
DATE: Friday, July 25, 1997                 TAG: 9707230104

SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER      PAGE: 04   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY ERIC FEBER, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   78 lines

G. BRIDGE DIRECTOR ADDS LIGHT TOUCH TO ``MACBETH'' AT BEACH

JEFFERSON LINDQUIST of Great Bridge couldn't pass up directing this play.

It had everything, he said.

Murder. Witchcraft. Treachery. Deceit. Horror. Blood.

``It has all those Arnold Schwarzenegger things in it,'' the 36-year-old Richmond native said about his task to direct the annual Summer Shakes production of Shakespeare's ``Macbeth'' which takes place this weekend and the next at the Francis Land Historic Home in Virginia Beach.

Lindquist is a multi-talented man. While he directs this Shakespeare production he's also working as guitarist in the Virginia Stage Company's production of ``Always . . . Patsy Cline'' and as dialogue coach at Dominion Pictures Studio, working on an upcoming television series ``Ghost Stories.''

But the daunting challenge for him this summer is working on the Bard.

Lindquist, who holds a masters degree in directing from Virginia Commonwealth University, said he was tapped to direct the non-profit group's fourth annual Shakespeare production when the play's original director suffered a back injury.

He said Summer Shakes officials had heard about his work on ``Oleanna'' for the Generic Theater, ``A Raisin In the Sun'' at Old Dominion University and ``The Beggar's Opera'' for the Governor's School for the Arts.

He said he'd never seen a live version of the play and hadn't really read ``Macbeth'' since high school. But he said he couldn't pass up a great opportunity.

``It's not everyday you get to do Shakespeare,'' he said. ``It was a job I couldn't pass up. And besides, I prefer doing the classics over modern productions.''

He said his challenge was to make it compelling to a modern audience, to make the language meaningful and to make it interesting to an audience well versed in the historical Scottish tragedy.

``You'd be surprised how many people know lines from it,'' he said. ``You have to find out exactly what the language is saying. This play, like all his others, if full of wonderful, wonderful language.

``To many people it seems insurmountable. But once you get used to it, he tells you everything. There's nothing in this play you can't understand. I approach it as if it were written yesterday. It's a great story and it's a very lean, taut play.''

Lindquist did make one major change in the play. He cast the role of the three witches in a different light.

``They're guys dressed up as women,'' he said. ``And we made them novice witches, witches who make mistakes. They come across as bumblers. It adds some comic relief in an otherwise serious play.''

Lindquist also said the men-as-witches switch is just one of the many examples of duality in the play.

``The highlight of the play's theme is the duality of human nature,'' he said. ``With the witches we just wanted to see how far we could take this duality thing.''

He also said the play works because he's been given a great cast.

``I've got 12-year-olds to senior citizens in the play,'' he said. ``They're all very talented and they're all having a ball with this.''

A music-oriented student at Wake Forest University, Lindquist signed up to perform in a medieval passion play on a dare.

``They needed cast members and someone bet me a pizza that I wouldn't try out,'' he said. ``As a typical college student I was not one to pass up a free pizza. I got cast and had a great time. Drama became more of a love than music.

``Drama gave me more ways to express myself. It incorporates lights, sound, music, text, costumes and many other things one needs to tell a story. It's wonderful to use all of those aspects to allow you to move an audience.''

And Lindquist hopes his production of ``Macbeth'' will move audiences to appreciate the Bard a little more. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by TONY MAUER

Jason Styles, left, as Macbeth and Mark Young of Chesapeake as

Macduff duel in the Summer Shakes production. Also from Chesapeake,

Brian Monahan plays one of the witches and Gerald Allen is in charge

of lights and sound.

Graphic

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