This program will be held virtually on Zoom. Please register for free in advance here.
NOTE: You can also watch a live stream of the program on the Newberry Facebook page or YouTube channel.
To many modern audiences, Macbeth is about personal ambition and revenge. Yet Shakespeare’s tragedy also engages directly, though subtly, with the politics of Elizabethan England—and especially the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, in which a group of English Catholics conspired to blow up Parliament and kill King James I.
In this virtual program, actress Erin Sloan will speak with members of the Shakespeare Project of Chicago about how the real-life events of the Gunpowder Plot and the figure of conspirator Guy Fawkes wove their way into Shakespeare’s bloodiest play.
About the speaker:
Erin Sloan made her debut with the Shakespeare Project of Chicago in Women Beware Women. Subsequently, she appeared in Shakespeare Project productions of The Californian Incident (as Maggie) and Jefferson & Adams (as Abigail Adams). She also plans to direct a Shakespeare Project production of Measure For Measure, set to open when performances resume after the pandemic. Erin is a member of Actor’s Equity and was an Affiliated Teaching Artist with the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington DC. She holds an MFA in Classical Acting from the Academy for Classical Acting at George Washington University.
This program is cosponsored by the Newberry's Department of Public Engagement and Center for Renaissance Studies.
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