Tour of Duty

ASF's Lady Macbeth and company bring Shakespeare's soldiers to life for the U.S. military

by Kathleen McCall

Thursday, Sept. 9, 2004

We did a final tech/dress tonight for an invited audience at Maxwell Air Force Base here in Montgomery, Ala. I must say it was thrilling to play for a military audience. Macbeth seems to speak directly to them and their world. I knew this as we were preparing it, but I didn't realize how palpable it was until I was saying those lines directly to them: "What not put upon his spongy officers," "You do unbend your noble strength." It is such a military play: full of images of blood, battle, death and so much of what these men and women are facing directly with the war in Iraq. The politics of the piece rang very real as well, and it is hard for me not to think about how we as a human race continue to make the same mistakes throughout history. I do on some level want to make this a political statement, but know that my job is simply to play the play and let the audience interpret.

Friday, Sept. 10

Afternoon rehearsal for about two hours, to correct some technical things but mostly I think for my husband Kent Thompson to have time to say goodbye to directing the piece. With only two-and-a-half weeks of rehearsal, we have had to work fast to get all the new folks up and running, including Remi Sandri, our Macbeth.

In the afternoon, there was a press conference with folks from the National Endowment for the Arts and a reception at ASF before patrons were bused over to the base for the opening night performance. Apparently, the NEA personnel were impressed with what they saw; I think they thought they were coming to see the local yokels do a little Shakespeare skit. They certainly got their eyes opened! We all seemed to free up and sail through the evening and got a standing ovation.

Saturday, Sept. 11

7 p.m. show at Maxwell. The audience seemed a little more restless to me, but Mark Leslie, our stage manager, thought it was simply that they're not used to attending theatre and think of it like a movie. At least the story is coming through clearly. I can always tell if we have them when I do my sleepwalking scene. If you can hear a pin drop, they are with us. So far, so good.

Monday, Sept. 13

The morning was marred by my sadness in leaving my son Alex at school, knowing that I will miss him so much over the next seven weeks.

We piled onto the bus and headed across Georgia. At one stop we pulled into a filling station and Philip Pleasants, who plays the roles of the Porter and Siward, went for a cup of coffee. The patrons asked what the bus was all about, and Philip said we were from the Alabama Shakespeare Festival. Their response was, "What's that?" Then he said we were headed to the Kings Bay Sub Base to perform Macbeth, and their response was, "What's that?" Paul Hebron, who plays King Duncan, later joked to Philip that at this point he should have just told them we were a bunch of communist homosexuals.

Tuesday, Sept. 14

This morning Remi and myself, along with Chris Mixon (Ross), Rodney Clark (Caithness/captain/murderer) and Howard Overshown (Macduff), visited Camden County High School to do outreach with Macbeth. When we got there, the classes we met with had neither read the play nor were going to be able to see it. There had been a lottery for tickets and they hadn't won. We all wondered what we were doing there. As it turned out, Remi and I had a great group of kids who got into the scenes we did. The others didn't have as much luck.

Wednesday, Sept. 15

From Mark Leslie:

9:30 a.m. student show. We are on the short set in a small gymnasium. They are only placing seating for 200. We will not be using microphones and you should take note to be extra articulate. If you play scenes softly no one will hear you. But LOUDER and SLOWER in this case does not mean clearer, it just means more boomy. Dare I say, "Use your tongues."

DRESSING ROOMS (if you wish to call them that) are located in a pipe and drape area in the adjoining gym. It will be cramped. We have tried to make it as efficient and comfortable as possible given the circumstances, but this is a gym after all.

NOISE: I can NOT encourage you enough to be quiet in the dressing area. The audience will hear you as they enter the "theatre."

Have I scared you enough? All will be well. The base personnel are VERY excited about having us here. Remember, we are bringing this show to people who normally don't get this type of event, and for every bored or disinterested student you think you see in the audience, there are plenty who are loving the spectacle.

"Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?"

The morning show went very well, despite the fact that it was only half full and we all wondered why the students we saw yesterday weren't able to attend since there seemed to be plenty of room. Afterward Aaron Cabell (Banquo) and I were interviewed by an enlisted man who was writing an article for the base paper, the Periscope. He had never before been to a theatre performance and was coming back that night with his son.

During the evening performance, the audience was sitting forward on their seats. Whenever any one of us would drop to our knees, you could see the people in the back stand up to get a better look. At intermission, they sat in stone silence as the lights came up—Mark had to announce that we would now take a 15-minute break.

