Molly Wetzel- Witch & Lady Macduff in the Tour Production of Macbeth

The tour is still out on the road and going strong since January.  We decided to check in with actor Molly Wetzel, who plays a Witch, Lady Macduff and many other parts in Macbeth. Molly has been with the Festival for the last two seasons. Last year, she appeared in The Greenshow, Into the Woods as Lucinda and Sense and Sensibility. She earned her BFA at Otterbein University and currently lives in New York City. This is her first role in Macbeth and her first time touring. She shared her thoughts about the play and the tour. 

How do you make this story relevant for the students?

I honestly think that the story is relevant to everyone. Everyone can relate to wanting something, and figuring out what lengths you need to go to get what you want. Macbeth just has to go to great lengths to become king (spoiler alert?). We watch Macbeth deal with the consequences of his actions, and ultimately have to decide for ourselves what he should have done, which of his actions we would consider “worth it”, and whether he truly got what he wanted. The show still makes me think when we run it, and I’m very familiar with the script!

What do you hope the students will take-away from your production?

I honestly think that the story is relevant to everyone. Everyone can relate to wanting something, and figuring out what lengths you need to go to get what you want. Macbeth just has to go to great lengths to become king (spoiler alert?). We watch Macbeth deal with the consequences of his actions, and ultimately have to decide for ourselves what he should have done, which of his actions we would consider “worth it”, and whether he truly got what he wanted. The show still makes me think when we run it, and I’m very familiar with the script!

What do you hope the students will take-away from your production?

I really hope the students will take away that good and bad isn’t always black and white- there are definite shades of grey. Macbeth does things that are bad for sure, but does it really make him a bad person? Is there such a thing as a bad person? I hope that our production starts a dialogue about that. 

What are some challenges that you might run into while on the road?

I’m sure there will be some mishaps during the show throughout the run, and it may be challenging to fix some of them with such a small group. During summers at USF if you rip a costume, you let your dresser know and they take the appropriate steps to fix it. On the road we only have the 10 of us and we’ll have to fix it ourselves! Luckily our costume team taught us how to take care of things like this before we left, but I imagine we’ll have those sorts of challenges. However, so far our group is really cohesive and can go with the flow- I’m sure that will help us a lot. 

The Tour is currently on the road, performing in 5 states until April. You can learn more at

http://www.bard.org/education/tour.html

#utahshakes #shakestour

Wetzel, Harris, Ivers (Witches)