Bard Behind Bars
All the World's a Stage, Including an Inmates' Gym at the Patuxent Institution

By William Wan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, November 5, 2007; Page B01

There was an air of uncertainty yesterday in the prison gym as the witches of Macbeth took to the stage.

Finally -- after the correctional officers had cataloged every piece of equipment, after the actors had been patted down and buzzed through steel doors, after a makeshift stage had been set up and secured -- Shakespeare was about to make his debut at the Patuxent Institution, a penitentiary housing hundreds of violent crime convicts.



It was the first time in Maryland history, as far as anyone knew, for such a performance in a maximum-security facility. And how exactly would the Bard of Avon play in prison?

For the occasion, the Ellicott City-based Chesapeake Shakespeare Company had chosen his shortest tragedy: Macbeth, a play full of bloody murder, betrayal and regret.

"I wonder about the violence and how that will go over with the inmates," said Charlie Mitchell as he prepared for his role as Macduff, a force of vengeance in the play. "It feels odd to perform acts of violence in front of people who were sent here in many cases for those very same acts."

For weeks, the performers had prepared for their visit to the institution in Jessup, halfway between Washington and Baltimore. Many adjustments had to be made to meet the penitentiary's strict regulations: Stainless steel swords were ruled out as a security hazard, so the stage crew used wooden sticks for the play's climatic duel. Two parts normally played by child actors were written out over safety concerns. And correctional officers, imagining all that could go wrong during a 10-minute intermission, insisted that the performance be break-free.

Despite the restrictions, organizers hoped Shakespeare's centuries-old words and themes would strike a chord.

"His work is universal. I mean, who else still has his stuff being performed 400 years later?" said Warden John Wilt, a longtime fan of the bard's who had come up with the idea.
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A large grizzly bear of a man, Wilt has the graying beard and gruff manner of a man who has spent 37 years in prisons. But all those years, he apparently was nurturing a soft spot for Shakespeare. Every year, he observes the writer's birthday on April 23 by talking about his plays to anyone who will listen. At home, he keeps a journal full of his favorite Shakespeare quotes.

"Shakespeare puts into pithy words what I feel in everyday life," Wilt explained, rattling off a string of obscure lines. One night, driving home from work, Wilt saw a sign advertising the local Shakespeare company and asked inmates and staff how they felt about bringing a little literature into the prison. Twenty years ago, he told them, he had brought a play into a minimum-security facility with mostly positive results. Why not try it here?

Many, especially among the inmates, were surprised. But if it could work anywhere, it would work at Patuxent Institution, said Randall Nero, a psychologist in charge of the prison's operation.

The facility is set apart from other Maryland prisons, with its own parole board and structure, he noted, which allows Patuxent to emphasize treatment rather than punishment for its 812 convicts. Although almost half of the inmates in Maryland's other prisons are rearrested within three years on parole, Patuxent has a zero percent recidivism rate in that period, Nero says.

Lessons about decision-making and consequences are injected into almost every facet of prison life, he said, so a play exploring murder and its consequences would fit right in.

The committee of inmates in charge of organizing the event decided to charge $5 admission to raise money for a worthy cause: a scholarship for students to attend historically black colleges.



But in prison, where inmates make about $20 a month in various jobs, $5 can be asking a lot. To drum up interest, some prisoners drew posters. Others, such as Albert Tasker, 24, and Jarreau Newton, 30, made rounds throughout the housing units to talk up the play.

"But when the younger guys started asking us a lot of questions, like what the play's about, we didn't know what to say," Newton said with a sheepish laugh. "I mean, I don't know too much about it myself."

So instead, he and Tasker tried appealing to prisoners' altruism.

"A lot of us took something from society," said Tasker, who has been locked up since he was 15 for second-degree murder. "This scholarship is a chance for us to give something back."

Over in women's housing, Shiva Dayani, 25, was one of the few inmates who actually knew what Macbeth was about (albeit through a comic book version she had borrowed from one of the prison's college instructors).