Friday, Sept. 17

The dressing rooms at the Naval Weapons Station gymnasium in Charleston, S.C., were set up in the racquetball courts. We were on the larger set for the first time in front of an audience, and I think that gave all of us pause, the feeling of "Where do I go from here?" My candle also went out during the sleepwalking scene, which was frustrating to me since it is so important to the themes of Lady Macbeth's madness. But the audience hung on our every word, and Philip as the Porter had them rolling in the aisles.

Monday, Sept. 20

Jacksonville, N.C. A desolate town with nothing much to do. While I was waiting for my rental vehicle, I met a young man named Eduardo who had just returned from his second tour of Iraq last night and was headed back to work at the base this morning. I asked if they didn't give him any turnaround time, and he said none whatsoever. He seemed very quiet, distant and lonely. Maybe he hasn't formulated his feelings, maybe as a soldier he was putting on a good face. I had so many questions, but I didn't dare ask.

Tuesday, Sept. 21

First show tonight at Camp Lejeune Marine Corps Base in Jacksonville. We are in a real theatre that seats about 1,200 people. I was able to sit in front of a mirror with lights to do my hair and makeup, yay! However, there were no monitor systems, and the baby monitors we'd thought of using in such cases didn't function through the thick brick walls, so we simply had to help each other stay posted as to where we were in the play.

The theatre is used predominantly as a movie house and its managers didn't want to break with tradition, so we could smell popcorn wafting onto the stage. As we were heading back to our dressing rooms, the door that led to the house burst open and kids descended on us full of praise and wanting autographs. Here were these teenagers with pierced tongues and tattoos who had read Macbeth in class and hated it, but were just captivated after seeing us perform it. I also met a couple of teenage girls from the base whose fathers are stationed here. One had a dad who had recently returned from Afghanistan. I told them to thank their fathers for us.

Wednesday, Sept. 22

Today's the first day we have actually been allowed to explore the base a bit, with a retired enlisted man named Charlie Miller as our guide. Lejeune is the main base preparing troops to head out to combat. Charlie told us approximately 144,000 service personnel and families live there. It is self-contained, with grocery stores, hospitals, all you would find in a functioning city. The grounds are huge, with bike and running paths along all of the major roads. Charlie took us to the Exchange, the military version of a mall. I had been designated T-shirt buyer. Frederick Snyder, our fight captain, had specifically asked for the shirt that stated: "When it absolutely, positively has to be destroyed overnight: Marines."

After our shopping spree, we went out to run "the course," a grueling test of strength, agility and endurance that all men and women are required to complete before passing basic training. I managed my way through about half of it. I ended up banging both my elbows, scratching up my right forearm and giving myself a wooden splinter, and fire ants made their way up my pants. Before we'd left, Mark Leslie had told me even if I broke something I was going on tonight, no matter what. I'd said, "Yeah, yeah, I'll be fine." I had no idea!

Thursday, Sept. 23

On to Dumfries, Va. Remi, Suzanne Curtis (Witch), Joe Kolbow (Lennox) and I went into D.C. to see the Shakespeare Theatre's production of Macbeth, directed by Michael Kahn and starring Patrick Page and Kelly McGillis. It was great to be in a major city if even for only a night!

Friday, Sept. 24

Kent managed to get in around 3 p.m., so I'll have him for about 13 hours.

Though the venue we played tonight on the Marine base in Quantico, Va., was called "Little Hall," they had given out close to 1,200 tickets. Backstage was another story: We women dressed in a five-foot-square closet and made up in the hall next to a door that led right to the audience. During intermission, people kept stepping through only to be startled by three naked Witches.

The show itself was full of gremlins! Kent thought it was good, but he did say it was a little wonky. He felt everyone was nervous, and I suppose we were. We knew a number of Washington heavy-hitters were there. Warren Jackson (Fleance) forgot his sword and was fighting with his lantern, and Remi forgot his dagger in the banquet scene. The most awful was when the crew took off the scrim from the apparition scene in the wrong direction and got stuck halfway—they had to take it apart on stage while the next scene was going on. But somehow the audience didn't seem to know anything was wrong.

We were met backstage by two-star Major General Robert Mixon, Chris's brother. He wanted us to know there were a lot of grateful families out there. It meant so much to see this stiff-upper-lip general show some emotion. As Chris said, "My brother has become such a softy."

Tuesday, Sept. 28

Each space presents its own challenges. For our show at the Tank-Automotive and Armaments Command (TACOM) in Warren, Mich., somebody had screwed up big time and got the specs wrong! We had no downstage entrances.

