Second Theatre Company’s ‘Macbeth’: Q&A with Director Emma Stanard

The Second Theatre Company’s production of Macbeth, taking place Sept. 6-8, has a few notable features. First, it is an entirely student-run, student-produced show. Second, the majority of rehearsals took place over Zoom. Third, it takes place in the Flatt Amphitheater, which typically stays unused the majority of the year. These aspects raise several questions about the creative process, so the Emma Stanard, director of Macbeth and a producer of 2TC, answered some of those questions for us.

What is 2TC?
“Second Theatre Company is an entirely student run and led theatre company. We are primarily comprised of Lipscomb students, although we are not affiliated with the university or the [theatre] department, we’re technically our own organization. Our goal right now has been very much to just provide more opportunities for students who want to participate in theatre and who are recent graduates who want to be part of shows and productions. We’ll do the 24-hour play, which is fun and crazy. We also do cabarets, which is also like doing theatre in a different way. It’s really just to help provide an outlet for artists.”

What has the process been like for 2TC with this show?
“We started the process of Macbeth in the spring. I think it was February or March that we were sort of picking our season. I pitched Macbeth to the producers with a vision board and what my vision was for the show. We had our video submissions the first week of summer and rehearsals started around the first week of July. We had Zoom rehearsals for a while where we did all of the text and character work to get ready to be in person. Then the actors came on the first day of in-person rehearsal with their lines already memorized and ready to block. We blocked everything in the first week pretty much. And since then we’ve just sort of been layering on the blocking, fights, more character work, costumes, and all the tech elements.”

Has 2TC done anything like this before? Will they continue to, perhaps annually?
“I am hoping that this is the beginning of something. In my time with 2TC, we have not done anything close to this scale. I know before COVID 2TC has done more full-scale productions, but my understanding is that this is 2TC’s first Shakespeare.

What obstacles have you faced that you might not if associated with the theatre department?
“Well, budget. We do not work with ETS (Entertainment and Technical Services) because we just simply don’t have the budget for it. I think the biggest challenge is being a small theatre company, we just don’t have access to all the resources. However, the department has been very helpful with that. They’ve helped as much as they can in terms of lending us costumes and with figuring out what we need to do for lights and things like that. And the events departments have helped us so much. Téa Doherty has mostly been in contact with them, which has been wonderful because she was able to reserve the space and get pipe and drape through them. Other than that, we haven’t really worked with the university or the department. It’s mainly been on our own. But I think for sure all the producers have an appreciation for what our professors do as producers for our [the theatre department’s] shows. There’s a lot of little details that we’ve had to think about.”

What challenges and advantages have you found in working in the amphitheater?
“Rehearsals have for sure been interesting out here. As I have been told many times, the amphitheater is a challenging space. But amphitheaters are beautiful, I love outdoor theatre. That was a big thing for me when I pitched Macbeth. I wanted to do it outside, and not all amphitheaters are as challenging as this one. But I also think that it’s a fun space to work in and allows for very creative blocking. I also think it’s been fun for the actors as well to sort of deal with the challenge. However, people will walk by and they’ll feel the need to shout things at the actors and heckle a little bit. Especially when we are running fight choreography. It can also be dangerous when people decide to just start yelling at the actors during fight scenes. I don’t see why people feel the need to yell at the actors when a show is clearly rehearsing.
But it has also been good for raising awareness that we’re doing this show because we’ve put up signs that say ‘Rehearsal in Progress’ and it has the QR code to our ticket link. So it has sort of been free advertising in the middle of campus. It piques people’s interest. It has been challenging to have people walk by during rehearsal, but has been helpful in other ways.”

Check out the show on Sept. 6 and 7 at 7:30 p.m. and Sept. 8 at 2 p.m. in the Flatt Amphitheater near Bennet Campus Center at Lipscomb University. Click here for tickets.