"I tried to sell it like a movie," said Dayani, who is serving a 45-year sentence for second-degree murder. "I told them there's violence, witches, swords and kings. That it's like life but to the extreme. That in the end it's about the things people will do to get what they want and what that does to them."

Their efforts seemed to pay off. More than 150 inmates bought tickets for yesterday's performance, and each was allowed to bring in two family members or friends. About 200 visitors showed up, and their mere presence, several inmates said, turned out to be one of the highlights of the event.
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Many prisoners draped their arms around girlfriends and wives as though they were out on the town while they watched Macbeth hatch his murderous plot. Other inmates whispered reactions to their mothers and fathers as they witnessed Lady Macbeth's mind unraveling before them.

There was no stage lighting, which complicated some scenes because the dead had to walk or be dragged offstage rather than surreptitiously removed. And the prison's poor acoustics garbled many of the lines. Still, as the play's climactic fight unfurled, ending with Macbeth's demise, the audience began chattering excitedly.

"I never seen anything like it," said inmate Vouthynor Sovann, 27, at the play's conclusion. "I mean, it's nothing like TV or cable, you know? It's a whole nother level when it's live."

One mother, Veronica Tasker, 59, who had watched the play clasping her son's hand, smiled despite the gruesome ending. It had been a hard eight years since her son was locked up on murder charges, she said. Sitting there watching the play with him, she had seen clear parallels between her son's troubled life and Macbeth's tragic fall.

"What Macbeth did was he listened to the wrong people and did the wrong thing because of it," she said.

Soon after the actors took their curtain call, the correctional officers began ushering everyone out. Tasker hugged her son goodbye, kissed him on the cheek and walked out ruminating on the moral of the play.

Although there were no witches or Scottish armies involved in her son Albert's crime, he, too, had been blind to the consequences until it was too late, she said. "He doesn't have to end up like Macbeth did, though."

Tragedy might make for good Shakespearean drama, but for her son's story, she was hoping for more of a comedy.

Baltimore Sun Covers CSC Show at Patuxent Institution

Inmates get a visit with the Bard, behind bars

'Macbeth' is brought to Jessup prison

By Arin Gencer | Sun reporter
November 5, 2007


Yesterday, William Shakespeare slipped into Jessup's Patuxent Institution.

The Bard made his way through the security gate, then traveled down several long halls of the red-brick, maximum-security prison, before stepping inside the cinderblock walls of a gym that would serve as a temporary Globe Theatre.

One of his most notorious characters trudged in behind him: Macbeth.

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Patuxent inmates and their guests spent yesterday afternoon watching the schemes of the ambitious, murderous Scottish lord -- many for the first time -- as performed by the Ellicott City-based Chesapeake Shakespeare Company.

"It helps with the morale of the institution," Jarreau Newton, 30, an inmate at Patuxent for about 12 years, said of such events. The cultural opportunity gives inmates "something different to look at."

Warden John Wilt concurred. "It's an intellectual stimulation as well as a stimulation of imagination. ... There aren't an awful lot of recreational outlets for inmates in prison."

The audience of 300 or so ventured into the world of toil and trouble, horrible hags and bountiful bloodied daggers for charity as well as entertainment: The $5 admission would go to the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund, to which inmates regularly contribute.

But unlike past doughnut sales and other efforts, yesterday's event was a first for the prison, whose population hovers around 800 inmates, said Judy West, executive assistant to the director.

The inmates' crimes run the gamut, including rape, homicide and drug-related offenses, said Mark Vernarelli, director of public information for the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services.

West said that inmates at Patuxent stay an average of 25 years.

Not all inmates were allowed to attend yesterday's show. Only those in Patuxent's youth and eligible-person programs, as well as some Division of Correction inmates, qualified, provided they had been infraction-free for a year, said Randall Nero, the institution's director.