Notes from Mark Leslie:

I have requested a brush-up rehearsal to run through the changes. I do not want us to take a lot of time discussing how different it is, how much we hate it, blah, blah, blah. Trust me, the 12 of us on crew have already had those discussions. Unfortunately, it is what it is, BUT fortunately it is doable. The biggest change is the complete cutting of the first battle. The rest was easy to adjust.

Interestingly enough, though this stage was tiny, it had a permanent revolve. They use the auditorium to display new tanks, rotating them on stage while they talk about all the features.

Friday Oct. 1

After a morning at Graceland, we did an evening show at the Naval Support Activity Mid-South Base in Millington, Tenn. The house sat 450 and the acoustics were a blessing. At the meet-and-greet afterward, I asked a 12-year-old boy what his favorite part was. I thought he'd say the bloody head, but, no, he liked my crazy sleepwalking scene. One young lady needed a hug before she left me. The base general's wife also came up to me and said she didn't know if I could tell that the audience held their collective breath during Act 5, Scene 1 and, when I left the stage, seemed to exhale in unison.

It seems they create a contained world for the military, and something as simple as a play coming to their backyard is an overwhelming experience.

Sunday, Oct. 3

Everyone seemed a bit scattered and cranky at tonight's performance at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois. Tom Jeffords, our tour manager, pointed out that we've reached the halfway point, so I suspect that we all have the right to feel tired.

Monday, Oct. 4

I was in the mall buying hats for my dad when three young military personnel in fatigues came roaring into the shop, clearly out on the town. They told me they were stationed at Fort Riley Army Base in Kansas. One said he'd completed two tours in Iraq and was headed back in November for his third. He said he would do anything not to have to go back. I told them we were performing Macbeth at their base on Wednesday night. One of them asked, "What's that?" Another said to him, "Shakespeare, stupid!" The first one answered that he'd gone to public school in Oklahoma and they didn't know from Shakespeare. I somehow think that they will not be attending the performance on Wednesday night. And yet, those are the very people that I was hoping we would be playing for.

Tuesday Oct. 5

Chris Mixon told me while he was on the base today doing outreach with some middle school kids, he saw a bumper sticker in the shape of the yellow ribbons endorsing our troops that read, "Kick their ass, take their gas." Enough said.

Wednesday, Oct. 6

This evening's show was at Fort Riley, which was established in 1853 as home to the cavalry. It began to drizzle in the late afternoon, making it difficult for the crew to load in. While setting up, they saw a helicopter land; about 60 troops piled out, did a drill, then piled back on as it lifted off.

In this space, for some reason, muted as the house lights were, we could never go completely to black. So after being killed in the first battle, the poor guys had to get up in the light. At the end of Act 1, I had to act my way off the stage. It was an Academy Award moment as I staggered off, weeping and exhausted. Mixon gave me no end of shit about that: "Give that girl a little light and she be actin'!"

Outside was most difficult. We were in trailers with lights so dim you could barely see. It was cold and the wind rocked us and blew through the cracks—we were truly on the moors. Mark would come around with calls like, "All you in Shanty Town, it's places." God love that man, he keeps us all in good spirits.

After the show we met Army Chaplain Nathan Zimmerman, whose nine-year-old son was collecting autographs. I took them on the bus so the boy could catch us all, and meanwhile his father and I chatted. Chaplain Zimmerman had just returned from Iraq. "It's worse than you read about here," he told me. Fort Riley in the last month alone had lost 20 troops. He said the men and women fighting for us overseas truly believed in their mission to keep us safe back home and that's what kept them going in such horrible circumstances. He also said Iraq was a beautiful country and he hoped one day it would be safe enough for us to go perform for the troops over there. I was speechless, managing a mumbled "God bless you for all you do." We drove back to the hotel in the dark with the rain coming down.

Saturday, Oct. 9

Still in Kansas. After a night in the barracks at Fort Leavenworth Army Base, I had breakfast at Homer's Drive Inn. It started as a nickel-a-mug root beer stand in 1931 and is now a smoke-filled diner, full of farmers having their morning coffee. Afterward I took a long walk. It was a clear morning, and Fort Leavenworth is stunning. I found the "Castle on the Hill," the first military prison, finished in 1877. A structure of high white stone with a guard tower at one end, this was the site of General Custer's court marshal and trial before the battle of Little Big Horn.

We'll be in Eisenhower Hall tonight. The lobby is full of military displays from years past of the cavalry, world wars and the Korean War, and paintings of all the presidents line the wall of the auditorium.

