Listening to Logophile Eric Dawe

1. Is this the first time you’ve directed at Riverwalk? If so – why did you choose this show to be your first, and if not, what was your first, when, and why did you decide to come back now?
Yes, this is the first time I've directed at Riverwalk. I had directed some Shakespeare in Grand Rapids, and have wanted to direct this show for awhile. When I heard Riverwalk was celebrating its 20th anniversary, I submitted 'Macbeth' because I felt that Riverwalk, as a legitimate theatre, really needed to do some Shakespeare for this important anniversary season.

2. What is the most alluring feature to you about MacBeth?
The characters and the story. Part of Shakespeare's genius is that even with his most heinous characters, their humanity is always palpable. Macbeth betrays his conscience - and then is torn apart by his guilt. The harder he tries to excise his moral compass, the more he finds himself in its unrelenting grip. Lady Macbeth, likewise, seems so strong and Machiavellian; but when she loses control of Macbeth, we see how truly dependent she was on him. When he casts her adrift, she loses her soul. All the characters in this play are fully realized and impeccably drawn - they all have their strengths and their weaknesses. And we recognize ourselves in all of them.

3. Why is theatre relevant to the community?
For that answer, I'll turn to Shakespeare again. Hamlet tells the players that their charge is to hold up a mirror to nature - "to show virtue her features, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure." In other words, theatre is that lens through which we see the nobility and ignobility of the human condition; theatre exposes society's decencies and flaws with unflinching honesty. But it also helps us accept ourselves, with all our virtues and failings. It challenges us often to reach beyond our grasp, to strive for to be better than we are.

4. I know that you act as well as direct – do you like one better than the other? What are the challenges and rewards you enjoy/encounter in both endeavors?
I've often said that as an actor, you are one of the colors on the artist's palette. You bring as much richness and depth to that color as you can, using your imagination, intellect, and emotions. As a director, you determine how all the colors are composed on the canvass, to what degree and intensity. It's a much bigger task, but it is also much more rewarding in many ways. As an actor, you get to focus your energies on your character; you can dig deep and concentrate on the inner life and conflicts of the role. As a director, you get to manage all of the relationships on the stage. It's like mixing a sound track: you can bring the 'volume' up in some moments, or dial them down in others. It's like conducting an orchestra: the script is the score; the characters are the various instruments. Tempo, dynamics, they're all up to the director.

5. You saw Teller’s version of MacBeth – how did it inspire you to re-create this show with your own stamp? What did you like and not like about Teller’s version?
I always intended to do this show with some magical effects. This is a good old-fashioned 'Ghost Story,' with witches and specters and supernatural events. I wanted to see Teller's version to be sure that they could be integrated into the play in a way that supported the action, rather than detracting from it. Teller did that, to a great extent. I also knew it would require my actors to learn some things they don't usually have to do when acting; but then, several of them have had to learn how to fight with swords for the first time, too. Acting sometimes includes challenges; but they can enhance the experience of the play for the audience.

I enjoyed the pace and tempo of Teller's production of "Macbeth." Unlike audiences in Shakespeare's time - who only had the theatre for diversion. Shakespeare could indulge in plays that ran for three hours or more. Today's audiences are conditioned much differently. Movies are two hours long; we have DVDs and Wiis and Play Stations and IMAX. I've pared the script down so that it emphasizes the action while still retaining the genius and integrity of the story.

6. Tell us more about yourself:
I've been doing theatre for too many years to count. Lately, I've been drawn much more to writing. I've won a few awards regionally and nationally for both stage plays and screenplays, and that's encouragement enough to keep me going. I've also just completed my first novel and would like to get that published (www.lastkingoftroy.com). Hopefully, soon. Next year, Riverwalk will produce one of my plays, 'The Watch List,' as part of its 2009-2010 season. It won the 2005 C.T.A.M. Regional Playwriting Competition, and was awarded 'Honorable Mention' in the Writer's Digest 76th Annual Writing Competition - which received over 19,000 submissions.

7. Why is theatre important to you?
When I was younger, it was an outlet, a form of self-expression. As I get older, I find it more of an inroad into understanding the human condition, the conflicts and aspirations we all share. Having lived several decades now, and experienced the joys and heartaches of raising a family, the challenges of finding a path through life, the death of loved ones, I find theatre as a way of connecting with others, sharing their triumphs and sorrows, and discovering those common threads that unite - and sometimes divide - us.

8. What is MacBeth’s weakness, and is he truly redeemed at the end of this play? In what way?
Well now, that's a question that could be debated endlessly - and by better minds than mine. For me, Macbeth is a man who has been schooled all his life to follow the rules, but has a driving ambition that, goaded by temptation, overmasters his virtue in a moment - a moment that propels him down a path of slaughter and self-destruction. As I said earlier, even after he murders Duncan, Macbeth cannot cast away his moral compass. The more he tries, the more tormented he becomes.

Is Macbeth redeemed at the end of the play? By no means. He is bitter and morally desolate, his soul as barren as the blasted heath on which he first meets the Weird Sisters. He is remorseless, determined to fight on against the powers of right, even when he knows that the fates have betrayed him and that the fight is futile. In the end, he is bitter and defiant, so I think it's hard to say he's truly redeemed in any sense of the word. He stands in marked contrast to the first Thane of Cawdor, who acknowledges his sins, asks for forgiveness, and faces death with nobility.

9. Should we pity Lady MacBeth, or does she deserve her fate?
The genius of Shakespeare is that we do pity Lady Macbeth, even while we feel that she deserves her fate. She's a woman in a man's world. She's been married before, probably lost her husband and her children to death, knows what it's like to be powerless, and hated it. She knows Macbeth is an ambitious man, and knew it when she married him - seeing in him the avenue to gaining control of her life and the power that will keep her from ever falling victim to the helplessness of being a woman again. Her moral choices are wrong; but we can identify with her conflicts, even while decrying her actions.

10. Any comment on the role of the witches in the play? And one cast one male?
The Weird Sisters, as they are more aptly called, are the catalyst for the entire action of the play. What's open to debate is whether they KNEW Macbeth would murder Duncan (predestination), or whether they simply goad him to the task by inflaming his vaulting ambition (self-determination). Certainly, they are master psychologists. They know Macbeth's psyche better than he knows it himself. Is this some kind of supernatural knowledge? Perhaps - or perhaps not. Lady Macbeth knows her husband's ambition and his dark impulses - but she also knows he is conflicted by a set of high moral values, as well. If Macbeth's qualities are so obvious to Lady Macbeth, why wouldn't the Weird Sisters also recognize these vices and virtues, as well?
Quick Questions:

1. Favorite play:
Hamlet

2. Favorite line from a play:
Way too many to list. Among the favorites are:
'O, for a muse of fire that would ascend the brightest heaven of invention.'
'All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players.'
'We are such stuff as dreams are made on.'

3. Favorite character you’d played:
Atticus Finch, 'To Kill a Mockingbird'; Claudius, in 'Hamlet'

4. Dream role for you to play?
Iago ('Othello'); Sir Thomas More ('A Man for All Seasons'); Don Quixote ('Man of La Mancha')

5. Dream show for you to direct?
Wow, right now, 'Macbeth' is my dream show. I'll have to let the dust settle when this is over and see what pops up. When I get a little more seasoned, I'd like to do 'Hamlet,' of course; and 'Othello.'