Archive for
Star Wars + MacBeth = Awesome at Alma College
Spoiler alert: “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” is awesome. So awesome it’s made almost $1 Billion and almost made the world forget about Jar Jar Binks.
It’s got everything. A great story. Epic battles. Ambition and betrayal. And cool sword fights.
You know what else has that stuff? Shakespeare.
Spurred by the popularity of the movie franchise, Alma College on Feb. 6 is hosting “MacSith.”
No joke. It’s a marriage of Macbeth and Star Wars, complete with light sabers and Jedi robes. It stays true to the spirit of the original Shakespeare play, but reimagined a long, long time in a galaxy far, far away.
“Geeks love ‘Star Wars,’ and Shakespeare is universal,” says Mike Sheldon, production coordinator and instructor of theatre and dance at Alma.
“The Shakespeare-‘Star Wars’ integration works great.”
The show has run in Chicago for two years and has been performed at Comic-Con, the annual pop culture extravaganza in San Diego.
Tickets are $10 for adults and free for Alma students.
It’s unconventional, but it’s a nifty way to make Shakespeare more accessible to younger audiences and highlight that good stories — no matter if they’re set in space or Scotland — have time-honored messages and lessons that apply to everyone.
That’s because different approaches are cherished and cultivated at Alma College and Michigan’s top 15 independent colleges and universities.
The schools encourage students to try new things, look at the world differently and chart their own path. They prefer community to crowds that just doesn’t exist at big state schools
With low class sizes and award-winning faculty, the schools are proud that students forge lifelong bonds with professors.
Often less expensive than public institutions, the independents boast higher four-year graduation rates for a truly unique and affordable experience.
Be bold. Be different. Go independent.