Friday, Oct. 15

We have had a week off, so it was a bit like "Wow, here we go!" as we drove down to Colorado Springs, Colo. The show tonight was at Peterson Air Force Base, the site of NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command). Their motto is "Deter, Detect, Defend." We were supposed to play outside but it was too cold, so the venue was moved to the gym of the base's youth center, which had a number of high windows the crew had to cover with black cloth. I think having not played for almost a full week gave our performance an intensity and forward thrust that was fresh and very much alive.

Monday, Oct. 18

When we arrived at Cannon Air Force Base in Clovis, N.M, we were told not to enter the other half of the airplane hangar in which we'd be performing. They had direct orders to shoot if anyone trespassed!

A stage had been brought in from Oklahoma—though the crew had told our contact it wasn't needed—and it wasn't wide enough to accommodate the set and lighting trusses. They had to move the rake exit farther onstage than it should have been, so the step off was about 18 inches, a doozy!

And here's a new one—our dressing rooms behind the set were circus tents! Next to the tents were port-a-potties with no lights. Right as the show started, our dresser, Jenn, got locked in. We heard a whimpering cry of "help me," and Chris came to her rescue in time for her to make a quick change.

On stage it was stereophonic reverberation hell. The distortion seemed to grow with volume, so trying to compensate that way was a mistake. Luckily, the audience was well prepared: Paul Hebron had led a "Bard talk" before the show and about half the audience were students studying the play in school.

The Vice Wing Commander of the base met us backstage with his wife. He regretted we didn't have more time, as he would have liked to have taken us on a tour of a hangar and shown us some of the fighter planes. I do think they are as interested in what we do as we are in what they do. My hope for future projects such as this is that more interaction can take place between cast and military personnel.

Wednesday, Oct. 20

Remi and I went to the White Sands National Monument. I got a wonderful picture of a soap tree yucca plant rising up out of the pure, white gypsum. We observed that they plowed sand off the roads, same as the roads are plowed after a Colorado snowstorm.

Our last evening performance was at Holloman Air Force Base in Alamogordo, N.M., home to the Stealth F-117A. We were introduced by Brigadier General Kurt Cichowski. He gave an eight-minute stand-up comic routine, quoting Shakespeare—he had us in stitches backstage—and presented us with an etching of the fleet of Stealth Fighters, its inscription thanking the "Alabama Thespians." How would we do a tragedy after this set-up?

We had little to worry about. Mark said the hubbub at intermission was inspiring. In attendance were the heads of the training exercises that were being performed at the base this weekend—we heard planes flying overhead during the performance. Afterward, one enlisted man said he knew what the moral of the story was: "Never listen to your wife!" It seemed that a number of men couldn't wait to tell me that they certainly wouldn't want me as their wife.

On the way back to the hotel, we learned that the general had arranged to have us visit the Stealth Fighters tomorrow morning after our final performance. A cheer went up in the bus that could be heard ringing in the Sacramento mountains miles away.

General Cichowski had asked me after the show, "How do you stay so emotionally connected night after night doing Lady Macbeth?" I'd told him that performing this play for the military audience had renewed the meaning of the story for me. When as Lady Macbeth I call my soldier husband's manhood into question—"Fie, my lord, fie! a soldier, and afeard?"—I now realize how manipulative that is. Every man or woman feels fear when they go into battle. This audience knows on immediate terms how it feels to confront not only the enemy without, but the one within. General Cichowski got very subdued and said to me, "Kathleen, there are not too many true heroes in this world, but all my men and women are brave."

I've learned so much by being let into this secretive world of the military, but I do believe the greatest lesson was this: The current administration has called into question my support of our military force, simply because I believe the preemptive strike and subsequent war in Iraq is wrong and have voiced that opinion every chance I've been given. One of the biggest falsehoods perpetrated by this administration is that if you are not behind Bush and the war, you are not behind the troops. The men and women in the armed forces are doing their jobs, the best job possible under very trying circumstances.

These were not hardened theatregoers looking to criticize the show. They were willing to be transported. They were grateful to be touched by live theatre, to mingle with a bunch of raving liberals. This tour rose above politics. It was in its purest form about a storyteller, a listener and an incredible journey for both.

Actress Kathleen McCall will play Katherine in The Taming of the Shrew and Annie in The Real Thing as part of Alabama Shakespeare Festival's 2005 repertory season.

Read Kent Thompson's companion piece, Operation 'Macbeth', also in this issue.

Read Paul Hebron's journal of Alabama Shakespeare Festival's military tour, published by Actors' Equity.