Wilt, a Shakespeare aficionado, proposed the idea after seeing a sign for the Shakespeare company's forthcoming run of Macbeth. He had some experience bringing actors before inmates at another facility: In the 1980s, he had asked actors from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County to perform A Midsummer Night's Dream at Brockbridge Correctional Facility, also in Jessup, Wilt said.

The Patuxent performance had launched "an awful lot of activity to study both the play and Shakespeare in general," he said.

Artist inmates designed posters -- which hung around the gym yesterday -- advertising the play. Extra copies of Macbeth were added to the library. One therapist read and discussed the story with the inmates in her group, Wilt said.

The troupe had to make its own adjustments for its prison debut, said Tami Moon, director of programming for Chesapeake. Real swords and daggers were replaced with wood and plastic, respectively, she said.

"It'd be great if this could encourage more groups to come in," Moon said.

The irony of Macbeth -- a blood-drenched story of greed and guilt -- being performed in a prison was not lost on inmates or institute officials.

"Most of what goes on in this play isn't, in some sense, unfamiliar to people here," Wilt said, adding that ambition, impatience and guilt probably weren't foreign concepts to the inmates. "It should resonate with more than a few."

"It's a play that existed for hundreds of years and, I think, captures the emotions that people deal with and cope with in life," Nero said.

Evoking such themes "might be a good thing, too," said Albert Tasker, 24, who has been at Patuxent for 7 1/2 years. "It might help people question their character."

And, on a practical level, Wilt added, as one of the Bard's more straightforward plays, Macbeth would likely be easier for Shakespeare novices to follow.

Several inmates said they enjoyed the afternoon theater.

"I would like to see it outside," to experience Macbeth without the inherent restrictions of a prison performance, Newton said.

Jamal Sells, 28, who sat between his mother and aunt as he watched the play, said he was intrigued by the story.

"It was cool," Sells said. "I might read the book now."

Baltimore Examiner Covers CSC Show at Pauxent Institution

‘Macbeth’ enthralls inmates
by Laura Duffy, The Examiner
BALTIMORE (Map, News) - Patuxent Institution inmates enjoyed one of the finer things in life this past weekend: a performance of Shakespeare’s “Macbeth.”

“I’m excited to see the play,” said inmate Jarreau Newton. “We raised money for the institution to donate towards the Thurgood Marshall Fund.”

For $5, 114 inmates and two guests were entertained by the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company. The male and female inmates were selected based upon their good behavior.

“We’re exposing inmates to the classics,” said Eric Schaffer, associate director of behavioral sciences. “This is one of our long-term therapy programs. People grow up within our systems, and a play like ‘Macbeth’ features aspects of life that are familiar to the inmates.”
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“I read Shakespeare plays in high school, but I am excited to see a play,” said inmate Bronwynn Myers. “This whole experience is endearing to me because I want to participate and give back to the community.”

Cleaning bathrooms and scrubbing kitchens generated proceeds designed to benefit the black community through the Thurgood Marshall Fund.

“These people are a part of our community,” said Tammy Moon before performing as Lady McDuff. “The institution wanted to ‘Macbeth’ regardless of the play’s violence.”

The violence and life lessons of Macbeth relate to the inmates, said artistic director Ian Gallanar. “It’s great to have such success and be so involved with the therapy and rehabilitation of the inmates.”

Patuxent Institute — well known for its experimental treatment methods — is the second prison in 20 years to invite actors behind bars. In an echoing auditorium, inmates sat on orange chairs with loved ones and watched the tragedy of Macbeth unfold.

“I asked the inmates if they would be interested in fundraising for a play,” said warden John Wilt, originator of the first production at Brockbridge Facility more than 20 years ago. “It’s an opportunity to give back to the communities from which they have come.”

Reading classics like ‘Macbeth’ is just one of the rehabilitation services offered at the institution. Others include gardening, quilting and a barber shop.

“Every inmate goes through extensive behavior modifications,” said Mark Vernarelli, director of public safety. “We want to acclimate inmates back into society.”